Rothesay council has given its final approval to a new recreation master plan.
The document is meant to guide recreational development over the next decade.
Mayor Nancy Grant said the guiding document has been one of council’s top priorities.
“You have to have a long-term plan because of the cost of things, sometimes there are difficulties acquiring land to do things, there are regional issues to be considered,” Grant said in an interview.
More than 200 “big ideas” were identified by residents and combined around five themes.
They include active living, connecting people and nature, supportive environments, inclusion and access, and regional recreation capacity.
Grant said she is happy the consultants also identified the town’s two biggest priorities: the Central Recreation Campus and an active transportation trail connecting Wells Recreation Park and the Hillside Trail.
The Central Recreation Campus includes replacing the aging Rothesay Arena and looking at converting the existing building to a field house.
Other projects in the plan include building a multi-use shoreline trail from East Riverside-Kingshurst Park to the Bill McGuire Centre and turning Scribner Park into a mixed-use co-operative or affordable housing development.
“We’re depending on staff now to go through it, prioritize, figure out how the heck we’re going to pay for all of this, but we’re excited to make a start,” said Grant.
