Kelowna city council took the first step in officially creating a new large recreation park in Glenmore Monday.
Council voted unanimously to start the process of rezoning 10.5 acres of land at Kane Road and Valley Road to create the long-awaited new Glenmore Recreation Park.
“The Glenmore area has been waiting for this for 20 years,” said Coun. Tracy Gray, who along with all her council colleagues supported three readings of the rezoning bylaw. It will now go to a public hearing before council decides if it will approve the rezoning at fourth and final reading.
Council has already budgeted $2.6 million to start work on the park project, which will be built in phases over many years. The first phase calls for the building of a storm water retention pond to help drainage on the site, a gravel trail alongside Brandt’s Creek which runs through the property, a gravel access road onto the site, creation of a buffer and fencing between the park and nearby farms and grading.
A second part of the first phase will see completion of the first two sports fields, lighting, paved access and parking. Money for that phase has not yet been budgeted. That will addressed in the 2018 city budget, say city staff.
Future phases could include the addition of more multi-use playing fields, a playground, a spray park, walking trails, an off-leash dog park, a field house, basketball courts, a cricket batting cage, a community garden and a multi-story activity centre.
The idea of a major recreation park in Glenmore started in the late 1980s but it was not until 2011 that the provincial Agricultural Land Commission allowed the land to be used for a park.
Glenmore is last major area of the city without large recreation facilities.
The city has released a masterplan for the park, showing many of the possible future additions.
In preparation for the new park, the city will sell land currently used for “undersized” ball diamonds.
According to city staff, the diamonds are not well used because their size.