PLANS: Steve Barnhart of the City of Hamilton's Open Space Development and Park Planning section explains the projected redevelopment plans for Courtcliffe Park at last week's open house.

Members of the City of Hamilton's open space development and park planning staff were on hand at the Carlisle Community Centre last week, in hopes of garnering feedback on plans for the redevelopment of Courtcliffe Park and Joe Sams Leisure Park.

With a Master Plan report and Stream Morphology study undertaken by the former Town of Flamborough in 2000, the City of Hamilton is working to enhance the original drawings for Courtcliffe Park.

Divided into open and active spaces, the city is looking to boost Courtcliffe Park's parking, sports grounds and picnic area. With the addition of play equipment and four more soccer fields proposed for the grounds, staff anticipate an increase in traffic at the recreational area. To handle the extra demand, the proposal includes widening Carlisle Road and re-jigging the park entrance.

"To alleviate any issues on Carlisle Road, we would like to do a closing of one of the park entrances and provide a left turn lane," said Steve Barnhart of the city's open space development and park planning section.

Park entrance choices, combined with a preferred and alternative option for the widening of the road, were on display at the open house. Barnhart explained that, as part of the park redevelopment, a road analysis would be required in order to move forward to accommodate the influx of traffic in and out of the park grounds.

Speaking on the city's preferred option, Barnhart noted that the east entrance to the park would remain open, while widening of the entrance would allow for one incoming lane and two exiting lanes.

"The curb line stays the same on the south side, but on the north side, the curb line would be moved up," he explained, adding that residential properties on Carlisle Road would not be affected.

The Courtcliffe Park project would be phased in over four years. According to the proposal, the fields would be partially graded to add two new soccer fields; in year two, four soccer fields would be re-graded and two existing fields would be removed to allow construction of the parking lot to begin. In the third year of development, the city would regrade three existing soccer fields, construct a washroom building and continue working on the parking lot and the new entrance. In year four, all nine proposed soccer fields would be operational. According to the city's phase two Master Plan for the park, work along Carlisle Road would be coordinated with field completion.

A model of the suggested play equipment was also on display at the open house. The city's preferred option provides children with a junior and senior play area.

"This piece of equipment is becoming more and more popular with cities," said Barnhart of the display model. "It actually engages kids at higher levels of physical fitness than conventional equipment."

A swing set was also incorporated into the design.

The short-term plan for Joe Sams Leisure Park on Centre Road is to include new sports facilities, pathways and improve the parking. In 1998, the former Town of Flamborough prepared a series of master plan concepts.

"The Township built most of what you see there today, except for the washrooms," said Barnhart.

President of the Flamborough Soccer Club, RenÈ Juraschka, was pleased with the city's new option of adding a second parking lot at Joe Sams. "This is a new option that we had not heard of earlier. We like the thought of two separate parking lots over one large one as it will reduce the chance of young children running through a large parking area to get to a field on the south east side of the park," he said in a recent email to the Flamborough Review.

Although there are talks of restructuring the entrance of the park and including a left turning lane on Centre Road, the city is hoping the preliminary concepts will help garner feedback from the community.

"Just coming out tonight with a couple of options, we hope to stimulate discussion," said Barnhart.

Representatives from the Waterdown Minor Baseball Association were present at the meeting, hoping for a glimpse into the future of Joe Sams Leisure Park. According to WMBA president Paul Henricks, the original plans for Joe Sams included the development of four baseball diamonds, situated between the present diamond and Centre Road. He noted that two smaller sized diamonds were originally planned for the south end of the park, near Alexander Place.

"In the proposed concept, this area would now be exclusively soccer fields," said Henricks. "It was very clear from the presentation that the primary focus of the redevelopment is to increase soccer capacity in Flamborough."

According to Barnhart, the former Town of Flamborough had originally generated several concepts for Joe Sams.

"This is our first stab at it," he said of the proposal for Joe Sams, adding that the process is still in its early stages.

"We are consulting with our Culture and Recreational Division," he said, explaining that the Recreational Division at the city has provided the Open Space Development and Park Planning staff with guidance on the demand for both soccer and baseball.

With more than 1,700 players enrolled in the Flamborough Soccer Club, "Currently, we are at 137 per cent field utilization, which basically means that 37 per cent of the time, we are short on fields," said Juraschka of the importance of adding soccer pitches at both parks.

With the Waterdown population set to grow, Henricks charges that the demands for both baseball and soccer fields have evolved and will continue to grow with the community.

"The WMBA expects that both sports will received balanced consideration in modified redevelopment plans," he said. "As an organization, we expect the city to continue to accommodate the original baseball plans for Joe Sams."

"We are working with them right now to sort out baseball versus soccer," said Barnhart, noting that the city's Open Space Development and Park Planning section has received more demands for soccer facilities than baseball diamonds. "We haven't pre-determined what the field configuration for Joe Sams is yet."

The demand, he added, "has to be looked at regionally; it does vary from location to location."

According to Henricks, the WMBA is looking forward to partnering with the city to ensure that the association's needs are "appropriately reflected in final redevelopment plans."

Pleased with the city's overall presentation on December 4, Juraschka was glad that the city was able to host the open house and "appreciates that the city has worked with the Flamborough Soccer Club over the past two and a half years to verify the needs of our club and to develop plans that will help meet near-term field requirements."

Long-term plans at Joe Sams would include an enhanced trail system that will allow residents to take advantage of the large open space at the park. In the farmed areas of the park, the city is looking into enhanced plantings, which would speed up the naturalization of the trail area.

All information panels on display at the park redevelopment open house are available on the city's website as PDF files for review. The city collected the public's input on the proposals for Courtcliffe and Joe Sams Leisure parks and according to Barnhart each comment sheet will be reviewed.

For more information on park redevelopment, visit online at www.hamilton.ca/openspace.