Plan Your Parks - Kitchissippi Parks Participatory Plan

Plan Questionnaire Discussion Resources

The Kitichissippi Ward is gifted with a large amount of parks and recreational facilities that are highly utilized by residents for walks, sports, exercise, and enjoying the summer sun with friends and family, including pets. The funds necessary to maintain and improve these parks are divided among these many community treasures in an effort to keep all parks green, safe, and useful. To ensure that these parks are being maintained and improved in ways that residents find valuable, Councillor Jeff Leiper welcomes you to take part in the Kitchissippi Parks Participatory Plan.

The Cash-in-lieu of Parkland Fund can be used to improve or purchase parkland at the Councillor's discretion. Improvements can include simple ideas like more seating or lighting, or they can include more elaborate infrastructure like splash-pads and field houses. Though funds are limited and divided among a large number of parks and projects, Councillor Jeff Leiper is looking to residents for how they would like to plan the next six years of Parkland expenses.

Goals of the Consultation

This in-depth consultation will help develop a course of action for how to improve parkland over the next  six years. No matter how great these parks already are, some require improvements to invite more community use and perhaps creating additional green space would also help to improve access for all residents.  If you have ideas on how parks in Kitchissippi can be improved come out to the participatory sessions to envision, discuss, and prioritize how these ideas can be implemented. 

The accurate and innovative nature of the consultation findings will be improved by each additional participant. We would like to invite all Kitchissippi Ward residents who use the greenspace of the ward to come out and have their say. Tell your friends and neighbours that there is currently an opportunity to participating in the planning for parkland development.

Once again, your participation throughout each of these rounds will help your ideas transition from an idea to a plan. The session facilitator and city staff will work together to give participants feedback on their proposals to ensure participants are informed about projects that are indeed doable. The location and scheduling of the sessions is meant to allow for full participation throughout the process. Each round of sessions is unique and builds upon the findings of the last, as explained below.

We have provided this online tool for those who are not able to join the in-person session. We welcome your contributions and invite you to consider attending the in-person sessions. 

Fund Being Accessed

While the fund being accessed presents an opportunity to pay focused attention to the importance of greenspace, the mandate of this fund also sets out some constraints. First of all, this fund is part of the "capital budget". This means that an eligible project must entail a one-time expense and not require additional servicing. Additional servicing would require access to the counterpart of the capital budget, which is called the "operational budget". Capital expenses can include maintenance and repair, purchasing new equipment, improvement of existing equipment, research, or purchasing of parkland.

Eligible projects include:

• Acquisition and development of land for public park purposes 
• Provision of park facilities, such as play equipment, sports fields and pathways 
• Provision of recreation facilities, such as community centres, indoor pools and arenas.
• Increasing the capacity of existing public parks and/or recreation facilities to accommodate more intensive public use, such as the expansion or upgrading of program spaces in community centres, indoor pools and arenas
• The non-growth component of growth-related capital projects, for Parks Development and Recreation Facilities, identified in the City’s Development Charges Background Study
• Repair, renewal of fixed recreation and park assets
• Projects within prioritized forecasts or workplans of scheduled works identified as part of renewal planning and programming undertaken in accordance with the City's Comprehensive Asset Management Policy but unfunded as part of the current year's normal budget

Ineligible Projects include:

• Any non-capital costs (studies, ongoing operations, maintenance. etc).
• Any project that will require operating budgets.
• Any costs associated with the acquisition of non-fixed or portable recreational assets
• Any cost or work associated with facilities or property not owned by the City.
• Any capital project associated with facilities operated through a public private partnership to deliver City recreational services.
• Any capital project associated with land that is not a public park or being used for recreational purposes.
• Plaques, engravings, etc. acknowledging the funding source as a cash-in-lieu of parkland account are not permitted on items with a total value of less than $10,000.

Cash-in-lieu of parkland means the payment of funds instead of the provision of land for park purposes as part of a development. A focus on green space is ensured by a community design plan that ensures developers (residential or commercial) consider the greenspace and outdoor infrastructure that should complement such development. If the provision, or "conveyence", of greenspace or parkland is not practical or necessary, developers can provide cash instead. The amount of cash paid in-lieu of parkland is calculated as a portion of the value of the land being developed.

As payments are made into this account the fund is divided between city-wide and ward-specific purposes: 40% of the fund is under the discretion of city council and 60% of the fund is under the discretion of the ward Councillor. This fund will continue to grow over the next six years and this consultation will help set out a participatory plan on how these funds can be distributed among eligible projects. 

There are also other existing funds that can be used for the purposes of improving and maintaining parkland. This consultation will be focusing on the Cash-in-lieu of Parkland Fund but will also consider how these other funds can be used to accomplish desired improvements. 

Please visit the City of Ottawa webpage on Parkland Fund Policy to learn more about what projects are eligible for this account.

Structure and Schedule of the Sessions

This in-depth consultation is much like the consultation that was recently done for the redesign of Reid Park. The Re-Shaping Reid consultation invited all residents of the ward to come and discuss how the Cash-in-lieu of Parkland Fund could be used to improve this park. After discussing a wide range of ideas, a collective decision was made based on cost-estimates provided by Parks and Recreation staff. The main difference is that the Kitchissippi Parks Plan will draw from the fund in order to plan improvements for any designated parkland in the ward. 

This Kitchissippi Parks Plan will be composed of a three-round sequence of sessions. To ensure these sessions are accessible to residents, there will be a weekend and an evening session for each round. These rounds are meant to help identify the ideas that residents have, develop them into feasible proposals, and prioritize how these proposals will be financed through the Cash-in-lieu of Parkland Fund. 

The first round of sessions will foster a discussion on general themes of interest and needs for parklands in the ward. The discussion will then move on to specific ideas and locations. Participants will discuss these ideas with each other to develop a very clear idea on what specific improvements are necessary. These specific ideas will be recorded and we will make an attempt to get a sense of how these ideas line-up in terms of priority. The end goal of this session is to have a list of initial ideas and themes, which will be further specified in the second round of sessions.

The second round of sessions will provide feedback from city staff on the ideas proposed so far. We will discuss which ideas are eligible, what other funds may be accessed, and how much eligible projects are estimated to cost. This will allow participants to have an informed conversation about which ideas matter most, which ideas might not be feasible, as well as any new ideas that participants have. This round will provide a complete list of themes of interest and specific ideas. The end goal of this session is to have a confirmed list of themes of interest, a more specific list of ideas for improvements, and to begin the conversation of how these specific ideas can be prioritized and funded over the next six years.

The third round of sessions will provide further feedback on the ideas proposed in the first two rounds. This will allow participants to discuss the urgency of the eligible projects to develop a sense of priority among the many ideas being discussed. Participants will also discuss how the fund can be divided among large-scale projects, small-scale projects, land acquisition, and contingency. This discussion will help to develop not only what projects residents are interested in but how they will be implemented. The end goal of this session is to have the information necessary to put together a six year plan on how the Cash-in-lieu of Parkland Fund can be used to improve Kitchissippi parkland in a way that residents find valuable.

Your consistent participation will help develop this plan in an accurate and informative manner. Please attend and encourage your friends and neighbours to attend a session in each round.