Newline Skate Parks’ Kyle Dion (background) listens to a skateboarder at an open house Wednesday night. (Dave Preston photo)
by Dave Preston
Residents of San Clemente Avenue were vocally opposed Wednesday night to a proposed skateboard park in Lambly Park.
The municipality held an open house at the community centre and a handful of area residents made it clear they don’t want the facility near their homes.
“Finding a suitable location in Peachland is hugely challenging,” said Cheryl Wiebe, director of community services. “Over the years several parks have been analyzed and reviewed.”
About seven years ago, the Board for Life Society, which was working on building a skate park in Peachland, looked at several locations, according to Wiebe.
“At the time, the Lambly Park site was ruled out because there was not considered to be safe access across the highway,” said Wiebe.
Recently traffic lights installed at Clements Crescent and Hwy. 97 has provided a pedestrian crosswalk.
On Wednesday town staff met with RCMP and a representative from design company Newline Skate Parks at Lambly Park and Wiebe said the consensus was that the location is now safe and worth consideration.
Peachland council chose Cousins Park as the location for a skate park years ago, but the current council chose Lambly Park because of “mitigation of issues”, according to Wiebe.
Tennis courts are in the middle of Lambly Park and Wiebe said both Newline and RCMP recommended a skate park be built on the south side of the tennis courts.
Kyle Dion, designer from Newline, told about 40 people at the open house that he is an active skateboarder has been involved in the development of close to 200 skate parks.
“What is the precedent of putting a skate park near residential homes?” asked one attendee.
Dion said Newline has built a number of residential parks that are within about 100 to 150 feet of homes.
“There’s a skate park in Victoria right beside a seniors’ housing complex,” said Dion.
“I think it’s stupid,” said a San Clemente Avenue resident of the Lambly Park location.
When asked if the Lambly Park site is a done deal, Wiebe said staff will put together all feedback received and present it to council in July for a final decision.
One man said he would like to know why Cousins Park was chosen in 2005 and what has changed to make Lambly Park the preferred location now.
“I don’t think anyone is saying Cousins Park is not a good site for a skate park,” said Dion.
Wiebe said the original design in Cousins Park had several features incorporated in it to mitigate the interaction with the adjacent baseball diamond. She added that staff has a limited budget to build a skate park and the Lambly Park location would not require money for mitigation.
“We’re very interested in listening to comments,” said Coun. Peter Schierbeck.
Dion said the cost of skate parks runs about $40 per square foot. He said Peachland is looking at a 5,000 square foot facility.
“Is there a possibility it could end up back at Cousins Park?” asked a woman.
“The simple answer is yes,” replied Wiebe.
Staff received a directive from council to investigate Lambly Park and staff has not investigated Cousins Park as a location, according to Wiebe.
Another attendee asked if it is possible to have a skateboard park and adult baseball in the same area.
“The answer is no,” said Wiebe. She clarified that that comes from the town’s risk manager, who council could choose to ignore.
- Excited
- Informed
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” I was told that home plate was about where the 50-Plus Centre is today. “…said Dave
To correct this error, the home plate has always been where it is today, period.
‘Some’ of the land that is now Cousins Park was donated by the Cousins family.” …said Dave.
To correct this error, No land was ever donated by the Cousins family there. It was designated a park by the founder of Peachland J.M. Robinson in 1898 when the town was laid out.There never was a 7th Street, only a place to put it. The Cousins family was honoured by Premier Bill Bennett in the early 1980′s by having the Ball Park named for them for their community involvement and famous 9 brother baseball team
It appears you are entirely correct. I received the wrong the information years ago. Thanks for setting the record straight.
Don Wilson did tell me that, before the existing community centre was built, the ‘big’ ball diamond had its home plate further south, nearer to Sixth Street. Other than that, the land has always been municipally owned and the Cousins family didn’t own any of it.
Thanks again.
Who’s dumb idea was it to build the 50 Plus Activity center in the park? It makes no sense. That building should be relocated and the skate park can go there instead.
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what a great clarification of “facts” that the online forum was able to provide.
For years I (and apparently Dave) would have lost money saying the Cousins donated the land for the park.. No one took the effort to clarify this until the Internet made it a 3 minute job for “pchland” to clear up.
Kudos for Dave to verify he was incorrect and setting the record straight.
that guy has a nice back
Thanks to Dave and Pole Walker for their comments on my suggestion.
If the land was donated to the District with the general intention of keeping baseball or softball alive in Peachland because of the Cousins family historic ties to the sport, then that should be noted. However, as long as the sport continued to be played and supported in Peachland by simply moving the field somewhere else, then wouldn’t the family view that the memory and their historic contribution to baseball as still be honoured? I’m not sure that really should be a problem (should it?) and especially if, as Dave said, there was no covenant placed on the property.
Still like to hear what others have to say about the idea. I’m reluctant to make the suggestion myself to Council as I’ve already got one submission before them re about future of tennis in Lambly Park being negatively affected by the proposed position of the skateboard park so am nervous about muddying the waters with another one. I’d think about doing so if there was more interest in the idea though.
Mark, all my tom foolery aside, I must say that I agree with you in all of your ideas presented. The municipal people need to join your think-tank sometimes and get a vision of the real picture!
But, one main reason that there is ball fields downtown at Cousins Park is because (correct me if I’m wrong) the reason that the baseball/softball fields are there is because the land was donated by the Cousins family for the purpose that baseball would survive in Peachland… in honor, and remembance to the Cousins family that had a whole baseball team make up of one family of brothers (right here in Peachland), that played a pretty good game of ball!
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Let me make a suggestion right out of left field and see what people think about it. This based on a discussion I had with someone else recently so I’m not entirely taking the credit or blame for it but thought it worth passing on the idea.
Cousins Park seems a silly spot for a softball/baseball field. 9 months a year the place is basically empty right now. During the softball season, it still is only used a fraction of the week. Get this sport out of this prime location and put it somewhere else. McKinnon Park up by the defunct Trepanier Manor Hotel site comes to mind. It’s District property, currently just a fairly ugly forest, there are no plans for it (the pie-in-the-sky fantasy of a hockey arena up there doesn’t count), large enough, water and sewer close by if considered necessary (thanks to Hotel development) and it wouldn’t take a lot of work to turn it into a playing field.
Then, having rid the District of this thorny problem, put the skateboard park back in Cousins Park where so many want it. Extend the Rec Centre towards where home plate currently sits and in doing so get rid of another problem the District is currently facing – i.e. how to expand this busy building. The problem of liability disappears since softball is no longer played in the park. Minimal to NO impact on World of Wheels etc. Residents of San Clemente won’t be putting houses up for sale and there should be no impact on residents near Cousins Park if the skateboard park put in the most obvious place. Children will be near the beach, where they probably want to be in the summer, and away from the highway, where parents probably do NOT want them. No need to spend an extra $250,000 on a toilet in Lambley Park for the kids which is now being considered since there is a toilet at Swim Bay. Softball as far as I can tell all played by adults who would be able to drive to McKinnon Park so this not a concern. Room for future tennis courts as the District grows would still be available in Lambley Park which is obviously very much in jeopardy under the current plan (I’ll declare a personal interest on this one!).
You might even have space left over to rebuild the playground that was removed from next to the school.
Seems like an awful lot of pluses with very little downside unless I’m missing something.
Love to hear what others thinks.
Nicely said. Council doesn’t want to make everyone happy. Just the ones chummy with “top” council. I’d like to know which RCMP said what. A couple I know from Westbank say something totally different. Very good plan Mark. Either your plan or the one I’ve explained would work out very well and very cost effective. No one cares where they play ball. They play up the hill a couple times a week and have a blast… with noise and everything. No one complains. Cheryl, I’m a little disappointed by your bias. Guess you’re worried about your job. Obviously there is something management will not tell. Kind of like when talking to your kids. You always know when they are lying or not telling you something.
Just noticed your comment as well as pole walker’s and dave’s above. Can you clarify your comment re “or the one I’ve explained would work very well”. Must have been in one of Dave’s other articles as I don’t see it here and with you being “anonymous” it might be hard to spot as there are a lot of “anonymous” postings. What was your idea?
My proposition was putting the diamonds on the street side- so no balls would be putting anyone in harm’s way on the street and still protecting the school. Then putting the skate park on the opposite corner. We could then put up a net there and be far enough away so as to not be an eyesore and rid ALL liability issues… just a thought.
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I wouldn’t want the skate park behind the community centre. That’s tucking it away in a corner, farther out of sight — a recipe for troubles.
The thing is, foul balls land on the highway now andballs land on beach ave and even hit the washrooms on beach now, a fence was shot down because of “looks” which trump practicality and function every time.
Thanks to ‘anonymous’ for answering my question about his suggestion.
Mayor quimby, do foul balls really land on the highway now? Serious question as I’m just wondering if you are just guessing from the lack of proper fencing along the left field foul line or do you know this to be actually happening? How often and has a car ever been hit or had to swerve to miss a ball? Do players go and retrieve the balls if they end up on 97? Trying to get my mind around the implications of this but it is shocking if this is the case.
If this is the case, sure makes a mockery of the risk assessor thinking we might have a small problem with home runs hitting kids in a skateboard park way out in center field I would have thought.
Yes foul balls do land on the highway, they land on beach ave, and they even hit the seniors complex. Players will go get the balls on the bank below the highway but the ones that hit the road are probably left there. And yes I have seen them hit the highway, almost hit a motorcycle rider, I have seen them hit the seniors complex and even land in the lake. Like I said before, there is an issue with proper fencing but it comes down to looks.
Sounds good to me. This makes a lot of sense, and here lies the problem, sense seems sadly lacking in our present council! Also would remove the liability, which the “town’s risk manager” has missed, of baseballs hitting moving vehicles on highway 97!
It is sort of telling that the person standing up defending the skate board park is the person who stands to benefit the most and will spend the least time in Peachland.
There was no one on council or District staff that was willing or able to defend the Skateboard park.
There is no group of Peachlanders driving this effort or even involved. There was a few year ago but now we are getting a solution that it is not clear that there is a demand.
The guy getting the $200,000 cheque thinks skateboard park (anywhere) is a great idea….. what a surprise!
All this is just a pacifier for other wrong doings like the playgrounds that were misplaced throughout other unused parks.
You are 100% right slick. But it also could be said that they actually listened for once and saw that only focusing on seniors does not go over well with the public.
yes, I amused!
to “mitigate”// to make mild, soft or tender… to make less severe. as a drug that lessens pain…
yes lets mitigate the interaction of the youth and the adults that may ‘play’ around them; baseball that is!
you know as well as I do that all these great studies give our hired peoples something to justify their jobs. Who is “our town’s Risk Manager? Let me take a guess…
come on council, kick it into gear and make a decision, before another generation of kids grow up and another generation of dicision makers have this HARD decision to waste their brain power on.
the Swim Bay area should be for the kids of our community. it only seems right in my opinion!