A plan full of big ideas

By Craig Westcott/December 9, 2022

Tract Consulting has delivered its 156-page Recreation and Cultural Master Plan to the Town of CBS, and while it offers a wide re-imagining of how parks and trails can connect the community and become even more central to the leisure life of residents, it also identified a list of specific areas that will require further study.

Tract grounds much of its report on the results of focus groups and surveys it conducted last year.

According to the consultants, CBS would benefit significantly from a new indoor sports facility, or Rec Centre.

The Town has already taken action on that recommendation, ahead of the report’s findings, by applying for some $50 million in federal and provincial funding to go towards construction of such a centre. Council expects to get word on that application sometime next year.

As for other facilities broached in its surveys, Tract seems to favour, but advises more study on whether CBS should build a theatre, curling rink, and new swimming pool. Some or all of those facilities could be combined within the new Rec Centre, Tract suggests.

As for one of the more contentious issues to arise in CBS in the past few years, namely the need for more boat launches into Conception Bay, Tract recommends a feasibility study and a larger “Water-Based Recreation Development Strategy.” It would include boating, paddling, paddle boarding, and outdoor swimming. “The strategy would also focus on the renewal and enhancement of existing marinas and boat launches, informal and water-based recreation facilities, and marine parks,” says the report.

The consultants also recommend that CBS negotiate with the school board to gain access to the sports facilities located on school properties throughout town.

Among the more significant recommendations is that CBS develop a regional park of some 20 acres or more.

The report also recommends the Town spend more on programs and facilities for teenagers, seniors and families with low incomes.

Tract says all residents should have access to play areas located within a five-minute walk of their homes, and that, “Play areas should be designed to specifically respond to the needs of the neighbourhood demographic.”

Tract says the Town should retain professional designers, including landscape architects, to help develop its parks and trails, and “Assess the potential to include an indoor adventure playground in the proposed Community Centre.”

The consultants say neighbourhood parks should be redesigned so that staff don’t have to spend as much time and effort mowing grass. This could be done by letting more of the areas around the facilities go back to nature.

Other findings include:

• Topsail Beach needs a renewal plan and a better parking lot.

• Worsley Park should get an expanded parking lot and be promoted as an alternative staging area for access to the Manuels River Trail. The Town should also consider expanding amenities and activities there, possibly including a finger pier with a kayak launch, paddle board, canoe, and kayak rentals, a food truck vendor, and, “To support expanding services and revenue generation, modernize the building and consider including a covered, glass enclosed viewing deck overlooking the pond and the bay.”

• Council should look at developing Sgt. Ned Nugent’s Park in Kelligrews into a regional park, with a new artificial turf added for soccer, a staging area to the proposed ATV trail, and completion of the walking trail along the river to Kelligrews Pond.

“Conception Bay South does not have a Regional Park,” Tract noted. “The new Regional Park we envision would be to Conception Bay South as Central Park is to New York, Stanley Park is to Vancouver, or Bowring Park is to St. John’s. It will serve as a ‘go to’ amenity for residents and visitors. The Regional Park would focus on nature-based recreation activities and cultural events. Should the Town decide to proceed with a Regional Park, as proposed, it might consider integrating the Park and the proposed Community Centre, ideally on the same site. This would have the advantage of making adjoining land very attractive to commercial and residential land development. Such developments should be appropriately scaled and professionally designed.”

Tract says the Town should assess the current land ownership in the area and see what’s needed to assemble the additional land needed to accommodate a regional park.

• The Town should build a second ball field at Richard Parsons Memorial Park in Seal Cove, improve the connection from the ball field to the washrooms, and upgrade the winter sliding hill. The Town should also consider linking the park, by trail, to Little Indian Pond and the T’Railway at Seal Cove Pond.

•Tract says the Town should make the various rivers that flow from the highlands down into the bay key corridors for people to walk, hike and bike to reach other parts of town. To take full advantage of those geographical assets, Tracts says CBS should consider asking the Province to reinstate the town’s original boundary to include the full watershed, and strike a deal with the City of St. John’s, which controls some of that land now, to gain access to the ponds in the back country for recreation.

• Tract recommends the creation of four large “nature-based” parks, one for each ward of town, and each of them connected to the trail system.

“For non-motorized trails, the T’Railway is the backbone of the connected walking and bicycling trail system,” Tract notes. “New trails, like the Gateway and Manuels River Trails, will connect neighbourhoods to the T’Railway via the many riparian (riverside) corridors. For multi-use trails that are both motorized and non-motorized, the model illustrates that most will be located south of Peacekeepers Way. Multi-use trails are linked to the proposed ATV Trail and will thus run the full length of the community. To accommodate ATV access to the future ATV Trail, underpasses along Peacekeepers Way will need to be assessed and perhaps enlarged. A series of designated staging areas are proposed along the length of the ATV Trail. The non-motorized trails south of Peacekeepers Way will be created through rationalizing the existing unauthorized trails in the community. Using these trails, the opportunity exists to create a looped system of hiking and mountain biking trails that can be linked to the future nature-based parks.”

While the consultants don’t put a total figure on the cost of creating and connecting all those amenities, it does estimate some of the specific costs for some of the associated studies that would be needed to undertake the projects.

A full copy of the plan is available for viewing on the Town’s website.

Recreation committee chairperson, Shelley Moores, made the motion Tuesday that her colleagues adopt the report as presented. The motion passed unanimously with only Mayor Darrin Bent not participating in the vote as he works with CBS Soccer, a group which has a large interest in the recreational facilities of the town.

Moores said the plan will guide developments of facilities, parks and programs over the next several years.

“It has been developed to meet the needs of the growing community,” she added. “And I would like to point out this is a plan, a guideline for us to follow over the next few years… It outlines 31 overall recommendations that council will review and consider along with an implementation plan.”

Councillor-at-large Rex Hillier welcomed the plan’s completion.

“It’s great to see this coming forward,” he said. “It’s something that we’ve been waiting on for some time. Various forces, I guess, slowed it down, and it’s great to get it here and get it done tonight.”

Hillier noted the plan covers a wide area of programming and even looks at how some of it might be funded.

“We keep saying ‘recreation,’ but it is a recreation and culture master plan, because we’re trying to include the arts as well,” Hillier added. “It’s time we had a look at where we’re going with the arts in Conception Bay South.”

Hillier suggested this is one big report that won’t be left to gather dust on a shelf.

“The biggest wish coming out of the last recreation master plan was a place for people to walk safely,” he pointed out. “And if you think about what’s been done here in the last 10 years in terms of the T’railway through the town, the off trails through Manuels River and Kiwanis, the walking track at the stadium – those things came out of the last master plan, and we’d like to think that a lot of the things in this master plan will come out as well.”

Hillier singled out Tract’s description of the trails in CBS as forming the town’s spine.

“It’s interesting that one of the things that we’ve been talking about in planning, is this whole concept of neighbourhood connectivity, where we now have a trailway going through the town,” he explained. “And now to be able to put regulations in our new Municipal Plan so that all new developments will tie into that spine, so that we’ve got trails coming off that and along the riverways and brookways running through our town – it’s just another step that you’ve got to be excited about to see this coming forward.”