District 14 Parks – Planning for Our Future

There have been a series of meetings with residents about parks in District 14 during 2010.  The following notes/updates are provided to give an overview of the discussions that have taken place with development and improvements for the parks.  Thank you to all residents who attended the meetings and provided great suggestions and ideas for parks in the district.

Horseshoe Park

Flinn Park

Larry O'Connell Park

Ardmore Park

Horseshoe Island Community Meeting March 24, 2010

The meeting was attended by about 15 people.  There was a short introduction indicating that the park was designated for capital improvements and that there was a strong interest to make the park more accessible for members of the public who are disabled.  A wonderful short history of the park was presented by an elementary student who had done a school project on the park.  Participants then broke into three groups and provided feedback on what they liked about the park, what they wanted to see changed and other suggestions.

Feedback from meeting and emails received included:

• More benches and  picnic tables

• A pathway that is accessible to those in wheelchairs around the park

• Restore the flag pole

• Acknowledge the history of the site including the Mi’kmaw community through interpretive panels

• Clean up the beach on a regular basis

• Driveway access is in very bad shape and needs to be repaired

• More trees on the south east hill; more trees

• The existing stairs are in very bad shape and need to be repaired

• Seawall needs ongoing work (some repairs have been done recently); make seawall higher as tides rise

• More parking is not a big issue – encourage people to walk to park – do not take away more grass area for parking – have existing parking lot graded and paved

• Pathways are important

• There used to be a floating raft that could hold 30-50 people

• The floating dock is an important asset for boaters but no to a boat launch since it would create more traffic havoc

• Some first time visitors who arrive to HRM come by boat and their first landing is at Horseshoe Island so have more welcoming signs with information on how to find out about Halifax, a map, list of taxicab numbers, a telephone and have a map of bus routes in the bus shelter

• There are many abandoned moorings so there needs to be a cleanup of the moorings

• Great to have free mooring available

• There are only 8 places to launch a boat on the harbour and the Horseshoe Island is the only one convenient to put in canoe or kayak – it is close to where cars park

• Leave the park much as it is – it has its own charm and is a quiet gem

• No play structures now and leave as is

• Better maintain things in the park

• Have an emergency telephone
• Have lights in the park
• Design a proper wheelchair ramp to level of high water mark – lower slope to get wheelchair in a boat
• Bathroom facilities?
• More garbage cans
• A fresh water drinking source

The HRM parkland planner is working on a plan for the upgrades which will be available my website when completed.

Flinn Park Community Meeting April 22, 2010

The meeting was attended by about 25 people.  There was a short introduction indicating that the meeting was concerning long term improvements to the park. It is possible that some short term projects could place but this would depend on funding and availability of staff time.  Participants then broke into small groups and provided feedback on what they saw as the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities for the park.

Feedback from the meeting and emails received included:

• Increase playground structures for ages under 5 years similar to Westmount model

• New playground equipment for other ages similar to the Commons and Ardmore Parks; slide is unsafe currently

• Install an outdoor gym - see the following websites for more details:  www.greengym.ca  and www.outdoor-fit.com 

• Develop a trail or walkway that circles around the park

• Deal with drainage issues on northwest side of park

• Explore if there are ways to safely connect the two parks – Flinn and Horseshoe Island

• Replace trees lost during Hurricane Juan; do replantings that do not present safety issues by obscuring views

• What are good times to close the park to allow for maximum use but minimize disruptive behavior

• Develop a community garden at the old wading pool site.  See policy on developing community gardens on HRM land:  http://www.halifax.ca/CRCA/CommunityEngagement/CommunityGardens.html

• a green space for educational gardening

• Keep the baseball team age under 15 years – there would be no need for fences

• Restrict Junior High school football practices

• Have safer bleachers at ball diamond

• Put in speed bumps on MacDonald and crosswalks at Flinn and MacDonald and Churchill and MacDonald; monitor speeding and enforce limit; lit crosswalk with press button at MacDonald and Churchill; have a traffic circle/island at Flinn/MacDonald intersection; have a five way stop  at Flinn/MacDonald; update traffic study for area; reexamine traffic issues at MacDonald and Quinpool

• Allow off leash dog park in south west part of the park (Note: this park would not qualify for off leash area according to HRM policy); do not allow off leash dogs

• Increase lighting along existing west side of path; more intense lighting along wooded path

• More obvious signs re no dogs off leash

• fence along Flinn St. to prevent kids from running onto street

• more picnic tables and benches

• put a light at Churchill St for more visibility

• important to protect the sledding area of the park

• use the old wading pool area as an outdoor rink

• turn the old wading pool area into a sprinkler park

• better monitoring of the park after dark

• maintain bushes to keep birds in park

• consider a rink in the baseball diamond area during the winter

Two working groups were created that evening to followup on specific issues raised – one group is to focus on physical improvements to the park and the second group is to work on traffic concerns raised at the meeting.  An HRM Parkland Planner is working on long and short term plans for the park and these will be posted on my webpage and discussed by the physical improvements working group.  A followup meeting has taken place with the group working on traffic concerns that included police, staff from the traffic department and myself.  Further meetings with residents in the area have taken place regarding traffic concerns.  Please contact me if you would like to be involved in either of these two groups.

Larry O’Connell Park

A meeting to discuss Larry O’Connell Park will be held in the fall of 2010.  There is an existing Neighbourhood Association that organizes winter rink activities.  Recently, there has been discussion about the installation of a batting cage for the minor league baseball program at the park.  A community meeting to discuss this issue was held on May 12 and the response to the meeting is provided below.   The park is the only park to have designated off leash dog hours in District 14 – see note below for hours.

• Community Meeting Concerning Batting Cage, May 12, 2010

A community meeting was held to discuss neighbourhood concerns about the installment of a batting cage on the north corner of the field by the Chebucto Minor Baseball Association. There were about 100 people who attended the meeting.  The league fundraised for the batting cage and received approval from HRM staff for its installation; the area councillor was not consulted.  The staff response based on the concerns raised at the meeting and the recommendation concerning the batting cage is as follows:

Staff have considered the public input in regards to the new batting cage at Larry O’Connell Park. While it is regrettable that public consultation did not happen prior to locating the batting cage, staff were not aware of any previous commitments to the community regarding consultation for minor alterations to the park and therefore acted with the best information that was available.  As explained at the public meeting, we are sorry if this has put members of the community in a compromising position.

At the public meeting, three principles for decision making were established by staff. These were:

1) The park is a multi-use community park and serves and supports four to five neighborhoods in the West End of Halifax. The functions of the community park must be considered as it relates to other community facilities in the system. While Larry O’Connell cannot be all things to all people, together with Westmount, St Agnes, Flynn Park, Ardmore and even the Halifax Common, the system does work to serve the majority of local citizens with their basic open space needs within a local geographic area. These uses include playground structures, tennis and basketball courts, sport fields, ball fields and free open space. Every facility may not be found at your closest park but they are in a park within close proximity. HRM’s park system has always been based on multiple uses being provided within each park. Exceptions only exist for a few of the specialized regional facilities such as the Burnside artificial turf or the Public Gardens. At the community park level, a ballfield only used exclusively for ball or a open space only used for incidental play is a luxury that few municipalities can afford. Therefore, ball outfields are used for pickup soccer games and frisbee and ball and soccer often practice on simple open patches of turf. The challenge has always been to find balance. Staff feel that Larry O’Connell still has an appropriate level of balance as a multi-use park with the batting cage in place.

2) Council has an established focus is on youth social and physical development. 

The benefits of children and youth involved in outdoor activity is well recognized and is a primary pillar of HRM’s park mandate. That is the reason that the municipality provides facilities for both passive and active children’s activities. Included in this is facility investment in support of organized sport provided for children and youth and run by volunteers. Providing a space for the batting cage is part of that commitment.

3) Parks and Open Spaces are a key element in having a beautiful city.  In addition to providing places for activities outside home and work, HRM seeks to strategically locate parks and open space as relief from buildings and hard infrastructure. Larry O’Connell Park is important to the character of the Armcresent neighbourhood and, along with Saunders Park across the street, an important green space along the Chebucto Road route on to the Peninsula and into the downtown. The location of the cage, while it is the best location from a monitoring perspective, does compromise the aesthetic from within the park and along Chebucto Road.

There was a good deal of public comment through e-mail and at the public meeting. The exercise to see if there was an opportunity for compromise showed that the situation is very polarized. Most suggested solutions were either remove the batting cage or let it stay. There were however some good suggestions, which staff have incorporated into its decision.

Staff’s decision is to let the batting cage stand where it is with the understanding that;

1) The cage will be monitored for the coming year in terms of management and impact on the functionality of the park (both pro and con).

2) As part of Council’s request for a comprehensive baseball strategy, location of the batting cage would be explored in the larger context.

3) The results from these two exercises will be considered for possible alterations to the batting cage.

4) No matter what the result, staff will look at measures to mitigate the visual impact these structures have in sensitive areas.

5) Costs for changes to the batting cage including relocation and/or alterations to mitigate its visual impact should be borne by the municipality.

Therefore the Chebucto Ball League are permitted to put the cage into operation with the appropriate management measures in place.

It should be noted that the area Councillor is in the process of hosting meeting around the parks within District 14 including Larry O’Connell in the near future.

It should also be noted that persons not satisfied with staff’s decision are able to gather a petition and have it brought to Council. Staff will respond to Council with a staff report and a staff recommendation at which time Council would make a final determination as to the future of the batting cage.

• Tennis Court Improvements

Larry O’Connell received RINC funding for resurfacing of the large and small tennis courts.  This work will be undertaken this summer.  I have contributed money from District 14 Capital Funds to finish the courts with a special acrylic surface coating.  The court work will take place in July and will be installed with temporary markings until the court has ‘cured’ enough and then the special surface coating will be added.

• Off Leash Dog Hours at Larry O’Connell

On June 9, 2010 there was a meeting to discuss a proposal to extend the off leash dog hours at Larry O’Connell Park.  Currently the off leash dog hours for the park are from 5 am to 10 pm from November 1 to May 1.  As a result of feedback from meetings, emails and phone calls which included residents neighbouring the park, representatives of the ball league, recreation staff who organize programs for children at the park building and dog owners in the district, staff are considering extending the off leash hours from May 1 to November 1 for morning hours only (5:30 am to 8:30 am).

Please visit the HRM Off Leash Dog webpage to keep up to date on when these new hours will be introduced: http://www.halifax.ca/RealPropertyPlanning/OLPS/index.html.        

Ardmore Park Community Meeting May 13, 2010

A community meeting was held for residents interested in long term plans and upgrades for Ardmore Park.  About 8 people attended the meeting.  It is possible that some short term projects could take place but this would depend on funding and availability of staff time.  A resident has agreed to act as a coordinator for the group to help with disseminating information and calling future meetings.  If you would like to be on the email list for this group please contact me and I will forward your name.  There is an existing neighbourhood association organization that has a bank account which will help facilitate fundraising for the park.

Comments from the meeting:

• Bus shelters have been broken several times

• Great interest in gardening – community garden, sensory garden, more natural vegetation at different parts of the park.  There are 3 possible options for the community garden – in the horseshoe area which is fenced off, on the land on the slope leading to the parking lot, reclaim the parking lot and use for possible garden.  Please note there is an existing policy for the placement of community gardens on HRM owned land that needs to be followed by any group interested in establishing a community garden – see http://www.halifax.ca/CRCA/CommunityEngagement/CommunityGardens.html .  There was also interest in growing a green wall along the west side of the basketball court wall, a sensory garden around the playground or in the south west part of the park.  More shade trees were suggested for the park particularly in the area of the playground equipment where there is little shade.

• Discussion about dogs at the park and off leash dogs at the park.  The park is currently not an off leash dog park and would not be considered as a candidate under the current policy – see  http://www.halifax.ca/RealPropertyPlanning/OLPS/ and http://www.halifax.ca/RealPropertyPlanning/OLPS/documents/OffLeashParksStrategyGuidelinesandDesignationCriteria.PDF  .  Dogs are also not allowed at all near or on the playground equipment at the park.

There are some complaints about the impact of off leash dogs at the park but it was felt by the group that met that there was reasonable accommodation/respect by responsible dog owners and other using the park.  There was a suggestion that fencing could be erected to separate the children’s playground from an area where dogs could be off leash but it was clarified that this would require an change in HRM Off Leash Dog Policy which was unlikely at this point.  It was also raised whether the money spent on a fence (roughly $15.00 per foot) would be of the best use or could the money be spent on other items for the park.

• The parking lot was discussed and it was suggested that it really was not needed and that perhaps the land could be reclaimed for green space, community garden, outdoor gym, etc.  It was noted that during the winter the parking lot was useful for some parents as a place to get their kids ready for skating.  It was also noted that some people use the spot for overnight parking during the winter parking ban. 

• Bike racks are needed at the park.

• Two models of different outdoor gyms were discussed at the meeting.  There was general interest in possibly putting an outdoor gym in – the GreenGym may be more accessible for those with beginning fitness skills while the Outdoor-Fit is more compact.  The GreenGym equipment could go in more places in the park while the Outdoor-Fit could possible go where the old gazebo was.  There is a GreenGym in Dartmouth opposite the Sportsplex and there is an Outdoor-Fit system at Pt Pleasant Park near the ice cream stand at the lower parking lot - people are encouraged to go by and use each system to see how they work and what might best fit at Ardmore.  See the following websites for more details:  www.greengym.ca  and www.outdoor-fit.com 

• There was some discussion about putting a barbecue pit in at the old gazebo site – HRM does put these in parks but there was mixed reaction about how this would be used.

• It was recognized that the recreation court fencing was looking bad and needed some work.

• The rink storage area needs some work as well.  One issue of having a more permanent structure is that it will have graffiti. 

• There was discussion about the lack of exit from the west side of the park field – there were pros and cons to this –safety of young children to run in that area without parents having to worry but the concern of entrapment for those using that area.
• The Neighbourhood Association had put lights on the large fir tree in the north east corner – the lights are now broken and need to be taken down.  The neighbourhood group could restart this tradition.
• The grass needs work
• There are several different approaches to parks and naturalization.  A recent conference called Shady Behaviours http://www.cancercare.ns.ca/en/home/preventionscreening/preventioninitiatives/sunsafety/shade.aspx  focused on developing community spaces and parks that have shade naturally included in design.  The Bicton Botanical Gardens was given as an example to consider.
• Need to improve signage – take down old sign for Ardmore Park that is falling apart and hidden under tree.  Make sure signage messages are consistent on Berlin and Almon and are free of graffiti.  Make the message welcoming and connect to community involvement.
• It was suggested that an overall landscape/park development plan needs to be done to look at options and take into consideration things such as the multiuse nature of the park, different uses during different seasons, naturalization emphasis and CPTED principles.  It may be possible to have some landscape architect time donated to the project or HRM staff could assist with this but not until the winter season.  This plan could then be presented to the community for feedback and then decisions could be made on what HRM may be able to do in terms of capital budget and Councillor capital funds and what the community could fundraise.
• There was a suggestion that the speed limit be reduced around the park – HRM can not currently do this since there would need to be a legislated change to the Motor Vehicle Act which is under provincial jurisdiction.  HRM has asked the province to consider lowering the speed limit but in school zones only.

Future Steps

• Investigate potential resources mentioned above

• Call HRM Call Centre 490-4000 for day to day concerns – overflowing garbage, graffiti, broken equipment, grass that needs to be cut, etc.

• Organize the landscape plan to guide future development (coordinator will help manage this with help from other neighbours will start this process)

• Organize the signage so that it is clearer and not tagged