Today, we turn this space over to Ken Woodruff to talk about the potential loss of General Brock park in South Burlington. It’s a 14-acre parcel of land with 4 sports fields that could be paved over with housing if the city doesn’t act quickly.

The Halton District School Board, which owns the land, recently voted to sell it. The Save General Brock Parkland Committee, which Woodruff chairs, is asking the city to buy the park (worth about $9 million) to preserve greenspace and sports fields for our children.

City councillors vote at City Hall on Wed. Dec. 9, 6:30 pm on this issue – at the same time they’ll be voting on the Pan Am Games proposal to develop new sports fields.

Why spend millions for new fields when we’re about to close some?  These are your tax dollars. That’s one reason this issue concerns all of us. But there’s another reason: next time, it could be your local school – and its parkland – on the chopping block.

The city’s current policy is not to spend any money to save school parklands for residents.

That’s not good enough for General Brock, and the residents across the city who use its sports fields. And it won’t be good enough when it’s your local school closing.

Read Ken’s article to find out more.

The City Doesn’t “Get It”

by Ken Woodruff, Chair
Save General Brock Parkland Committee

A group of residents formed the Save General Brock Parkland Committee (SGBPC) in 2006 and has been working ever since to save the 14 acres of parkland, sports fields, trees and open spaces the Halton District School Board is now selling.

More than 300 people attended a public meeting at Tuck School last week (Dec. 1), jointly hosted by the city and the SGBP committee, to to discuss options for saving the park. At the meeting, city staff presented their report that includes a recommendation to city council that the city acquire “as much parkland as possible with no cost”.

This report was announced at a meeting requested by city council to ask residents for input on the issue! Why call a meeting to get input when your mind is already made up?

The SGBP committee followed the city presentation with an outline of why we need to save the park. In the question and answer session afterward, residents unanimously told city staff and politicians that they wanted Brock park saved.

Further, about half of the attendees filled out a survey distributed by our committee, and every single person expressed support for saving the park.

The money is there

It just takes a commitment of resources. We know the money’s there. The city’s new Parks and Recreation Master Plan includes budget for tennis courts for $750,000, waterplay facilities for $1.75 million, $6 million for upgrades to Sherwood Forest park, and up to $5.4 million for facilities at Mountainside park. So, there’s lots of money for new facilities, but none for the retention of General Brock?

In the Lakeshore planning area where Brock Park is located, there is really no accessible parkland other than Brock and Tuck parks. The city even admits in its report there are factors that make it “reasonable to support the acquisition/dedication of some parkland on the site.”

But, staff nevertheless recommended the old tried and true “no spending” strategy, hoping developers will keep some land to make a neighborhood parkette of about 5 acres. That would spell the end of our community park and it will be “tough toosties” for all the people across the city that use it.

Loss of sports fields

That includes the users of Brock’s two soccer fields and two baseball diamonds. In a city where we already lack soccer facilities why are we about to close two of them? The staff report indicates that the loss of these fields will apparently be filled via “re-adaptive use of under-utilized sports fields, lighting, partnering with the school board on secondary school sports fields and the installation of artificial turf to increase use capacity.” I can imagine six-year-old soccer player under artificial lights after dark on an artificial turf. And how much are we going to spend doing that anyway?

It seems short sighted and contradictory that the city recommends we spend no money to purchase Brock parkland.

Thinking inside the box

What I would like to know is – why? Why do they not want what we apparently want? How can they do this? I can only speculate, but here’s some possible reasons:

• Spending money to purchase land is new and because the city hasn’t done it, the city doesn’t want to do it (the “this is how we’ve always done it” approach).

• The city hasn’t had direction from council to recommend a significant expenditure on saving parklands. This is a neat “out” for both the staff and the council in sticky situations as they each blame the other for what happens.

• The city has lots of parkland. We don’t have enough sports fields. But even if it we did, what’s the rationale against retaining existing school lands?

• The city has the ability to absorb the loss of playing fields. Sure, by spending money. They just won’t spend it to get Brock.

And finally, maybe there is a paternalistic attitude towards “us” and a “we know what’s good for you” attitude.

We hope that this changes in time to save General Brock – once it’s gone there’s no getting it back. It is time to think creatively outside the box and put our spending priorities in order – save existing sports fields instead of investing millions putting up new ones.

Ken Woodruff lives in South East Burlington.

Visit the Save General Brock site

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