Ladner sport user groups have identified Dugald Morrison Park as the ideal location for a new artificial turf field.
Parks and recreation director Ken Kuntz told the Optimist the groups have been consulted about suitable locations and the often-soggy park near Delta Hospital is the favoured choice.
Before a recommendation goes to Delta's parks, recreation and culture commission, which must come up with a formal recommendation for Delta council to consider, the user groups were asked to state their preference in writing.
Earlier this summer, council agreed to start a discussion with user groups about adding another synthetic turf playing surface somewhere in Ladner.
At the time, Coun. Robert Campbell, who chairs the commission, said it was a particularly wet winter that saw Ladner fields closed to play twice as often as fields in the other two communities. He also noted rehabilitating fields with new drainage works would be cost pro-hibitive.
Ladner has one artificial turf field at Holly Park, while Tsawwassen also has one and North Delta has two.
At a commission meeting in August, members were provided an overview of potential locations for a second field in Ladner. Holly, Cromie and Dugald Morrison parks were identified as the three most viable options.
As far as how much a new turf playing field would cost, Kuntz said it would depend entirely on the scale of the project, pegging the price tag at anywhere from $2.5 million to $4.5 million.
"We are looking for the sport user groups to put in a contribution, similar to what happened in Tsawwassen. We're talk-ing about 10 per cent of the value of the project," he said.
The next steps include talking with the user groups to discuss how the funding component should work, said Kuntz.
He added a new turf field wouldn't impact the large, sand-based baseball field at Dugald Morrison Park, but could affect the other ball diamond.
