Playing field leveled on access to city’s playing fields; Tenth Street student union building re-envisioned
By Timothy Schafer
Fair access to the city’s playing fields, including the popular Lions Park, is no longer a pop fly, it has become a solid base hit.
The city has updated and amended its Sports Field User Policy, a document that identifies guidelines for the allocation and management of the city’s sports fields, and now includes the heavily-used Uphill park.
Balance was the impetus for crafting the policy, in an attempt to address “changing demographics, registration trends, user demand and field management in a fair and equitable manner.”
The amended policy provides clarification on how field hours are allocated and has incorporated Lions Park into that allocation. The limitation on bookable hours at Lions Park applies to any group reserving field time at the park and is no longer specific to Nelson Minor Ball only.
The amended policy will provide for fair access to the city’s playing fields and considers the needs of all users.
There was some depth put into the policy, said Mayor Deb Kozak.
“(R)eally identifying playing fields as opposed to neighbourhood parks and how we share space, I think it was useful to take that time to flesh that out as well as holding the community consultations,” she said.
The policy was undertaken for development in response to the use of the Lions Park playing field, which has traditionally been managed separately from other fields and was not included in previous revision of the Sport Field User Policy.
The new policy incorporates priorities, a field allocation system and Lions Park into a single policy.
Currently, the city contracts to the regional district to book all sports fields.
“As there is more competition for field bookings it has been increasingly important to have guidelines in place that help prioritize use,” read a city staff report to council.
The draft policy came out in December and in January a meeting for field user groups was held to discuss and review the draft policy and the new application form. All field user groups were present at the meeting and the users responded positively with no recommended changes to the draft policy.
In February staff held a meeting for other users of Lion’s Park, focusing on the neighbourhood within a 60-metre radius of the park to receive their input and comments on the draft policy.
“The one recommendation resulting from the public meeting was to increase the annual number of reserved hours at the park from 100 hours (the number of hours stated in the memorandum of understanding between the city and minor ball) to 150 hours,” read the staff report.
The recommendation has been incorporated into the policy.
The amended policy will be posted on the city’s website.
Tenth Street housing
The former city’s university student union building is undergoing yet another transformation.
The property located in the Fairview neighbourhood across the street from Selkirk College Tenth Street campus has been used for a variety of different businesses and organizations over the years, including a student union building, a pub, an international school and a church.
The current use includes two existing dwellings located in the basement with offices on the main floor.
But the current owner of the property applied to rezone 711 Tenth Street from I1 (institutional zone) to CD8 (comprehensive development for multi-unit residential), looking to convert an underutilized existing building into multi-unit housing with no institutional uses.
After having its rezoning amendment approved by council, the building will now have its number of dwellings on the property increased from two to five units.
The re-development plans include retaining the existing two (one bedroom) units in the basement and renovating the main floor to accommodate three additional one-bedroom dwellings. All units will be market rental housing.
“The proposed use of the building and land would conform to the landscape and parking bylaws, and provide garbage/recycling enclosures, bike racks, as well as amenity areas for the use of the occupants,” read a city staff report.
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