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PARKS AND RECREATION

Sierra Planning and Management has undertaken numerous feasibility assessments for community ice arenas, community centres, libraries and sports fields, and conducted master plans to guide forward planning for facilities, parks and open space and services.

Effective management and funding of parks and open spaces is a hallmark of successful communities – from the scale of individual neighbourhoods to entire cities.  We have helped a range of communities across Canada develop best-in-class approaches to the management of parks, forestry, open spaces, and waterfronts.  We have assisted many of the municipalities that have shorelines on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River/Seaway.

Facilities also offer a glimpse into community pride and vision.  Our master plans developed for facilities, services, parks and waterfronts are based on a foundation of principles established in each community as a result consultation, engagement and consensus-building.

We are experts in the economics and planning of new state-of-the-art multi-use sports and entertainment centres in Canada and have been involved in a number of signature projects. We provide a number of signature projects and provide a range of integrated services to help municipalities determine the relative costs and benefits of such significant investment: this includes planning for appropriate scale, securing the location which will yield maximum economic gain to the surrounding business community, rigorous analysis of the events market and innovative funding strategies tax incremental funding from associated commercial, hotel and convention and residential development.

We also assist clients in assessing the general market potential for entertainment spending, defining market areas, and assessing the viability of individual entertainment projects or facilities. We assist municipalities and others in the assessment of economic impacts of entertainment spending.

Specific services include:

  • Spectator events centre planning and implementation
  • Design and execution of project management to select design, development, funding and operational partners
  • Negotiation of license agreements, leases, concessions
  • Line of business operational assessment
  • Master planning and design
  • Community needs and priority setting
  • Parks design

Our Projects

2018 City of Penticton Arenas Task Force

Sierra Planning and Management led a multi-disciplinary team in the cost-benefit assessment of arena needs and possible capital expenditure solutions (both new development and repurposing existing rinks). Specifically, the study’s purpose was to inform the deliberations of the City’s Arena Task Force, providing a series of recommendations and next steps. In order to provide this, the team undertook a review of background materials and trends, developed facility options complete with site servicing requirements, facilitated public consultation activities, assessed the site impacts / opportunities and requirements, as well as developed capital costs and a phasing strategy for implementation.

2015 Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Recreation and Community Facilities Master Plan

Sierra Planning and Management developed a 10-year plan for the Regional Municipality focusing on the needs of each community throughout this region of almost 62,000 square km. Needs, priorities and service standards differed between the Urban Service Area of Fort McMurray and the Rural Service Area. The latter, comprising communities such as Fort Chipewyan, Fort McKay, Janvier South and Conklin, also include the large non-permanent, or shadow, populations centred around the Athabasca Oil Sands industry. Our role was to identify and respond to these needs with solutions that maintained existing commitments to each community, projected needs (prior to the May 2016 wildfire) and created a community development model of community facility and services support based on clear policy and financial outcomes.

2018 & 2022 Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville Leisure and Community Services Master Plan and Master Plan Update

Whitchurch-Stouffville is one of the fastest growing communities in the GTA and Canada and expected to require significant investment in infrastructure over the next 20 years. Sierra Planning and Management developed a Master Plan to guide future municipal investment in facilities (parks and amenities, cultural facilities, sports fields, etc.) parks and recreation programs and services (partnerships, volunteers, etc.) over the next 10 years. The Master Plan provides recommendations to Town Council and staff for sustainable future development, redevelopment, on‐going maintenance and enhancement of Whitchurch-Stouffville’s parkland resources, open spaces/natural environment, recreation facilities, and recreation programs and services. Questions as to how to appropriate this investment given the relatively small urban area situated in a largely rural context (at present) will need to be considered in the identification of future site for new builds and/or the strategic replacement of existing assets. The City retained Sierra Planning and Management to update the Master Plan in 2022.

2019 City of Kingston Recreation Master Plan

Kingston is one of the largest municipalities in Ontario by geographic area, comprising a defined urban core consisting of the existing City, the westward expansion of the City (formerly Kingston Township), and rural communities north of Highway 401. Investment in transportation infrastructure, including the new Third Crossing of the Great Cataraqui River will fuel future demand for services and facilities in the City. As the City’s advisors, our job was to create a plan for Kingston’s future based on population and employment growth, higher service expectations in each neighbourhood, as well as better, more varied and new forms of public parks and gathering space.

In a City with a significant natural heritage system, a major goal was to tie recreation and parks planning into the City’s objectives for active transportation, accessibility, waterfront development and reduced carbon footprint associated with municipal assets.