General Manager, Parks, Recreation and Culture. Request for Upgrades to Bridgeview Park Ball Diamonds

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1 Corporate NO: F003 Report COUNCIL DATE: January 15, 2007 FINANCE COMMITTEE TO: Mayor & Council DATE: January 11, 2007 FROM: General Manager, Parks, Recreation and Culture FILE: /B SUBJECT: Request for Upgrades to Bridgeview Park Ball Diamonds RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the Finance Committee: 1. receive this report as information; and 2. recommend to Council that requested improvements to Bridgeview Park as described in this report be included in the 2007 Capital budget. INTENT At the December 11, 2006 Finance Committee meeting, the Committee requested that staff provide a report on a request from the Bolivar Slo-pitch Society that the City provide money for upgrading the ball fields at Bridgeview Park to allow for tournament and enhanced regular season play on these fields. The intent of this report is to provide the Committee with information on the costs and effectiveness of upgrading the ball diamonds at Bridgeview Park. BACKGROUND The Bolivar Slo-Pitch Society (the Society) was formed in 2002, and presently operates primarily from Bolivar Park, located in the Bridgeview neighbourhood of Whalley. This facility includes four adult sized 300 ft slo-pitch ball diamonds, and was purpose-built for the sport of adult slo-pitch. The park provided the City with an opportunity to consolidate field allocations for a number of different adult slo-pitch leagues, previously spread over several facilities throughout the city, into one home park. This consolidation of leagues has led to increased synergies and stewardship of facilities at Bolivar Park and has also freed up timeslots at other parks to facilitate increased access for youth softball associations. The Society has been successful in attracting large slo-pitch tournaments to Bolivar Park; these have included regional, provincial and national tournaments. Event participants have indicated that they are impressed by the high quality of the athletic facilities at this location. The Society has stated that many of these larger tournaments require either six ball diamonds without lights, or four diamonds, of which at least two would need to be lighted for nighttime games. As the

2 - 2 - proposal to light two of four diamonds at Bolivar Park did not proceed in 2006, the Society has expressed renewed interest in upgrading two softball diamonds at nearby Bridgeview Park. Bridgeview Park Bridgeview Park is located at 125A Street & 114 Avenue, adjacent to the Bridgeview Hall (See map, Appendix 1). This neighbourhood park contains two softball diamonds, a soccer field, a water playground and areas of passive parkland. There is a very small public washroom building on the east side of the park, and the park also contains Bridgeview Community Hall. The athletic fields at this park have proved challenging to maintain as this is one of Surrey s older parks and the high water table in the Bridgeview area results in sports fields that are poorly drained during the fall and winter months. As a result, fall/winter play on the originally constructed soccer field is no longer possible and turf quality in the spring/summer months is substandard. While the quality of ball diamonds at Bridgeview Park is lower than those at Bolivar Park, the City s turf management staff inspects the facilities regularly and ongoing maintenance and repairs are initiated if there are any safety concerns. The Society schedules regular league play on the two Bridgeview Park ball diamonds. The Society has stated that the facility is not suitable for high-level adult slo-pitch tournament play in its present condition; staff concur with this assessment. In 2005, the Society requested that the City upgrade Bridgeview Park. The requested facility improvements included moving and renovating the ball diamonds, new field lighting, a new field house, and other minor landscape improvements. The estimated cost of carrying out these works is presently $1,700,000, and cannot be funded at this time within existing Park Development Capital budgets. The City recently received a letter from the Bridgeview Community Association (Appendix 1) that it does not support field lighting at Bridgeview Park, nor does it support having beer gardens in the park during slo-pitch bookings. DISCUSSION Requested Improvements at Bridgeview Park Following the December 11, 2006 Finance Committee meeting, staff met with representatives of the Society to discuss their most recent request for improvements to the ball diamonds at Bridgeview Park. During the meeting, the Society stated that they would be prepared to accept a much reduced renovation program at Bridgeview in order to see improvements proceed in The reduction in scope would include the following: Relocate the two ball diamonds within the park to make for more effective use of the space for slo-pitch, essentially eliminating the soccer field; Replace the aging backstops, complete with appropriate dugouts, etc.; Carry out a modest field renovation; and Develop a walking pathway loop around the park for area residents.

3 - 3 - The estimated capital cost for the works as requested is $207,000, and, if funded, could be undertaken in the early part of the softball season, with the objective of having the diamonds ready for tournament play by mid-july. This would impact regular league play at Bridgeview Park from early April through early July. The Society has advised the City that this negative impact would be acceptable to the Society. Staff understand that if the improvements are carried out as described above, the Society would run the main portion of large tournaments from Bolivar Park, with some games scheduled at Bridgeview. They would bring in portable toilets during tournaments to augment the limited sanitary facilities presently available in Bridgeview Park. The Society has been advised that Bridgeview Park is not an appropriate location for lit fields. As per the correspondence from the Bridgeview Community Association there is community opposition to ever entertaining lights at this Park location. The Association also indicated opposition to outside beer gardens in Bridgeview Park. This concern has been communicated to the Society. Alternate Tournament Venues Appendix 3 (attached) contains a listing of other softball facilities in Surrey. It has been compiled to determine if there are sites other than Bridgeview Park, which could operate as auxiliary tournament facilities in conjunction with the Bolivar Park ball diamonds. Apart from Cloverdale Athletic Park and Softball City, there are no other parks that contain two softball diamonds that are appropriately sized for adult competitive slo-pitch play. The remainder of the City s softball diamonds were designed for youth softball or adult fast-pitch, both of which have much smaller dimensions than adult slo-pitch. Baseball diamonds cannot be used for slo-pitch due to the presence of the raised pitcher s mound on the baseball diamonds, and it is also not desirable to have a grass infield with cut away base paths for slo-pitch, as is standard on baseball fields. The Cloverdale Athletic Park softball diamonds are currently fully booked throughout the spring and summer months by the Cloverdale Minor Softball Association, the Canada Cup Futures Tournament for women s fastball, and a series of adult softball tournaments that occur after the youth season has finished. A drawback to utilization of ball diamonds at Cloverdale Athletic Park to augment large slo-pitch tournaments running at Bolivar Park is that existing users at Cloverdale Athletic Park would be displaced. Further, the Society has stated that Cloverdale Athletic Park is too distant (approximately 20 km round-trip) for the tight scheduling that occurs during large tournaments. Similarly, the 23 km round-trip to Softball City, which has suitably sized and configured diamonds, is seen as an impediment by the Society to running a high quality tournament, although the Society has stated that some preliminary discussions have taken place regarding joint tournaments to be run between Softball City and the Bolivar Slo-pitch Society.

4 - 4 - Available Funding A source of funding for this project could be the $550,000 identified in the draft 2007 Capital Budget as New Park Amenities (e.g. Bolivar Park, etc.). Of this amount, $350,000 has been identified for Phase 1 park improvements at Bolivar Park, as outlined in Corporate Report R261, received and approved by Council on December 4, These Phase 1 improvements include drainage improvements to Field No. 4 at Bolivar Park, which was requested by the Society in their delegation. This would leave approximately $200,000 to fund the improvements at Bridgeview Park. As it is anticipated that some external funding through a grant will be available for the pathway development at Bridgeview Park, there would be sufficient funding from this budget source available for the improvements to Bridgeview Park requested by the Society in their delegation to the Finance Committee on December 11, CONCLUSION The Bolivar Slo-Pitch Society has requested that Council provide funding for improvements to Bridgeview Park that would allow the park fields there to augment tournament capacity from the current four diamonds at nearby Bolivar Park, and provide higher quality fields for regular season adult slo-pitch league play. The society has stated that a combined six-diamond capacity will allow the group to attract more high-level tournaments to Surrey and that this will boost sport tourism in the City. Laurie Cavan General Manager, Parks, Recreation and Culture cc -General Manager, Finance, Technology & Human Resources

5 - 5 - Appendix 1. Location Map

6 - 6 - Appendix 2. - Letter from Bridgeview Community Association

7 - 7 - Appendix 3. Assessment of other City Softball Facilities in Surrey (that contains two or more softball diamonds) Park Location # of Softball Comments Diamonds Cloverdale Athletic 5 Diamonds are appropriately sized but 20 km round-trip Bolivar Park. Park Newton Athletic Park 6 Three of these diamonds are designed for fast-pitch & have outfield fences that are too close for adult slo-pitch competitive play. The other three diamonds are too small for adult play. Hjorth Road Park 4 Only one diamond is sized to accommodate adult slo-pitch play. Fleetwood Park 4 These diamonds are too small to support adult competitive play. Kwantlen Park 4 These diamonds are too small to support adult competitive play. North Surrey 3 These diamonds are too small to support adult competitive play. Community Park Port Kells Park 2 These diamonds are too small to support adult competitive play. Sullivan Park 4 These diamonds are too small to support adult competitive play. Sunnyside Park 4 These diamonds are too small to support adult competitive play.