[All] Kitchener Park Master Plan

[Daphne NICHOLLS]

Hi folks,

 

The 144 page Kitchener Parks Master Plan report is extensive and contains many commendable comments about the environment in the opening two chapters. It is so wonderful, you could think we were going to become the greenest city in Canada. The detailed work presented in Chapters 3 & 4 raises some concern and contains information that needs to be read more carefully than we have had time to commit at this point. We learned this morning that the report was only tabled in committeee last week and never discussed. Despite this, council will be asked to approve the report on Monday night, 28 June. 
 
Our initial reading has raised some serious concerns and we are requesting that council table this report until September. Since this report will set the parameters for the next ten years, we think it advisable that more time be given for reading and deliberation. The report is available at www.kitchener.ca .
 
Our reasons for  requesting a delay  are based on the following negative points that we have been able to discover in  document:
1.      There appears to be a discrepancy in the information on the maps on pages 27 and 43. Areas #3 and 5 on page 43 are not represented by the correct colour on page 27. There are possibly other changes necessary. These designations must be consistent as these maps will be used for future decisions.
2.      The sentence on page 27 which states “those natural areas with concurrent designations (e.g. ESPA, PSW) are protected from development, so acquisition with the primary objective of protection is not warranted. “ will allow for the possibility of a request for zone change and the potential loss of important environmental lands. This flexibility is not warranted in a document that is trying to set environmental standards for the next ten years.
3.      The Implementation Strategy #2 mentioned on page 83 specifies that ‘capital costs’ will be involved. Unfortunately the charts which define the various steps in the ten year plan on pages 101 to 103 and again on pages 108 to 109 do NOT contain any estimates for capital acquisition of the park land talked about in the rest of the report. This is a serious omission and needs to have a definite number suggested for acquisitions. I would suggest the report be amended to contain a proposal in percentage format. For example it could read “Total budget allocation for park land acquisition in each year of the ten year plan would be between 1.25% and 1.75% of the Kitchener Capital Cost Budget.” If the action component of the Implementation Strategy contained a proposal of this type, then the city staff would have a capital pool to work with that would enable them to purchase properties that could not be obtained by the other approaches suggested on page 83.
4.      The charts between pages 101 and 109 suggest a large amount of money be spent on planning for new parks. As mentioned in point #3 there is no money suggested for actual purchase of these park lands. This raises the question: “If you do not allocate any money for acquisition then why bother spending several million for planning?” 
 
 
Here is some arithmetic you might find interesting:
1. The report states that the current amount of parkland in Kitchener is 3752 acres, of which 2673 acres is Natural Area. This means there is 1.64 acres of park and 1.17 acres of Natural area for every 100 residents. 
2. By 2031 the report states the poplulation of Kitchener will increase by 82,960 people. This means that to maintain the current quality of life for park space the city will need to expand the park system by 1361 acres, of which 971 acres should be Natural Areas. The total area in Hidden Valley including the open spaces is only 200 acres! 
3. The Kitchener Capital budget for 2010 is $127,275,000 of which the total available for land acquisition is only $100,000. This represents 0.0786 % of the total Capital budget. Just imagine how much land you could buy for that small amount of money!
4. The 10 year forecast Capital budget allows a grand total of $1,569,000 for the entire ten years. Our rough estimate for just the Hidden Valley purchase is about $3,000,000. This raises the question "Is this realistic budget planning?"
 
In conclusion, we know this is very short notice but request you do one of the following--either attend the council meeting on Monday 28 June or write to Mayor Zehr to request that the Park Master Plan be tabled until it can be reviewed in September.
 
Please share this concern with anyone you know who cares about our parks. 
 
Sincerely,
Daphne
  		 	   		  
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