So where are those new facilities going to go?
Somehow I don’t think developers will be too interested in donating substantial areas of land that could be subdivided and sold.
Facilities at the Sporting Complex could be expanded onto the race course, but there have been unsuccessful attempts to do things like that in the past.
Looking at the facilities at the Sporting Complex it’s safe to assume that once the existing sporting bodies start adding extra playing fields to accommodate the extra teams that follow population growth there won’t be a lot of room left for additional sporting bodies to develop their own facilities on ground that they’d have to share with another sport.
The logical area to develop additional sporting facilities is the area between Denison Park and Kings Beach.
It’s not as if we’re likely to be needing all that space for sporting fields. Far from it. But the area has enough room to accommodate additional sports fields as well as extra recreational space, walking tracks and so on.
We already have a substantial area of public parkland and recreational space between the mouth of the Don and Horseshoe Bay. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could develop more of the same between Horseshoe Bay and Flagstaff Hill?
If the Council’s Parks budget is capable of looking after existing recreational facilities, presumably as the population doubles the area that can be looked after will double as well. The area I’m talking about is way in excess of that, but you’d think that if Council developed a couple of key areas those could be gradually expanded through government grants and community involvement.
However that won’t happen if the current Bowen Land Evaluation Project being conducted by the Department of Water and Natural Resources decides that the area is suitable for residential development.
As I’ve suggested elsewhere, a community can never have enough open space and once it’s gone, it’s gone and you won’t be able to get it back.
Again, recreational facilities are an area where strategic planning is needed before the extra population arrives on our doorstep. and once they’ve been developed if the facilities are properly marketed they’ll provide another avenue to bring visitors into town.