Mission council received its first look at a potential destination spray park for 9104 Emiry St. on Tuesday (Feb. 20).
“What’s really good about this, most importantly, is it gives us a point at which discussion can begin,” Mission Mayor Paul Horn said.
Parks and Recreation director Louis Dauphin presented initial concepts and potential costs for the project at the latest meeting. The plan presented by Dauphin would separate the construction of the park into two phases.
The first phase would include the spray park, picnic tables, lighting, trails, a barbecue area, roughly 30 parking spaces, and washroom facilities. The initial phase would also require land clearing and the removal of an existing building. The second phase proposes an expanded parking lot, a basketball court, a playground and a dog park.
The proposed spray park would cost roughly $4.8 million with $1.5 million already earmarked for the project via the $8.8 million Growing Communities Fund provided to the city by the province.
After the presentation, council expressed a desire to maintain trees in the park rather than clearing large portions.
“When I spoke about the vision of this park, having that natural setting … with those natural trees is extremely important. We don’t need to clear this whole thing. We just need to clear pockets of it and try to incorporate that natural forest and work alongside forestry,” Coun. Angel Elias said.
Elias also advocated for a recirculating water system because of the water restrictions often in effect during the summer. According to the presentation, the recirculating system costs $300,000 more than the alternative.
The Emiry Street location was purchased by the city in 2022. Dauphin said the land is neighboured by active development applications and could be surrounded by construction in the coming years.
Coun. Jag Gill entertained the possibility of expanding the spray park in phases since a future school could potentially provide other proposed amenities.
“I think as we build this waterpark out, it’s going to be at capacity from day one,” Gill said. “So maybe if we’re not putting [in] these dog parks are these basketball courts and we’re looking at the larger vision that the school site is going to put in those playgrounds and it’s going to complement this park really well, that future phases talk about expanding that water park,” Gill said.
Coun. Mark Davies hopes the park will be geared for use outside of the summer as well. Horn was also curious about different ways of phasing the spray park in smaller chunks to spread out the cost.
The city is targeting 2025 for the completion of phase one.
“I just want to ensure that we’re aggressive on that 2025 timeline for at least the spray park component because I hear from a lot of families that go to the existing one that are saying it’s at capacity on a sunny day,” Gill said.
The next step for the city is to bring the project to the public for consultation. Horn hopes many people will participate in the public engagements in the coming months.
READ MORE: Emiry Street identified as location for new Mission spray park
ALSO: Mission to buy $4.5 million property for park space ahead of Cedar Valley development
