Council Receives Park Provisioning Master Plan Progress Report, Feedback to Help Refine How Burlington Acquires Parkland

Council approved receiving a progress report from staff at our June 21 meeting on Burlington's Park Provisioning Master Plan. Overall, this progress report provides a preliminary analysis of current service levels for review and the feedback received will be used to refine the method in which the City acquires parkland in the future.The purpose of this progress report was to provide Council with an overview of the status of the Park Provisioning Master Plan and its relationship to legislative context and how it aligns with our City's other technical studies.The final Park Provisioning Master Plan will be presented to Council in September 2022 -- and it will provide an assessment of current parkland service levels, guidelines and recommendations on the acquisition of parkland in the short-, medium- and long-term and decision-making methodology for future parkland acquisition.Below are links to the related staff report and appendices -- for general overview of this report and key initial findings from the Park Provisioning Master Plan, please scroll further down this post:

• Staff report: ES-05-22 Park Provisioning Master Plan - Progress Report
• Appendices:
  • Appendix A - Park Provisioning Master Plan Progress Report - April 2022
  • Appendix B - - Recreation and Cultural Facilities Master Plan Update
  • Appendix C - Parks Level of Service, Provisioning & Acquisition Policies – Benchmarking & Best Practices Review

MY TAKE:We definitely need more parks and greenspace to serve the needs of our growing community. We are 12 years ahead of the Province’s growth schedule, but we haven’t started adding new parks or greenspace to accommodate the coming growth of our city until very recently. The recent purchase of Lion’s Club Park, and the proposed acquisition of the Robert Bateman High School site and its track, are good starts. We need to ensure we strengthen our partnerships with providers within our community to help with attaining future parks/greenspace.We still have some work to do to reach the targets outlined in our plan for park proximity and amount. I’m personally looking for the highest amount of amenities with the lowest walking distance to those. Outdoor recreation is so critically important for people’s mental health and their physical activity. Though the challenges are great, we’re in a position to enter the next phase of our growing community. I thank our staff for the work they’ve done, and I know more is to come. I appreciate the look at other municipalities to see what they’re doing and their targets. Burlington can set a gold standard for parks and that should be our goal.

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General Overview of Report:To provide Council with an overview of the status of the Park Provisioning Master Plan and an insight into what to expect as a final deliverable, this Council report ES-05-22 contains a summary of work to date included as Appendix A – Park Provisioning Master Plan Progress Report. This progress report provides a summary of background context and analysis completed to date. Further analysis and refinement will continue and be incorporated into the final document.This progress report includes a summary of the legislative context guiding parkland acquisition within the City of Burlington and outlines existing challenges and opportunities such as parcel fragmentation and changing trends that influence parkland dedication and acquisition.Parkland service level comparisons across 18 different Canadian municipalities have been included in this report. The municipalities provide a cross section of locations across the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario and Canada.The parkland supply methodology and service level sections outline different methods to calculate parkland service levels and the components of the proposed parkland dedication methodology. The proposed methodology focuses on parkland walkability, functions to assess the requirement of parkland dedication, and several additional contextual metrics to consider. By testing different methodologies within different contexts, it will be possible to create a unique set of criteria for different geographic areas of Burlington. This progress report also introduces functional analysis assessment as a method to help determine parkland dedication as well as potential recreational needs.A review of Burlington’s parks classification system is included along with preliminary changes to the parks classification system with consideration given to the anticipated growth and redevelopment of the City. New park classification types are proposed to be more reflective of increased urban growth as forecast to 2041.Key Initial Findings in Park Provisional Master Plan:

1. Park Provisioning - Calculating the hectares of parkland per 1,000 residents (or as square meters per individual person) is a common measure because it provides a quick, high-level summary of the amount of parkland provided for a particular population across a geographic area, such as a city or planning area. Parkland area amounts per population do not provide an indication of the where parks are located within a city, and whether they are accessible by residents or equitability distributed across a municipality. An emerging best practice is to also measure provision by assessing the distribution and accessibility of parkland to residents. The final plan will provide measures by per 1,000 residents as well as distribution and accessibility.
2. Infrastructure Planning - As population growth in Burlington will be directed to the existing urban areas through intensification and infill development, the downward pressures on existing parkland service levels will make it difficult to maintain or improve upon the existing park provisioning rates. Failing to keep park provisioning rates in line with the Region’s future growth projections will result in increased use, reduced life cycles, and increased maintenance and renewal costs of Burlington’s existing parkland infrastructure. The addition of new parkland requires infrastructure to be built that has net capital and operating costs associated with it. There is a need to consider not only the upfront capital costs of the infrastructure needed to support services related to new development, but also of the ongoing operating and maintenance and eventual renewal costs borne by the City, which are substantial and uneven over time.
3. Park Dedication Tools - In addition to the various mechanisms that are currently being utilized to acquire additional parkland for Burlington residents, the City will continue to explore additional opportunities to increase the public park system using methodologies from comparable municipalities throughout Ontario and Canada.
4. Park Access – Potential infrastructure solutions will be explored and recommended where park catchments would be greatly improved. The solutions could include linear park connections, pedestrian and cycling bridges, and sidewalk and pathway connections.
5. Large Sports Fields - Burlington’s existing supply of recreational fields serves current demand from residents and compares relatively favourably to neighbouring municipalities. However, it is expected that pressure on the existing recreational field service level will increase with continued expected population growth to 2041, primarily in built-up urban areas, and high anticipated usage from both organized groups and programs, and through increasing informal/unscheduled play. The increased development of Burlington’s urban areas may cause difficulties in achieving significant amounts of programmable parkland through on-site parkland dedication, due to the limited size of most parcel boundaries.