Parks and Outdoor Recreation Plan a roadmap for City's Future for planning in years ahead
Members of Prince Rupert City Council and those watching along at home on Tuesday evening gained a glimpse of how some of the city's Outdoor Recreation plans may come together.
That as part of the delivery of a one year in the making Draft Plan.
The focus as to how Prince Rupert residents and visitors may take advantage of our natural backdrop and how the city can add to the experience in the years to come.
Catherine Berris of Urban Systems charted the plans for park and recreation development in Prince Rupert on Tuesday evening
The Presentation from Catherine Berris of Urban Systems covered six elements on the night, from the Plan Overview to Vision and Goals, Key Strategies along with maps of some of the proposed parks and trails.
By way of introduction, Ms. Berris noted that the last Community Recreation plan was created in 1985 which as she noted was almost an antique; observing how the anticipated population growth that the city sees ahead for the community, will trigger the need for new and improved parks and outdoor recreation opportunities.
"The last plan you had no this topic was in 1985, almost an antique so definitely no longer relevant. So we call this Rupert Plays, it will give a long term strategy for enhancing the City's parks, trails and outdoor spaces. It builds on engagement in the OCP and Redesign Rupert and it's been prepared with consideration for the OCP and helping to support it in the area of parks, recreation and trails"
Ms. Berris also noted how the research for the Rupert Plays project was created in coordination with the Transportation Plan which was also created by Urban Systems.
"We also worked in coordination with the Transportation Plan that was also done by Urban Systems, so our two teams worked very closely together. Some of our engagement events were together and then we've shared mapping its all in one GIS system, so everything is coordinated"
Some extensive community engagement came as part of the work on the one year project, which ranged from public events to community surveys.
From those engagements, the Project was able to craft it's Vision and goals statement:
"The unique, maritime port city of Prince Rupert provides inclusive, affordable and resilient trails and recreation amenities that enhance community wellbeing and inspire a health and active lifestyle"
From the Five Key Strategies, it's likely not a surprise to Council that Ms. Berris observed how the engagement sessions delivered a strong desire to have more access to city's waterfront as the largest priority from those consulted over the last year.
"By far the most interest is in the waterfront and having more access to and along it. Upgrading parks and adding more to support population growth. Replacing aging play equipment and adding more amenities to parks, Improving trails and then the trail connections and I think the only reason that is fourth is because you have so many wonderful trails and then we have recommendations and strategies related to implementation.
Summaries of those Strategies look as follows, though Ms. Berris acknowledged how some of the city's financial limitations of the moment would impact on the forward progress for those strategies.
Of those strategies the opportunity to develop partnerships was highlighted as a key for the City to keep in mind. As for some of the areas residents want to see in place, included Support for a Pump Track, improvements to the Off Leash Park and adding one on the East Side and creation of an outdoor performance area with a covered structure.
A unique idea towards landscaping in parks was outlined, that of rewilding, which would see less mowing and return to a more natural state for some areas of parkland.
"We start with rewilding, you are mowing a lot of grass and there's really a huge movement towards less mowing partly to save costs and partly to improve the environment, especially pollinators. So on our west coast it's really not that difficult to convert mowed grass to a long grass, where maybe it's mowed twice a year. We really heard a lot of people through engagement talking about this should be a city in a park and we think that through this rewinding concept, it could help you achieve that"
Towards implementation the recommendation was to there were eight areas of note, among them Ms. Berris noted of the city's current infrastructure challenges and how that may provide for an opportunity to implement the recreation elements as part of other projects.
She also spoke of the city's success in partnering towards recreation themes as well as their focus on grant applications towards those goals.
Towards Questions and observations, Councillor Wade Niesh led off the discussion noting of the city's financial limitations and offering a critique of the proposed re-wilding proposal.
"Generally it looks like a good plan, unfortunately the reality is money, which is something we don't have a lot of.
But the one comment, the one thing that I didn't really think is probably good for our town is the... what did you call it, rewinding. Around here ten feet of rain, you start rewilding a park, and you know in most towns I understand that, you grow some long grass and it says long grass and it stands up.
But here where it's ten feet of rain a year, grass is laying on the ground, it's flat and if you let things get too out of hand in this town, you/ll have salmon berry bushes, hog weed all that stuff growing into these parks
So rewilding a park, I feel in this area, is probably not something that works very well around here." -- Councillor Wade Niesh
Ms. Berris provided a short rebuttal towards some of those thoughts, observing that her view of the rewilding proposal is one that would not have entire parks go to that state, but rather a chance to look for opportunities for the practice.
"Sometimes it's around the edges, sometimes it might be around the water course, sometimes it might be you know between different land uses and the park. I remember being driven through town and you have a lot of boulevard space for example and so sometimes maybe the front of it near the road remains grass but the back part could be rewilded and even allow trees to grow over time. So it's not something that goes everywhere, it needs really careful consideration where it goes"
Councillor Nick Adey hailed the report and noted how he had been seeking a wide ranging overview of the city's focus for park planning in the future.
"I may take a little bit of credit, cause I know a couple of years when we were doing priorities I pushed pretty hard for a look at parks and sort of a global assessment of where we were.
The original interest for me was actually I think a relatively small one, and that was to get a sense of which areas of the city were well served in terms of playgrounds in particular but parks as well in general and which areas were not so well served.
So the final report that we've got here, or the report as it stands here, goes a lot further than that and I think that's fantastic. I think you know there's a whole lot of different ways of participating in nature and recreating that are accounted for here. So I'm rally impressed with that and I think it's going to be really useful going forward." -- Councillor Nick Adey
Like Councillor Niesh, Mr. Adey observed of the city's Current fiscal situation but held out hope for an improving situation in the years ahead. The Councillor also noted that there may be a need to reduce expectations on projected population growth and how the plan might be impacted by that.
Ms. Berris observed how the report was flexible and that as Council would review the implementation program towards it on a year to year basis, they could adjust to those considerations.
Also Among the Councillor's observations to the report, the area of amenities made for the most overview and discussion. That would see developers bear some of the cost towards improvements for parks and recreation through Development Cost Charges Bylaws.
"In terms of amenities there are absolutely gaps, which is why we have a lot of recommendations about amenities which are the improvements that you need within a lot of these parks, adding new equipment replacing equipment, improvements etcetera.
Development Cost Charge Bylaws can be on utilities, they can be on transportation and they can be on parks. The way it works with parks ... someone would calculate the amount of parkland needed to serve future population and the cost of park development to meet the needs of future population ...
So those calculations would be run and it would be turned into a charge per development parcel, that developers would pay into that fund, that would support for the acquisition and development of those parks" -- Urban Systems Catherine Berris
City Manager Rob Buchan also noted how the province was becoming more involved in that area as part of their current focus on housing.
"Just to add to that conversation. There is provincial legislation in the works now that will add amenities cost contributions as well. Which will pick up the parts of park development amenities that are not permitted in the DCC. So the province is actually developing legislation which will allow new development to fund its land and improvements more robustly."
The full presentation of the Report from Urban Systems can be viewed through the City's Video Archive starting at the beginning of Tuesday's Council Session.
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