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Closure of Sparwood tennis courts lead to public consultation process

The tennis courts in the Cherrywood subdivision in Sparwood have been closed and will not reopen for public use.
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The tennis courts in the Cherrywood subdivision in Sparwood are closed after the residential lot they were on was purchased by a developer.

The tennis courts in the Cherrywood subdivision in Sparwood have been closed and will not reopen for public use. The tennis courts were on residential property, which has been recently purchased by a developer.

“We’re in the process of closing it down. In 2007 the council of the time decided to sell that lot for development purposes. As of November 2015, a sale of that lot actually went through, which will result in the removal of the tennis courts and basketball courts that are currently located on that residential lot,” said Duane Lawrence, Director of Community and Facility Services for the District of Sparwood.

The District is now conducting a consultation process with the community to research what, if anything, should replace the public recreation facilities.

“The District of Sparwood is doing a consultation process, with the residence of Sparwood and any other interested parties, to determine what, if any replacement infrastructure or recreation infrastructure is desired by the residents that are living in the heights that are mostly affected by this, and ideas on where they would like it to be located,” said Lawerence.

New Dawn Developments purchased the lot, and intends to build a 19-unit multi-family facility on the lot, meaning the loss of the tennis court and basketball court.

“There is an online survey that we are conducting right now, and it’s open for the public to access,” said Lawrence. “We want to make sure that what we are putting in is what the residents want.”

Once the data is collected, the findings will be presented to the community for further feedback before anything is decided upon.

“We encourage everybody to participate in the survey,” said Lawrence. “We will do some further investigation into what our findings are and what our feedback is from the community and bring back a final report to the community on what we found to be the most preferred amenity, what it is going to cost to do it, and how long it will take to raise the funds to do it.”

The survey is available on the District of Sparwood’s website, at Sparwood.ca. Anyone with questions or concerns is encouraged to contact the District of Sparwood.