Community weighs in on future of open court space at Strathmore Motor Products Sports Centre

By Melissa Crispin-Piche Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Strathmore residents have offered up plenty of ideas for what could become of the undeveloped court space at the Strathmore Motor Products Sports Centre.

The Town of Strathmore held an open house Sept. 17 to gather feedback on the future of the concrete space, which has remained unfinished since the facility opened in 2019.

Marcie Mansbridge, the town’s recreation and culture manager, said 19 people attended the open house and 18 provided feedback through a series of questions.

“The purpose behind the questions was to try and gauge the level of community support and demand if an additional court were to be developed,” Mansbridge said.

Suggestions included some of the activities typically associated with a court such as badminton, floor hockey and pickleball. Residents also suggested fitness classes and the possibility of developing a fitness centre with weights and exercise equipment.

The open house was only one part of the town’s effort to find out what residents would like to see in the space.

A community survey was available for two weeks from Sept. 8 to 21 and received 75 responses.

An open-ended question gave residents an opportunity to suggest other potential uses for the space.

Mansbridge said some of those suggestions were different from what the town typically hears.

“We have a suggestion box at the facility, so we see things like the fitness centre being recommended often, specific sports like pickleball, volleyball, badminton, but a couple suggestions identified in the survey were Tai Chi, was a unique one. I’ve never heard that before. Lawn bowling, again, not one that has been brought up in the past,” she said.

The town also met with regular user groups on Sept. 3, bringing the total to three forms of public engagement used to collect feedback.

That meeting also gave the town an opportunity to explain why the space was left undeveloped when the sports centre first opened. The space was intended for a particular user group but at that time that group didn’t exist, so the space was left unfinished.

Not long after the facility opened in 2019 the COVID-19 pandemic brought another reason to put development plans on hold as recreation facilities went through repeated closures and reopenings.

“But we’re now at a point where it’s been quite some time and it remains concrete, so we’re at a point where we should be considering development,” Mansbridge said.

Although residents have offered several possibilities for the space, no decision has been made about what will ultimately be built there.

Mansbridge said the feedback collected through the user group meeting, community survey and open house will be presented to council Oct. 14.

The report is intended to provide council with the results of the engagement rather than recommend a particular project.

Any decision about what happens next, including a possible timeline for development, will be up to council.

“Council will decide how they want to proceed at that point,” Mansbridge said.

While she did not provide specific results from individual survey questions ahead of the presentation to council, Mansbridge said the engagement showed there is interest in seeing something done with the space.

“I can say that there was a high level of community support identified with both the open house and the survey,” she said.

For now, the concrete space remains as it has since the sports centre opened, but council will soon have the community’s feedback in front of it as it considers what, if anything, should come next.