Town drawing up priority list for new parks, upgrades to playgrounds
By Craig Westcott \ May 26, 2023
Not every new subdivision comes with a playground, says CBS councillor-at-large Joshua Barrett, who outlined the Town’s policy for tot lots and open spaces at last week’s public council meeting.
“I’ve had a few queries now over the past few months about playgrounds,” Barrett said by way of explanation as to why he was raising the subject. “So, I wanted to take a couple of minutes to speak to the Town’s approach when some of these things evolve.”
Barrett said each development is considered according to its own unique circumstances when it comes to whether it will include an open space or a playground.
“The Town has an option of accepting cash for open space purposes within a proposed subdivision,” Barrett said. “This actually happens fairly frequently as opposed to the establishment of a playground. We can accept cash (instead). The decision to accept land for open space is made considering many factors which include the size of the subdivision, the demographic target for the proposed subdivision or development, the availability of usable land for open space purposes, the impact on operations and maintenance for any open space land that might be acquired, any existing open space amenities in the general area, and guidance from the Town’s recreation and cultural master plan which we passed earlier this year.”
Barrett said the cash option is calculated at 10 per cent of the land’s predevelopment value.
“And so all of this cash received by the Town for this purpose is set aside in the Town’s Open Space fund,” Barret said. “The Town also collects, in addition to this 10 per cent, $400 for every lot within subdivisions regardless of whether the Town acquires land or cash (for recreation space)… It’s also worth noting the Town receives $2.50 per square metre of floor in new commercial, industrial or institutional developments. And so all of that money that we get from that is also allocated to the Town’s Open Space fund.”
Barrett said the money in that fund is used for development of and replacement of park infrastructure. “This includes playground equipment,” Barrett said. “Recently we’ve been using this fund to fulfill the Town’s contribution requirement for infrastructure in development of the community park in downtown Conception Bay South. That’s really where a lot of this particular kind of funding has gone when we get the money from a contractor developing a subdivision.”
Barrett noted that for anyone who has been asking the Town for a playground, or upgrades or maintenance to an existing playground, council is developing a priority list.
“We’re hopeful that with this list and the completion of our new community park we won’t need to use this Open Space fund to a great extent for our new park much in the future,” Barrett said. “We’re hopeful that we might be able to use these funds for new playgrounds or playground upgrades in Budget 2024.”