Concerned Area Residents Question the Aberdeen Sports Complex Vision

A number of Coldstream residents are questioning the recent press releases and the entire concept for the proposed Aberdeen sports complex. The Greater Vernon Outdoor Sports User Group recently compared their vision for the Aberdeen site to Ambleside Park in West Vancouver.

"Ambleside Park is drastically different than the proposal for a stadium and multiple playing fields being put forth for the Aberdeen property", commented Penny Thorlakson. "The majority of Ambleside Park is devoted to beach front access and a seawall walkway. There are a few sports fields, but no permanent structures such as stadiums or bleachers. The park is located in a large metropolitan area and not in a rural community."

"It is also important to note that the sports field portion of the West Vancouver Park is built on a marshy area where people used to dump refuse", said Gyula Kiss. "They didn't build on high quality soil, like the Aberdeen land. This is a far cry from ripping out land, which can support a wide variety of crops out of the Agricultural Land Reserve to build a sports complex."

"Once large quantities of sand and rock are placed on the Aberdeen land to prepare it for sports fields, the farm land will be lost forever" continued Maria Besso-Ockert. "The changing of the land to non farm use status also then opens up the possibility of housing. Note that the 160 unit Coldstream Meadows development is on ALR non farm use land"

Aside from agricultural issues, some residents are also concerned with the misperception about the proposed complex. "We constantly hear that this park is for the kids, but a solution truly geared to kids would be placing sports fields closer to neighborhoods, and not centralizing all sports in one mega site way out of town" commented Joanne Osborn. She feels that the proposed development is being sold as a park, but in reality it is development geared towards Funtastic and sports tourism.

"The vision unveiled by the Greater Vernon Outdoor Sports User Group this summer was not for a park, but for multiple playing fields, a stadium, and 1,000 parking spaces. Walking trails were mentioned in the press, but this was for a completely different location along the Grey Canal parallel to Buchanan Road. GVSC bundled the Aberdeen and Grey Canal proposals together, but Coldstream Council separated the proposals at the September meeting and passed the Grey Canal concept." Osborn believes that the current press release from the Sports User Group is now just claiming to include family friendly structures for picnicking and non-sport leisure activities at the Aberdeen development to ease public concern.

Many residents, like Denice Berlinski, are also concerned that there hasn't been a professional independent review for the needs of the user groups. "Mayor Gary Corner and some sporting groups pushed this issue to the forefront without any concern for the Coldstream community plan", said Denice Berlinski. She goes on to point out that the Greater Vernon Services Master Parks Plan states that there is a very high field to person ratio in Vernon when compared to other B.C. communities. "Coldstream has 18% of the population and 27% of the sports fields, not counting Coldstream's resources for lacrosse, ball hockey, skateboarding, beach volleyball and tennis."

However, if user groups still feel the need to build more fields, many Coldstream residents question why the proposed rubber track cannot be added to the future site of Vernon Secondary, similar to the site at Penticton Secondary, or that a football stadium can't be built as a stand alone structure/field, and that current sporting and school fields be upgraded. "We don't believe that all avenues have been seriously exhausted. Greater Vernon Services and the Greater Vernon Outdoor Sports Group want a monstrous complex for tournaments and are putting out the notion that this is our only option and chance to have better sports fields. It's not," added Patrick Tymkiw, a concerned Coldstream resident.

Coldstream residents head to the polls on December 15th to vote on whether or not to send an application to the Agriculture Land Commission for non-farm use on the property.