OLDS — A consultant listed 10 top priorities for regional development of parks, recreational and cultural facilities in Mountain View County and neighbouring municipalities during a recent town council meeting.
Justin Rousseau, managing director of Expedition Management Consulting Ltd., laid out the priorities as he presented the Mountain View Regional Parks, Recreation and Culture Master Plan to Olds town council on Nov. 22.
The towns of Olds, Didsbury, Carstairs, and Sundre, the Village of Cremona and Mountain View County commissioned Expedition Management Consulting Ltd. to update the regional master plan first developed in 2009.
Since that time, each community has changed substantially, and all have experienced growth in residential, commercial, and industrial areas. As each community grows, new amenities, programs, and services will be needed to meet the needs of each community and the region, as a whole, according to a briefing note from administration.
The first priority is establishing a classification for local and regional facilities; determining which would be local and which would be regional.
The second priority is to look at creating a regional multi-purpose leisure centre. Rousseau said such a facility could be located in Olds or elsewhere in Mountain View county – wherever is deemed most convenient.
It could contain future ice sheets, gymnastics facilities, an indoor playground, a courts for tennis or pickleball, a climbing wall and an indoor track.
The third priority is developing a master plan for a regional trail network.
The plan said trails were “identified as a top request from participants in the engagement process. Participants requested more trails, more variety of trails (e.g. paved, granular, x-country, motorized), and better connectivity within trail networks.”
A fourth priority is access to more ice surfaces.
“Existing indoor ice surfaces in Olds, Carstairs, and Didsbury are fully utilized during prime times. Although, there is still some capacity during non-prime times," the plan said.
“Demand has been expressed from user groups and the public for more ice time, particularly in Olds. The Mountain View region is behind comparator jurisdictions in the provision of indoor ice sheets.”
The plan said in the short term, that problem may be alleviated by making better use of ice in some communities like Cremona and Sundre where ice time is not fully utilized.
However, in the long term, there may be a need for more ice facilities.
Also, it was noted that there’s a desire for more dry surfaces for sports like lacrosse.
The fifth regional priority is to improve accessibility and overall inclusivity in existing and future facilities.
“Some facilities in the region have done very well in creating accessible and welcoming environments,” the plan says.
It cited the Community Arena in Cremona as a good example of that.
“This facility has ramps for sloped entrances/egresses, well maintained and level floors, sufficient change rooms for both males and females and has an elevator to access different levels in the building,” the plan says.
However, it says there are “significant deficiencies at many indoor and outdoor facilities throughout the region in terms of their accessibility.”
“Much more could be done to transform these facilities into accessible environments that fully engage people of all abilities,” the report adds.
“In addition to facility improvements, the municipal partners should consider broader inclusivity efforts to ensure opportunities are provided for everyone to enjoy, regardless of their culture, age, gender, or ability.”
The sixth priority is to seek opportunities to strengthen the recreation funding agreements between Mountain View County and neighbouring municipal partners.
The seventh regional priority is create a process to evaluate facilities as they age and adopt plans to improve or replace them.
“The municipal partners should consider starting the process when certain indicators show that new facility development is required,” the plan says.
“This can include facilities reaching end of life, growth in market size, facilities reaching capacity, or demand for new facilities that are not provided within the market area.
“Proper analysis and business planning is a multi-step process, involving a high level of engagement of both stakeholders and the public.”
The eighth priority is to actually assess those facilities throughout the plan area.
“At the present time, the condition of many key recreation facilities in the region is not known,” the plan says.
“In order to plan appropriately, it is essential that facility condition assessments are completed on all major recreation facilities and multi-year facility lifecycle plans are put in place. The assessments should include core facilities operated by non-profit organizations.”
“Without really understanding the condition of your facilities, it’s really hard to do any sort of planning,” Rousseau said.
The ninth regional priority is to establish a regional recreation task force.
“Currently, there are no formal mechanisms in place that bring municipal parks, recreation and culture leaders together to collaborate and learn from each other,” the plan says. “This is a significant gap that could hamper efforts to collaborate regionally.”
It envisioned the task force including at least one senior recreation leader like a facility manager or director from each partner municipality.
It also recommended that the task force establish clear terms of reference, timelines and performance measures.
The 10th and last regional priority Rousseau listed was developing a regional tourism strategy.
On the positive side, the plan said existing tourism assets in the region have “strong transportation links, proximity to urban markets, established sport tourism activity, an emerging cultural cluster, all-season family orientated recreation, and an attractive outdoor activity offering.”
“These are very strong assets that can be leveraged for growth,” it added.
On the other hand, the plan said there’s no coordinated regional tourism strategy. Tourism is currently “siloed” resulting in “a fragmented regional tourism sector that has limited engagement and direction, and lacks a collective voice.”
It said there’s no well-developed regional market access strategy, tourism strategy and no clear lead organization to grow tourism.
"There is a lack of understanding of the benefits of tourism activities and the tourism product that exists is not in a format that is easily consumable by visitors (i.e. it is not connected, packaged, promoted or developed),” the plan says.
