Peterborough’s business community has stepped up with a proposal that could potentially address the controversy surrounding the City of Peterborough’s plan to locate 16 pickleball courts in Bonnerworth Park.
Sarah Budd, president and CEO of the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce, emailed a proposal to city council on Thursday (June 27) that suggests the pickleball courts could be located at the site of the former Baskin-Robbins plant on Aylmer Street in downtown Peterborough.
The proposed site, located at the northwest corner of Aylmer and Simcoe streets, is owned by developer Don MacPherson and currently sits vacant.
kawarthaNOW reached out to MacPherson for comment on the proposal but he was unavailable.
In her 12-page proposal, which she supplied to kawarthaNOW, Budd notes the “property is available,” offering enough space for 16 pickleball courts, parking, and greenspace.
Describing the proposal as a win-win-win-win, she listed the following points in favour of the location:
- A much-needed investment in our downtown. Improving the core is pivotal to any successful economic development strategy.
- Pickleball players will get their 16 courts and there will be the potential to dome it over the winter months for year-round play.
- Our downtown businesses need help bringing more people downtown. Tourists and pickleball players will be welcome by neighbouring businesses.
- This would be an extension of the Simcoe and Bethune park that has basketball courts and a small park. There would be room to add a much-needed washrooms and a clubhouse as well.
Further, the proposal suggests “if the entire property was redeveloped with private-public partnerships, an apartment building, like the one at 681 Monaghan (Road), could be built on the rest of the property, potentially with new retail space on the main floor.”
Budd elaborated on the proposal, telling kawarthaNOW, “We are looking outside the box with this proposal.”
“Often, governments spend on individual projects with specific objectives for just that project,” she said. “We want to think bigger. How many boxes can we check with one project that help meet our wider objectives as a community?”
“In this instance, we have the recreational goals of the pickleball courts, but let’s use that spending to also help revitalize our downtown, enhance underutilized properties, provide economic opportunities for local businesses, and create recreational opportunities where they are lacking.”
The proposed site was home to Baskin-Robbins’ plant until it closed in October 2012, with the building demolished in 2020. MacPherson planned to build three apartment buildings with ground-floor commercial space and sought rezoning approval. He applied to the city in 2019 but never heard back.
Although MacPherson decided he wasn’t interested in building apartments when the Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site was created across the street at 220 Simcoe, he still wanted the site rezoned from industrial to commercial-residential to accommodate any future plans.
The property was rezoned in summer 2023 after MacPherson Realty and Monkman Realty went to the Ontario Land Tribunal when the city wouldn’t issue a decision. The hold-up was apparently due to Otonabee Conservation’s work on floodplain planning. It eventually concluded the site could be safely developed without causing flooding.
PDF: Chamber Pickleball Proposal
Chamber Pickleball Proposal
City councillor Alex Bierk, a vocal opponent of the plan to see 16 pickleball courts, an expanded skate park, and a bike pump track developed at Bonnerworth Park, told kawarthaNOW the proposal “looks amazing.”
“My concern is that the proposal is exactly what Councillor (Joy) Lachica wanted to do with her motion — have staff go back to the drawing board and look at alternate locations that were viable,” Bierk said. “That motion was lost. To me, it feels like we’ve already tried to have that conversation, even very mildly, at council without any progress on evaluating other sites.”
That said, Bierk says the proposed location “seems like a great spot,” particularly in terms of its proximity to the basketball courts.
Councillor Lachica first tabled a motion at city council’s April 2nd general committee meeting to delay the Bonnerworth Park redevelopment plan for further consideration and consultation, in response to concerns expressed by neighbouring residents about the impact of noise from the proposed pickleball courts and the loss of greenspace, as well as a lack of consultation on the part of the city.
The motion lost in an 8-3 vote, with only councillors Lachica, Bierk, and Keith Riel voting in favour of delaying the project. The motion was defeated a second time, by the same 8-3 vote, when it came before the regular city council meeting on April 8th — clearing the way for the project to proceed in the hands of city staff with no further council oversight.
Then, at council’s May 13th general committee meeting, Lachica attempted to introduce a new motion that proposed council be granted final approval authority over the redevelopment’s site plan and associated reports. That motion was not tabled for discussion or a vote after councillor and committee chair Andrew Beamer ruled it out of order and six of the 11 committee members supported his ruling.
kawarthaNOW reached out to councillor Lachica for comment on the Chamber’s proposal, but she couldn’t be reached.
Watch kawarthaNOW for updates to this developing story.
