Residents have pitched a picnic shelter, beach and better access to the water as ways to help improve Nanaimo’s Colliery Dam Park.
Ideas on how to improve the 28-hectare Harewood park will be heading to the council table next month, after a process by the City of Nanaimo, Colliery Dam Park Preservation Society and Harewood Neighbourhood Association to get the public to weigh into potential changes.
The trail at the lower Colliery dam opened last month, as construction wrapped up on a multimillion-dollar auxiliary spillway. The area is now being landscaped with native species and the city has been working with a park improvement committee to find out how the area could be made better.
At a community workshop on improvements, held in May, between 60-70 participants expressed interest for additions like a picnic shelter, power for events, restoration of a beach and better entrances into the water.
The process of asking residents for feedback gives the city a chance to see if the park meets community needs and checks in on whether people using the park want changes, according to Kirsty MacDonald, the city’s parks and open space planner, who said as far as she knows there hasn’t been a park improvement process at the Colliery dams.
Changes that residents are asking for are not drastic, she said.
“Most improvements are fairly minor. They are really just adding comfort facilities or enhancing what’s already there,” MacDonald said, adding what was loud and clear for her is that community groups in the Harewood area want more involvement in the park.
Roblyn Hunter, a director-at-large for the Colliery Dam Park Preservation Society and a member of the park improvement committee, said the society fought since 2012 for a reasonable solution to address any safety issues at the dam, while protecting the integrity of the park. The spillway is ugly and a scar on the park, she said, but she’s also relieved they are no longer fighting.
“I am working very hard and there’s others too, to create a different approach to make this a positive step forward, that we’re looking at this as a new chapter,” said Hunter, who also said there’s been a wealth of suggestions and ideas of what people would like and the city has already begun to work on some of those things.
Terry Lee Wagar, a park preservation society member, doesn’t believe a lot needs to be done at the park, but among the changes he’d like to see are trail work and for the city to use trees for fencing along some of the trails to keep people and dogs out of the forest.
“I’m glad that the present city council is more amenable to treating the park as a valuable asset and putting a little bit of money into it and working on it,” he said, although he made clear he’s still upset about the spillway.
The city started on some changes already, including adding power at the lower-dam area for events. A report will go to council in July with short- and-long-term options for improvements.