The south side of the tennis courts in Lambly Park was chosen Tuesday morning as the location for a new Peachland skateboard park. (Dave Preston photo)
Update (July 11). . . Council reaffirmed its decision from a committee meeting Tuesday morning by voting in favor of Lambly Park as the location for a new skateboard park.
by Dave Preston
It appears Peachland council is set to once and for all approve Lambly Park as the location for a new skateboard facility.
Council voted in favor the Lambly Park location at a Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday morning by a vote of three to two. Councillors Terry Condon and vern Moberg were absent, but Moberg is expected to attend the regular council meeting Tuesday night, where the committee vote will be up for ratification.
Moberg has come out in support of Lambly Park in the past.
About 40 people attended a consultation meeting on June 20, according to Cheryl Wiebe, director of community services.
“We received a fair amount of support and a fair amount of opposition,” Wiebe told council.
Wiebe said in 2003, there was very little support for a skateboard park in Peachland, but now there is quite a bit of support. Continuing to be a problem with the public is the location, according to Wiebe.
Earlier concerns with Lambly Park being adjacent to Hwy. 97 have now been mitigated by the installation of traffic lights, said Wiebe. She added that RCMP toured the site and expressed no concerns with safety.
There was a significant amount of opposition to the location at the open house, said Wiebe.
“Council is in a tough position,” she said.
One concern raised at the open house was that of increased vandalism in Lambly Park. Wiebe said council could choose to enact a good neighbor policy, where the town would take care of vandalism, primarily graffiti, on the district side of residents’ fences.
Skateboard wheels produce noise at about 70 decibels, while highway traffic rates 85 decibels, according to Wiebe.
“There will be mroe noise in the park because we are inviting people to play there,” Wiebe said.
In reference to another concern raised at the open house, Wiebe said she was provided with a study by Newline Skateparks that suggests there is no evidence that property values go down after a skate park is built in a neighborhood.
Coun. Cindy Fortin asked what could be done about washrooms if Lambly Park was chosen for a skate park. Wiebe said that would not be addressed immediately, but could be part of a long term plan.
Fortin also asked how it is that Cousins Park was chosen as the location for a skate park last decade, but Lambly Park is now the recommended location.
Wiebe said documents show the town’s risk manager had the same concerns about Cousins Park years ago — that fly balls could hit skateboarders.
“The more people using the facility, then there would be less vandalism,” said Coun. Peter Schierbeck. “I feel the kids using a skate park would not be the vandals.”
Coun. Eldon Kerbes wondered if the proposed size of 5,000 square feet would be big enough to make a challenging, interesting skate park.
Wiebe said Peachland does not have the funding to build a $600,000 project at this time. Newline Skateparks has proposed building a street scape park, which is unique and not found anywhere else in the valley.
Coun. Eric Hall said everyone wants youth to be a very important part of the community, but major developments proposed will be made up mostly of townhomes and apartments and that means Peachland will continue to be a senior’s community.
“I think in this case… we made a mistake,” said Hall, adding the money should be used toward a new fire hall or other amenity.
Mayor Keith Fielding said he feels a skate park is absolutely a priority, as young people have, repeatedly over the years, made it a priority.
Council voted on a motion reaffirming Lambly Park as the location for a skate park. Fielding, Kerbes and Schierbeck voted in favor of the motion, while Hall and Fortin were opposed.
The exact location is to be south of the existing tennis courts.
- Excited
- Informed
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
– provided improperly planned development doesn’t destroy Peachland in the meantime of course.-Mike says.
Do you mean all the empty subdivisions on the hillsides, boarded and removed houses, or the give away of public land to developers. Read, hotel parking lot.
A guide to planned development was the Charrette and much of it is now being ignored too.
Is it time for a public inquiry?
Was the Charette process flawed? A social experiment in having a small select group of non-expert people try to drive their vision and cover it under the cloak of open discussion.
A few people with time on their hands write down some ideas (that the Mayor guided them to) and the Mayor gets council to adopt as a guideline with no formal public input, referendum or vote???
The Soviet Russia politburo of non-elected citizens showed that even modest 5-year plans were not at all viable and their enforcement led to disastrous results ….
The Charette ideas and concepts from the boom years on the other side of a world-wide recession are now nearing 5 years old even less valid now than when the Mayor staged this exercise to validate his opinion of what his vision of Peachland was and attempt to pretend they had public support.
Maybe it is time for a public inquiry in the whole Charette process and the motivations of the small group of “concerned Citizens” who participated and now want their agenda adhered to.
Aren’t you commenting on the wrong article?
Also to keep ‘on topic’… about the location of the skate park; I was originally thinking Cousins Park was a better location, but after seeing how congested the downtown & swim bay areas get during Canada Day…etc ,it might be good to develop another ‘active destination area in Peachland’. With future plans to add another tennis court & washrooms it all made sense.
good point trigger
Mike, I get your point about the retirement communities in Arizona & Florida…but they probably were designed,and built as retirement communities. Peachland wasn’t built originally as a retirement community…Peachland did have families, Peachland did build schools…and Peachland still has families, Peachland still has schools. From the Morrison Park playground issue we did learn; even when people think there are no children living in their area…there really is quite a few. My husband & I moved here when our children were 2 & 5, and I would hate to think we should stop focusing on building a well rounded community.
Trying to frame this as respectively as I can:
Why did you choose Peachland to locate to raise your young family?
Was there any expectations on your part that Peachland with a median age over 50 was going to focus on improving amenities and activities and programs for you and your family?
Did you have any expectations of an influx of young families joining you in Peachland to create the critical mass for youth programs?
Well, now that I am the median age of 50…(just barely mind you)
We choose to live here because we loved the beach front…and we loved the back country. We love the idea we can work all day & go roast hot dogs across the lake or up at Peachland lake and go sleep in our own beds at night. Yes it has nothing to do with skate parks or Charette ideals.
I did naively think a high school would be built on Turner Park. lol …and I think people were talking about a Pool?
That was about 16 years ago…my kids had many friends living in Peachland, they went to school with many from grade 1 to grade 12. I was a youth group leader for many years.
I see lots of younger families here now too.
Adding a playground or two, and building a skate park, really isn’t a huge expense to create a well rounded living community. We do need to keep this community living…while ‘Mike’ goes south for his winter.
I think everybody wants to enjoy this town. Not just the seniors … the youth, their parents, everybody. Were all here and were all in this together. I’ve seen the population/age data for Peachland and contrary to popular belief it’s not just a retirement town. In fact, if I remember correctly the top of the curve is in the mid fifties and it’s a pretty symmetrical down both sides of the bell.
Good to see council doing something for the people who will one day run things when the older set retire. If you can’t keep “young” blood coming in, a city dies.
Could someone please explain to me why Wolfeman and others like him continue to put forward this outright lie that we must attract young people to Peachland because when the current group of old residents die out, the place will be empty otherwise.
I spend several winter months a year living mainly in Arizona but sometimes in Florida. The vast majority of residents in the places I stay are retired seniors. These are communities designed for seniors and where seniors are happy it is mainly for seniors. In the case of some these towns in Florida, they have been mainly senior oriented towns for probably 80 years. Maybe more.
Did these Florida communities die out in the 1930s and 1940s when the then current group of seniors passed away? Obviously not. Why not? Because people are constantly aging and retiring. Maybe Wolfeman doesn’t understand that but it happens to all of us eventually. We get old and then we look for someone nice to live out our final years. When the seniors in one decade die out, the next generation of retiring seniors move in to replace them.
In North America (both Canada and the States) we are only just seeing the first wave of Baby Boomers retiring. Those are the huge number of people born post 1945 and up to around 1965, the youngest of whom are now just reaching that magic age of 65. The last wave of baby boomers won’t be retiring until around 2032 if I’ve done the mathematics properly. Hardly a shortage of old folk looking for a retirement community in the offing is it?
Do you think the 1955-1965 born boomers are going to stay in Winnipeg, Regina, Chicago, or Boston when they retire? Or will they move to warmer climates like the Okanagan, Arizona, and Florida? Well, American communities in the south certainly know the answer and are planning for it. I fail to see why Peachland government and residents can’t see it as well.
This is and likely always will be a retirement town and indeed a retirement valley. Having one of the best climates in Canada and the law about only living six months a year in the States makes that a reality. Get used to it.
Before someone jumps all over me for being anti-youth that’s not what I’m saying. The point simply is this at we don’t need to panic if young people can’t be attracted to Peachland. The old folk love it here and those who are in late middle age now working in Calgary or Toronto and who will be retiring within the next decade will love it here as well when they look around for a retirement house – provided improperly planned development doesn’t destroy Peachland in the meantime of course.
Mike that was a well thought out and drafted post.
It probably applies to over 50% of the current residents of Peachland including the Mayor.
“So it is written, so it shall be done!”