When Mayor Patrick Johnstone looks at the Westburnco reservoir, he thinks pickleball.
At its July 8 meeting, council considered a staff recommendation that would give the mayor and corporate officer the authority to renew the license agreement between the City of New Westminster and the Greater Vancouver Water District. The agreement relates to the recreational use of a portion of the Westburnco water reservoir lands.
A staff report said the city has been able to use about 2.5 hectares of land at the site at 200 East 10th Ave. for decades. It’s used for parks and recreational uses, including an off-leash dog area and tennis..
With the 10-year agreement between the GVWD and the city set to expire this month, staff sought council’s support for a letter of intent to renew the license agreement for recreational use of part of the reservoir lands.
A staff report noted that recommendations for the Westburnco reservoir site may come out of the comprehensive parks and recreation planning process that’s now underway.
Johnstone said he’s happy to support the renewal of the agreement that allows the city to continue to use the site. He’s also interested in seeing how that site can be used in the future.
“When I look at Westburnco, I think pickleball,” he said.
Johnstone said the Westburnco tennis courts are not in particularly good shape at this time, but he believes there could be an opportunity to create a “pretty significant" piece of pickleball infrastructure if the city were to reimagine how the existing courts are laid out. He questioned if that’s something that the city would be considering through the parks and recreation planning process.
Corrinne Garrett, the city’s senior manager of recreation services and facilities, said staff are hoping to get some input about that space through the parks and recreation master plann process. She told council it would take “fairly large capital investment” from the city to resurface the space.
“We've had preliminary conversations with the Greater Vancouver Water District, and they are very amenable to considering proposals from us regarding both our site improvements as well as their site improvements that would be required,” she told council.
The current uses on the site have been permitted through a 10-year license of use agreement that expires on July 31. Under that agreement, all improvements made to the site by the city are subject to prior approval from the GVWD.
According to a staff report, the City of New Westminster is required to maintain and repair all recreation and park services-related improvements, landscaping and irrigation systems within the license areas. The GVWD is responsible for maintaining and repairing the reservoir structure, as well as buildings, structures and site improvements not related to the provision of recreation services by the licensee (the City of New Westminster).
Garrett said the city would want to potentially ask for a lease agreement of more than 10 years if it was going to make a large capital investment into the site, to ensure that it’s getting its money’s worth out of potential improvements made to the site.
Garrett said the city has received some input on the site during the engagement related to the update to the parks and recreation master plan.
“The surface repair needs to be completely redone on that surface to make it safe for play,” she added. “People aren't utilizing that site as well as they should be because of certain courts that are of ill repair.”
