WEST Vancouver will be hatching a plan to address funding shortfalls, overcrowding, and other issues facing the municipality's sports fields, according to a recommendation passed by council Sept. 19.
The three-year implementation strategy, which may include potentially controversial elements such as the sale of field naming rights to generate funds, was tabled by the West Vancouver field sport forum working group, an 11-member organization appointed by council to liaise with user groups to help identify areas of need in the years ahead.
At a crowded evening meeting, the group outlined a range of challenges facing the community's grass, gravel and artificial turf surfaces. One the biggest was the fact that far more people are using many of the fields than they were intended to support, according to the report.
"During a typical winter month, the artificial turf fields are being used two-and-a-half times more than their capacity," said working group chairwoman Mary Jo Campbell.
In addition to the shortage of capacity - especially during the week night peak hours of 5-9 p.m. and on weekends - Campbell said users must also deal with the deterioration of the grass playing surfaces, longer playing seasons and an overall rise in demand as a result of increased adult participation in field sports.
In an overview of the working group's 50page report, the sport field master plan (SFMP), Campbell pitched a series of recommendations to council, including the retention of all of the fields in the municipality's inventory and plans to work with field sports groups to raise the funds to do so.
The master plan, which has been in development since January 2010, is intended to serve as a guide for future decisions regarding the community's sports fields over the next 10 years.
The 50-page report covers everything from the benefit of sports to an analysis of field allocation, and will form the foundation of the three-year strategy slated to considered before Council in 2012.
Coun. Michael Lewis asked for assurances that council will have an opportunity to review and reflect on all recommendations, such as the consideration of sponsorship by businesses, which may include potential naming and sign opportunities, before final approval. He urged staff to provide early guidance to the working group with respect to the direction that council would like to see the forum go.
"I would hate to see a group developing a budget based on an assumption that naming rights would be something that council would be supportive of, because I think a field - like the Rutledge Field at Ambleside - is very different from coming around and saying, 'Well, you know, let's rename John Richardson Park the Esso Centre'," said Lewis.
Councillors applauded the level of cooperation demonstrated by the working group in the creation of its report.
"I think this is really quite a fundamental and precedentsetting piece of work, and I think West Vancouver is going to get a lot of attention for how we operate in the country and the continent - and we already are," said Mayor Pam GoldsmithJones.
Coun. Trish Panz, who served as a member of the field sports forum working group, also praised the collaborative approach.
"I just can't emphasize enough from the process point of view how three years ago, people really weren't talking, and they are talking now - and what people can achieve when people sit down with common values to find solutions for field sports, which really are an important fabric of our community's long-standing history."
Councillors also supported the staff recommendation that the field sport forum working group continue its role as liaison with user groups.
Responding to concerns raised by Coun. Lewis, however, they suggested it should now look into the possibility of a different governance model better suited to assuming a longterm relationship with the community as plans moves forward.
