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Access issues delay work at John Oliver

Municipality has extensive plans for recently expanded East Delta park

The provincial government's reluctance to allow John Oliver Park to have a new entrance is proving to be a stumbling block for improvements to the site.

Delta has been working on its own master plan for the 20-hectare (50-acre) East Delta park ever since a proposed partnership with the Vancouver Whitecaps fell through over a year ago.

Over the summer, boards highlighting a new plan were displayed at civic facilities. The municipality has already acquired four smaller adjacent parcels to increase the park's footprint and allow for greater sports field development.

The Ministry of Transportation, however, would not concur with an engineering department plan to improve the entrance to the park.

"Our dilemma here is that there's lots of needs for sports fields upgrades, but at John Oliver the dilemma is still the same. We're looking at intersection upgrades before we do park improvements," said parks and recreation director Ken Kuntz.

"We do have a new plan for that park but it's not proceeding until we decide what we can do with the intersection. We've hadn't had a whole lot of luck with the Ministry of Transportation asking them to sign off on the improvements."

The main entrance/exit to the park is off Ladner Trunk Road, which isn't necessarily the most ideal access if improvements were to bring more people.

Even though Ladner Trunk Road is a municipal responsibility, the government's approval for any changes is required due to the proximity to Highway 91.

Kuntz said there's no immediate pressure to expand John Oliver Park and the focus for the time being is the series of improvements Delta council recently approved for Ladner fields.

The other priority is the expansion of the North Delta Recreation Centre, he said.

As far as activities taking place now at John Oliver Park, Kuntz said it's well utilized for soccer, football and rugby.

"We've got four very good fields there. The new fields that were built by the rugby group (Ex-Britannia/ Red Lions Athletic Association) are excellent fields. They drain well and take a lot of use. But ultimately, is that a place where you can put further synthetic turf fields - absolutely," he said.

The Whitecaps had pitched a $31 million plan for the park, which included a clubhouse for national and professional players, a training facility and seven new fields. Five fields would have been used by the Whitecaps with two for community uses. The two sides came to a tentative agreement, eventually signing a memorandum of understanding.

During the provincial election campaign in 2009, then premier Gordon Campbell made a stop in South Delta pledging $17.5 million for the project.

However, community access turned out to be an issue Delta and the Whitecaps couldn't resolve.

The Whitecaps agreement, at least, compelled Delta to acquire the site because the municipality, until three years ago, didn't own the park, instead leasing it from the province.

"One of the great things about the Whitecaps deal is that we had a lease from the province. The lease had excellent buy-out terms and it forced us to move on that quicker than we needed to, but it guaranteed ownership in the municipality's hands," Kuntz said.

He noted Delta paid around $700,000 to purchase John Oliver Park outright because the lease payments until that point were applied toward the purchase.

sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com