Belleville’s Parks and Open Space department is inviting all Belleville residents to the virtual open house. Photo Courtesy of City Hall Facebook page
BELLEVILLE – The city of Belleville is holding a virtual open house on April 22 where the public will get its say on three proposed community park upgrades.
In its capital budget deliberations in December 2020, city council approved upgrades for Hague Park, Stanley Parkette, and Cascade Park.
The virtual open house being held will feature the two top designs for each of the three parks. They will be presented during the meeting and will provide every resident an option on voting for their preferred options for the community parks.
“We are excited to share some of the information and feedback received from the online surveys during the open house,” said Rowland Cave, head supervisor of the parks initiative.
According to Cave, these three parks bring a lot of different upgrades that will be completely different from the norm.
“In Cascade Park, we identified that 30 per cent of the people of the residents in that area were of Asian and southeast Asian descent so the directive to the playground design-build companies is to include that into the design. Hague Park has a large number of children in the age of 7 to 13 but there is also a fairly significant population of 13 to 19-year-olds,” said Cave.
“So we decided to make this a theme park: the Belleville ninja warrior. It’s more of an obstacle course type of playground. That will be something completely different and new.”
“With Stanley Park, the aim is to have adult play equipment or exercise equipment in it. Adult playgrounds is an emerging activity for parklands and so we desire to put some of that into this location and in our directive for the request for proposal if it is approved,” said Cave.
Tyler Allsopp is the newest person on council and a member of the city’s planning advisory committee.
“I think our city is really changing. We have people coming from all different walks of life and different parts of the world and a lot of these changes relate to new legislations around safety and accessibility, making our parks more inviting to all people from different walks of life. I think that is what is important and beneficial for our city in terms of these parks upgrades,” said Allsopp in an interview with QNet News.
Allsopp is the father of a young girl and he and his wife are expecting twins in May.
“As a father, I think being able to spend that quality time with your kids and doing activities that they are really going to enjoy, creating memories that you will remember for a lifetime … most of that which happens during active play, really leaves a mark on kids,” said Allsopp.
“When you have kids it sort of opens your eyes to newer exciting things and you start to see the world through a new lens. That is why I really want to change and progress on building these parks and bring more active, interesting things for people to do in the community,” he said.
“To be able to give these better parks and facilities to the community is going to benefit everyone’s kids but especially those in a harder place financially. These parks remain free and are open to the general public.”
Residents interested in taking part in the upcoming open house meeting are asked to register online and keep an eye out for any new updates and information release on the city playground upgrade project page.
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