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DNV Council Likely to Postpone Plans for Artificial Football Pitches
Members of the North Vancouver football community are furious after long-awaited plans for more artificial turf pitches were pushed back
The District of North Vancouver is likely to push back long-awaited construction plans for a series of artificial-turf soccer fields, a prospect that has left the local soccer community reeling.
On January 30, the Council met to discuss which projects would be retained and which would be shelved under the annual budgets.
On the hold list was the construction of a full-size artificial turf field at Inter River Park, a project originally proposed in 2018, and two other field projects that would see the conversion of gravel fields to turf at Kilmer and Myrtle parks.
The Ecole Handsworth Secondary, for which the municipality has campaigned intensively for the installation of an artificial turf, was noticeably absent from the plans.
“The fact that Handsworth wasn’t even on the agenda is a misdemeanor,” said Jana Madill, chief executive of North Shore Girls Soccer Club.
“Every school should have the same facilities, and every other high school has turf. The fact that it wasn’t even considered was a shame.”
In 2018, the council voted to replace Inter River’s grass field, a former landfill site with an uneven surface and associated drainage issues, with artificial turf. The new artificial field would feature field lighting, a practice area, a new washroom, and new paved parking lots and sidewalks.
Last year the council said construction would begin in 2023.
“There should be a greater willingness to expand recreational facilities for a growing community,” said Stuart Ince, president of North Vancouver Football Club.
Ince said 33 per cent of the club – equivalent to 1,100 players – are currently training on all-weather gravel pitches.
“Both the boys’ and girls’ clubs stuff kids on the small grass we have, still more than a third of the boys have to practice on gravel,” he said. “Neither the district nor the city has paid scant attention to the public’s outdoor recreation needs. In terms of the ratio of registered children playing soccer to the number of grass pitches, we are the worst of all municipalities,” he said.
During the Council’s preliminary budget discussion, Coun. Catherine Pope expressed concern that artificial turf for Handsworth was not mentioned in the budget, “despite promises made by most members of this council during the campaign,” she said.
“Our mission is to meet the needs of the community, and putting on hold, postponing, or canceling all of these projects that people have been telling us they want for years would, in my opinion, be irresponsible — and a complete failure of our commitment to this community,” she said.
count. Herman Mah repeated the statement, adding that as a father to a young daughter who is involved in sports, he understands the importance for the community of having “appropriate and nearby” sports facilities.
In the current budget, homeowners expect a 4.5 percent increase in municipal property taxes for 2023. Adding more capital projects, such as turf fields, would push that tax increase higher.
Mayor Mike Little said he sympathizes with those campaigning for projects that are likely to be postponed, but unfortunately it’s a necessary part of budget planning.
“If we want to move a project forward, we have to select a project to defer. That’s the hard stuff,” he said. “That’s the stuff the Council doesn’t want to take a project away from, but we don’t have the capacity to do everything that comes our way.”
He said the District of North Vancouver has around $90 million worth of projects in the queue but only the capacity to move forward with around $65 million worth of projects.
A concrete decision will not be made until after February 13, when the official budget book is published, and after a public input period between February 13 and March 6. Feedback on the budget can be submitted throughout the year to [email protected]
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the Indigenous and Civic Affairs reporter for North Shore News. This reporting cycle is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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