Glenmore could finally get long-awaited recreation park

KELOWNA – It was first recommended almost 30 years ago but only now could Glenmore get a new park.

City of Kelowna planning staff want council to spend $5 million to build the first phase of a recreation park — think playing fields and ball diamonds, not flowers and rock gardens — on city-owned land at the corner of Longhill and Valley roads.

Glenmore recreation park, as it is so-far named, would occupy a 10.5 hectare site in fast-growing North Glenmore, where over the next twenty years the city would install playing fields and sports courts and evenutally, an activity centre.

The first phase would involve installation of two playing fields, a perimeter fence and the construction of a road and buffer/swale between the fields and adjacent farm land.

The site for the park was granted an exemption for a non-farm use in November, 2011 by the Agricultural Land Commission, parks planner Barb Davidson says in a report to council, under the condition the playing fields be developed within three years.

The commission gave the city a three-year extension on that condition last year when it failed to meet the deadline. The new plan would now have initial construction complete by October, 2017.

In return, the city has agreed to give up the Glenmore Sports Fields and return them to an agricultural standard, before making the land available for farming under a 20-year lease with the city.

This removes two class C ball diamonds from the city’s inventory, that must eventually be made up elsewhere, Davidson notes.

To finance the park’s first phase development, staff propose using $3 million from taxation or gas tax revenue plus a further $2 million from disposition of city-owned land nearby. Annual operating cots are estimated at $70,000.

To contact the reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infonews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.