The city wants ideas from the public for a new youth park in Harewood.
The park will be built at Harewood Centennial Park on Howard Avenue, which currently has a water park, playground, lighted tennis courts, ball fields and soccer fields, lacrosse box, change rooms and washrooms plus storage and parking areas on 6.4 hectares.
Ideas floated so far include a skateboard and BMX facility, mountain bike and walking trails, and a cover over the tennis courts allowing all weather use.
But the city and the Harewood Neighbourhood Association are trying to determine just how much interest there is for a youth park and, if so, what people want in it.
With no skate park in south Nanaimo, skateboarders must travel north to May Richards Bennett Pioneer Park on Dover Road. One at Harewood Centennial Park would keep youth closer to home and make the park more of an all-ages facility.
Peggy Lake, Harewood Neighbourhood Association vice president, conducted surveys in Harewood schools and shopping areas to determine what features people want in the park in 2008. Since then, the association has consulted with the city and raised $60,000 for the park's development.
Lake said she was surprised at the low turnout when parks and recreation staff held its first open house on the project at John Barsby Community School April 5, especially given the city's extensive promotion for the event and the interest expressed in her early surveys.
"It disappointed me a lot," Lake said. "I couldn't believe that Harewood would actually not show up because of all the complaints about the kids hanging out and getting in trouble. I thought that the parents would appreciate this in our area because, as it is now, the kids have to travel all the way to the north end."
Lake said the three-hour evening open house was well-organized and advertised, and featured good quality visual aids, plus snacks and refreshments.
Kirsty MacDonald, city parks and open space planner, said about 100 people attended.
"It's not terrible for an open house, but it's not a really high number either," MacDonald said.
MacDonald said it is important for the city to know if the community supports an intergenerational park that focusses on youth and what features it wants to see in it. The city did present the idea for a skate park and mountain bike park, but she said everything is strictly in the idea input stage and nothing is a done deal.
"But we're still finding out if people would use it, is that what they want and is that the right location and we haven't determined all of that yet," MacDonald said.
MacDonald is also consulting with students in John Barsby Secondary School and with the school district to determine potential for shared use of land and facilities.
She said money will be available for the project in next year's city budget, but would not speculate on the project's cost without knowing what facilities will be built.
She hopes to have a meeting during the summer with concept plans open to public input and a final concept plan developed in the fall, which could be put before the Nanaimo Parks, Recreation and Culture Commission and city council.
Groundbreaking for park upgrades is not expected before May 2012.
"Honestly we're just about ideas right now – visioning a bit," MacDonald said.