The City of Delta wants to turn John Oliver Park into a premier multi-sport tournament complex 鈥� but it may face an uphill battle to get its plans through the Agricultural Land Commission.
The 20-hectare park is located in East Delta, bounded by Highway 99, Highway 91 and Ladner Trunk Road, central to the city's three main population centres.
"Given the park's large footprint and central location, it has been the subject of previous development plans and remains the city's most promising opportunity for the development of a large multi-sport tournament complex," said a report from Josh Turner, the city's general manger of parks, recreation and culture.
Right now the park includes four natural grass fields primarily used for football, soccer and rugby, plus an "aged" fieldhouse, a rugby clubhouse, parking and a nursery supporting the city's horticulture department.
Turner made a presentation to Delta city council on Monday, July 28, outlining the city's vision to develop a new master plan for the park. Ultimately, the city wants to see it become a hub for outdoor athletics and sports tournaments, with more fields and facilities for a wider array of sports.
The presentation outlined three possible concepts for the park, each with a different arrangement of fields and facilities. All three concepts retain existing football, soccer and rugby fields, adding in different configurations of fields and facilities including one or more cricket pitches, mini soccer fields, pickleball courts, baseball diamonds and multi-use artificial turf fields.
The city plans to take all three concepts out for feedback in a community engagement process.
JoAnne Kleb, the city's manager of engagement, told council that the city's discussions so far have been with sports groups; now the city needs to "cast a much wider net" to make sure residents are aware of the city's plans for John Oliver Park 鈥� as well as for a broader sports field needs assessment that the city is also undertaking.
Kleb said the city will continue to work with the sports groups to ensure its vision meets the needs for a competition hub.
But the city also plans to broaden the conversation to include farmers, through the city's agriculture advisory committee, since the park is adjacent to farms and includes land currently in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
The city will also reach out to the business community, she said, noting Tourism Delta has long identified sports as a great opportunity from a tourism perspective.
Plus, she said, the city also needs to reach out to the broader Delta community.
"This is an exciting piece of work, and we really need to make sure they're aware of and supportive of where we're headed," she said.
Turner and Kleb noted the city will need to deal with two major institutional pieces: discussions with the Ministry of Transportation to improve access to the park site, and an application to the Agricultural Land Commission for non-farm use of the full park site.
The park is currently included in the ALR, with a non-farm-use exemption that allows active recreation uses for the eastern portion of the park. The City of Delta has made several applications to the ALC since acquiring the park, leading to the current non-farm uses, but part of the site hasn't been approved for active recreation because of the ALC's assessment of the site's "good agricultural potential," Turner's report noted.
"Full activation of the site for active recreation purposes will require approval of a non-farm use application by the ALC," the report said.
The need for ALC approval raised warnings from more than one member of council.
Coun. Dylan Kruger questioned how far the city would go in its engagement process before it has an answer from the ALC. He pointed out that if the ALC says no, the city's efforts could be redundant, and questioned whether the city has a sense of what the timeline will be with the commission.
"We've seen these ALC processes can go years sometimes," he warned.
Turner said he couldn't provide a timeline but promised that the city will begin those talks "very quickly" and report back to council with a sense of where the city is at.
Mayor George Harvie noted that with regard to the undeveloped part of the park, there was a commitment by previous council not to touch that, so he warned it could be a "challenge" to gain ALC approval. He said the city also knows ALC processes can take a long time.
"We need to ensure that we have a good strategy to make that happen, but it shouldn't stop us from looking at the rest of the property," he said.
Councillors approved three recommendations with regard to the plan, directing staff to proceed with community engagement on the master plan concepts; to begin the application process with the Agyricultural Land Commission; and to engage with the Ministry of Transportation on access improvements to the park.
