Okay, good morning everyone. It's 9:31 on June 17. This is W 6 counselor Michael Shield and I'm the chair of the committee of the whole meeting today. Uh we have quorum. So now I'm calling the meeting to order. So to start the meeting, any announcement from members of council? Uh councelor Thompson? Well, thank you very much. Uh, I just want to, uh, give a huge shout out to the Toronto Maple Leafs farm team, the Toronto Marlies. Uh, they made it to the Calder Cup final. And, uh, if you're looking to see them play, there's uh, they are playing tomorrow night here in Toronto and they are up three games to none. So, they could actually win the Calder Cup tomorrow night. And uh just to let you know, one of our own here from Richmond Hill, Ryan Derberg, he plays on that team. So uh huge shout out to them. Thank you. >> Yes, it's really a big shout out. Okay, any announcement, uh Mayor West, >> not that this is in our jurisdiction, but maybe they should just replace the Toronto Maple Leafs with the Marlies next year. I don't know. Just a thought. Okay. So, uh I just wanted to give a big shout out to all the folks that came out to our watch party the other day to cheer on Canada in the World Cup. It was a a really great event and uh it was a really good turnout. We had lots of people there and uh for the uh for that historic game. Uh we have another game coming up. In fact, we've got three more games I think coming up that we have watch parties for. So, uh, anybody that wants to come out and, uh, and join that, it's a lot of fun and, uh, it really is great to be able to cheer on Canada, uh, with your friends and neighbors and, uh, and we've got, uh, a number of more opportunities to do that. So, uh, looking forward to it. >> Thank you, May. Any other announcement? Seeing none. So, moving forward, introduction of emergency timesensitive malice. Seeing none, so adoption of agenda. We have a 14 items today. Uh one presentation, four dedications, one minutes, one extract, eight staff reports and three correspondences. So may I have a motion to move the agenda? Uh deputy mayor Chen. All those in favor oppose carry unanimously. Thank you. Okay. So disclosure of peer interest and general nature thereof. Seeing none. Okay. Moving forward. Identification of items requiring separate discussion. Uh actually we have a presentation and four delegations for item 11.7 today. So we will put that item out. Any other items for separate discussion? Councelor Sllus. >> Thank you Mr. Chair. Um 11.4.4. >> Councelor Alio. >> 11.3 please. >> 3 items. Okay. So that means uh the consent agenda is 11.1.2.5 6 oh syllus pardon me. No there's no separate disc. You want to pull this out? 11.8. >> Yeah. >> Okay. 11.8 by council syllabus. >> So Davidson. >> Oh, sorry, Davidson. Sorry. Okay. Uh, actually the consent agenda is 11.1.2.5. 6 9 10 11 12 and 13. Is it correct? Mr. CL Okay. So, I need a motion to adopt the the remainder of the agenda items. Council tree. All those in favor opposely. Thank you. So, uh, we don't have any public hearings today, but we have a one presentation for item 11.7. Uh, the next speaker is Michelle Dobby regarding the draft tennis and pickle ball strategy. Miss Dobby, the floor's yours. Thank you, Chair Shu, mayor and members of council. Today, I will be presenting the draft tennis and pickle ball strategy which was prepared with the help of our staff team who's here today and also our consulting team led by Anand Desai who's also here today uh of Monteth Brown uh supported by GF group and Dylan Consulting. Next slide. We began this project in the spring of 2025, quickly moving through research and analysis in the summer and fall of 2025, and onto community engagement late last year and early this year. The consultation included two open houses with approximately 30 attendees, a public online survey with approximately 500 responses, and six key informant interviews, including with our local tennis and pickle ball clubs and Metroinks. Today, we are presenting the draft strategy and background findings report for comment with the final strategy being brought to council after the election in 2027. Next slide. In terms of the trends found through the research and analysis and community engagement, I'll start with tennis. Uh we have a strong geographic distribution of tennis courts within the city and a higher outdoor service level than the average of the municipalities benchmarked and the municipalities benchmarked are just over on the right hand side of the slide. An on par indoor service level as compared to the average of the municipalities benchmarked. The majority of our courts are in new or good condition and we have a growing interest in tennis programs including a desire for a community tennis club in the north as both of our tennis clubs are more in the south. In terms of pickle ball, we have a limited geographic distribution, a slightly higher outdoor service level than the average of the municipalities benchmark, a higher indoor service level than the average of the municipalities benchmarked. The majority of our courts are in new or good condition. And we have a growing interest in pickle ball programs, including a desire for courts that support both casual and social or club-based play. And an interesting survey finding uh just on that point was that 83% of respondents to the online surveys which was over 500 people responded to that noted their support for the provision of a hub at Richmond Green uh which council saw earlier in the year in April when the draft Richmond Green revitalization master plan was brought forward, but also that the city should consider providing smaller hubs at other parks for that more casual drop in play. Next slide. In terms of the direction outlined in the draft strategy, the city's role is described as focusing on providing accessible and affordable recreation options for tennis and pickle ball play through a multi-pronged approach. In terms of tennis, the strategy focuses on maintaining a strong geographic distribution by filling key gaps. In terms of outdoor pickle ball courts, the strategy focuses on supporting the public's desire for both that casual drop-in play, so neighborhood courts, and more social or club-based play in hubs in geographically dispersed areas across the city. In terms of indoor pickle ball, the strategy supports affordable access using pilots until the feasibility of the North Leslie Community Center permanent racket sport facility is assessed. Next slide. In terms of provision level targets for tennis and pickle ball, I'll start with tennis. The draft strategy recommends slowly decreas decreasing the provision level. Still providing eight t an eight tennis court hub for the north, which was something we heard about through the consultation as being needed and fills a key gap. Moving forward with two tennis courts at Heron View Park, which also uh fills a key gap in the North Leslie area, and reusing four underused tennis courts for pickle ball. This will bring our service level down from the current one court per 2700 people to one court per 2,850 people. In terms of pickle ball, the strategy recommends increasing the provision level by adding 32 new pickle ball courts by 2041. This will increase the city's provision level from the current one court per 8,900 people to one court for every 5,000 people. Next slide. To fill the key gaps in tennis court distribution, which are the red circles on this map on the left hand slide of the slide, the strategy recommends constructing eight tennis courts at the future West Gormley Community Park. That is the north red bubble on the map. aiming to permit eight new community tennis club courts by 2041 to add a new community tennis club for the north and more slowly planning for tennis courts at new or existing parks to address service gaps. And the image on the right hand side of the slide is showing uh the two tennis courts that will move into construction this year at Her and View Park in North Leslie. Next slide. Uh I will take some time to go through this slide because this was um important to the public um through the consultation and the survey. To create a stronger geographic distribution of pickle ball courts, the strategy is recommending both hubs and neighborhoodbased courts. It is recommending prioritizing the construction of a 12court pickle ball hub at Richmond Green. And that's the little call out uh kind of towards the bottom of the slide that council saw in April in the Richmond Green draft master plan. Design will begin on that in response to the previous council motion in 2027. The strategy also recommends planning to construct an 8 court outdoor pickle ball hub at Brody House Park with design beginning in 2029 along with planning to construct up to 12 new neighborhood scale courts within existing and planned parks. And just two examples, the Mil Pond uh revitalization master plan, which is in design now, has two pickle ball courts uh adjacent to the tennis courts at Stabvert Park. Those will begin construction in 2029 and 2030. And Milstone Park, which is uh in the southeastern corner of Major McKenzie and Leslie in the new development in that area, is under con is under design now. We'll have two pickle ball courts that will move into construction in 2029. The strategy also recommends exploring repurposing four underused tennis courts to create eight neighborhood pickle ball courts. Uh those are the red squares on the map on the right, the four underused tennis courts. One of those is the Hunter Point Park tennis courts uh which are down in the uh lower leftand corner of the slide. Those are in design now and will move to construction in 2029. Lastly, the strategy seeks to provide an appropriate distribution of pickle ball programs at existing and future gyms, including investigating the feasibility of a racket sport court facility at the North Leslie Community Center. Taken together, this equates to 26 new pickle ball courts by 2031, which will allow the city to achieve the one court for every 5,000 people when taking into consider into consideration the existing 25 courts that already exist. Next slide. As a stop gap measure until this permanent infrastructure comes online, a new seasonal pickle ball court may be possible through a partnership with Metro Links at Gormley GO Station. On April 24th of 2026, Metroinks confirmed agreement in principle with the concept shown on the right hand side of this slide. Subject to entering into a commercial lease agreement and the ability to terminate annually if parking demand increases for the go line. This work was undertaken in response to a previous council motion and a series of steps will need to be completed to realize these seasonal courts for the 2027 season, including preparing a zoning bylaw amendment to permit the major recreational use. These lands are on the marine and do not permit this use now and working with Metroinks to establish a lease agreement to provide the seasonal hub. Next slide. To ensure improved court management, the strategy recommends using a standardized rotation system for tennis of 1 hour play periods at the top of the hour. And for pickle ball, continuing the current 15 meter play or to a score of 11 rotation. The strategy also recommends introducing racket rack systems at new and revitalized high demand outdoor tennis courts. This is to help manage the queueing, expanding the online reservation system, including implementing a standardized approach for proof of reservation. It also recommends a potential pilot project for commercial use of our courts. Next slide. To improve indoor court programming, the draft strategy recommends ensuring a good distribution in our city gyms, expanding the arena floor pilot, and improving conditions in our arena in our arena floors that are subject to the pilot, including considering things like rollout mats, which have been used in other municipalities, and possibly drop in fees to offset that investment. Next slide. The draft strategy recommends an amenity hierarchy to ensure court amenities align with our park hierarchy and our ongoing fiscal constraints. So for example, more costly amenities like shade structures or washrooms will be provided only in our larger parks. A life cycle repair and renewal guide is also recommended to help the city extend the life of its assets. And in terms of court design, all new courts are recommended to be dedicated courts after the existing planned multi-line courts are completed at Brick Works Park and Town Park. New pickle ball courts are also recommended to be set back a minimum of 50 meters from adjacent residential properties, which is helping the city to minimize noise complaints. Next slide. The draft strategy recommends the community tennis club policy be reviewed to consider or re-evaluate broadening this policy to include pickle ball clubs. Also considering increasing public hours where there is a a club using the courts. One of the interesting findings from the background research was that other municipalities that have newer policies than ours are requiring between 17 and 29 hours of public play on courts that have a club and our current policy just requires 6 hours of play. So quite a big difference there. Uh also recommending a new requirement for a community tennis club openhouse to drive interest and membership. Next slide. Uh just in terms of the operating model options, given the lack of municipal comparators providing dedicated indoor pickle pickle ball facilities outside of gyms and arenas like Richmond Hill does already, the draft strategy recommends preparing a municipal comparator analysis. This analysis will assess the financial, human resource, and risk implications of the city developing and operating an enclosure over both the recommended Richmond Green hub and the West Gormley Tennis Hub. This assessment will be in advance of a determination of the feasibility of including a permanent racket sport court facility in the North Leslie Community Center because as people likely remember the recreation and culture plan uh approved in 2022 calls for an ice rink in the North Leslie Community Center. So the determination of this potentially different facility is in response to the demand that we've heard for these sports through this project. Next slide. our next steps, some of which will proceed prior to the final strategy being approved in 2027 to recognize the urgent need to deliver this infrastructure and these additional changes. Uh we're at CO today uh seeking comments. Hopefully next week, council will ratify Cow's decision, which will allow the 30-day web-based public comment period to commence on the draft strategy. In late June, the city will implement the new 1-hour topofthe- hour rotation system at tennis courts and continue the 15minute 11point rotation for pickleball. In 2027, a zoning bylaw amendment will be brought forward to permit the major recreational use at Gormley Go Station to allow the seasonal hub to be up and running in 2027. The final tennis and pickle ball strategy will be brought forward to committee of the whole for approval. The lease agreement with Metro Links will be negotiated and executed and the detailed design of the 12 pickle ball court hub at Richmond Green will commence pending budget approval that year. That concludes my presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you Moby for your presentation. So now uh any questions on the presentation from members of council? Only on the presentation and we'll talk about the staff report and recommendation right after delegation. So any question only on the presentation? Councelor Leo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question. Um you said next week we're going to ratify the the draft strategy and then there's going to be a 30 days comments period. So So that 30 days, what happens if something changes? Because council's already ratified the the draft strategy. Um, sorry. I meant to say that cow council will ratify cow's recommendation which which in the staff report it's just to receive the strategy and provide comments back on it. It's it's not an approval recommendation. >> Okay. >> Um the approval of the final strategy will be in 2027 after we have the comment period. >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Uh Mayor Wes, >> this is an excellent presentation. Thank you very much. Um but just a question. So in the um in your presentation you talked about uh many things that we're planning on doing uh in the near future to expand capacity for pickle ball particularly, but one of the things that you mentioned was uh the possibility of repurposing uh tennis courts that are not being used so much as tennis courts. >> Um and I get that. That makes perfect sense. what what are the criteria and how are we going to determine that? And I I guess one of the other questions is how do we deal with the noise issue if the tennis courts in question are really close to say residential areas? I mean that is a barrier to to citing pickle ball. So yes, >> how do we deal with that? >> That's a good question. Um and that was part of our analysis when we picked the four that are outlined in the draft strategy. Um the city was able to use Environics data to understand the usage of our tennis courts and the lower used ones were then a a separate analysis was then done of them to make sure that they meet the 50 m setback. Okay. And then there's at least some parking on the roads or in the park itself uh because parking becomes an issue for pickle ball courts as well. Uh so the four that are outlined in the strategy took those two criteria into consideration. >> Okay. I mean I think the the thing that I've been looking for and and I I think council also has been looking for is to do this as quickly as we possibly can. I mean we need to do it right and and one of the major barriers I see with pickle ball is in Richmond Hill anyway is citing it in places where it isn't going to cause so much noise that it's going to make all the adjoining uh homeowners upset. I mean that happened in Niagara initially when they were they cited one of their locations much too close to a residential area. Um but I think that I mean that's important but I think you know if we've identified sites that that we can repurpose I mean this is lowhanging fruit and I think we need to do it as quickly as we possibly can. Um but I just want to make sure that we're doing it carefully so that we're not causing disruption to the to the neighboring m uh homes as well. So um okay that's fine. I I'll save my other comments for later. >> Thank you, Mayor West. So, next speaker is Deputy Mayor Chen. >> Um, thank you very much, uh, Mr. Chair, and, uh, thank you for the presentation. Um, truly appreciate because, uh, both the tennis and pickle ball, uh, the two items that from a recreational standpoint, uh, certainly now is summer weather is here and, uh, really, really a lot of people want to play. I just want to make sure I got it uh correctly. So, uh on the slide number five, yes, one court per 5,000 people is what the strategy is aiming for. And so, but currently we are one court per 8,900 people. Now, would that be interesting? Um a comparison was made on slide three on the indoor service level. Um but I would like to know uh that through Mr. Chair what would that be in terms of how Richmond Hill is positioned among the municipal benchmark uh municipalities on that one per five one per 890 people. Um, so moving to the one court per 5,000 people will put Richmond Hill in the same lane as other municipalities. Most other municipalities that have set a provision target, that's what they're setting it at. Um, you might recall when we did the 2022 parks plan, we didn't set a provision level for pickle ball because at that time it was so new. Um, no one really knew what would happen. uh but now other municipalities have moved forward and set one per 5,000 as the provision target which will put us with the rest of the pack. >> Yeah, thank you for the answer. I'm more interested in getting a sense of the current not we are striving towards but one court per 80 well roughly 80 uh 9,000 people so to speak. that position us kind of in the middle of the range or >> so uh yeah going back to slide three then it's slightly higher than than the benchmark municipalities that are included in the background study the one per 8900 but it's slightly lower than when you look at just York region >> right okay yeah so slide three because the reason I ask is that slide three it kind of distin distinguish or using outdoor and indoor >> kind of not the uh whole category uh in terms of uh the level so that's that's okay and I understand and uh look forward to the discussion when actually we get to report part and also after listening to um the delegates on this particular issue but thank you it's uh it's uh well put together and I like the uh all the uh comparison and particular looking at trends and hopefully Metro links was uh the the the lease will work out sooner than later. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor Chen. Any other questions? May West. >> Sorry, I I I didn't I want to make sure I understand that slide that was just up there a minute ago. Could you just explain that again? The one the municipal comparators >> slide three. >> Yeah. Um, so we compare outdoor separate from indoor because most municipalities don't have an indoor service level for just pickle ball. It' be something like a gym um that they're using. Uh so the first one is noting that we're slightly higher in terms of our outdoor service level than when we look at the average of all the 15 or so municipalities um we surveyed in the background report. If you took out just the York municipalities, and there is a chart in the background report that speaks to that, we're slightly lower than the average there. In terms of indoor service level, were we're slightly higher than the average of the other municipalities that are doing something indoor. Most municipalities are using a gym and and that's what that chart references. Richmond Hill I think has been quite good in terms of putting the separate lines into our gym very quickly and that has allowed our service level to be a bit higher than some other places that that didn't do that so quickly. So you're saying so in the first graphic our outdoor service level we are providing uh we're so where are we versus other municipalities are we're we're providing more or less than the benchmark municipalities at the moment >> slightly more. >> So we're we're actually providing more pickle ball courts than other municipalities that we've benchmarked. >> Yes. And in our service level for indoor courts, we're providing considerably more indoor pickle ball than other municipalities that have been benchmarked. >> Yes. >> And we're going to be moving to create more pickle ball so that the service level, the amount of courts that we have available per population is even greater. >> Yes. And we're going to be providing more indoor courts so that the number of courts available per population is even greater. >> Yes. Because our our population is growing, >> right? But we're still providing more service despite the fact that we're we're growing. Yes. >> That's what this that's what this strategy is all about. >> Yes. Because we we are hearing a lot of interest. There's a lot of demand for um >> of course all the time. >> Yeah. So that's why it's it's still going up. Even though we're high, we're still recommending it. >> Okay. So we're higher. We're higher now, but we'll be even higher in the future. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mayor Wes. Good to know this. Any other questions? So I have two questions. Want to clarify. Uh slide number seven, distribution pickle board. Uh the city here will explore the physibility of repurposing for underutilized tennis court. >> Mhm. to create eight cores. So are all those eight cores evenly distribute in four locations >> that means two for each location >> I think. So so the the slide on the on the or the map on the left the four kind of rectangles on the slide are where those four courts are. So there's one in the north one in the middle and two in the south. >> It's pretty even distribution. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh my last things want to clarify is uh the 30-day web-based public comment period is start right after the council meeting next week or or right after today. >> Um after the council meeting next week. >> Okay, good to know. Uh I don't have any comment. Uh I don't have any questions. Any others? Okay, so let's vote to this presentation. All those in favor? >> Oh, okay. Now to move it. Okay. All those in favor opposely. Thank you. So now moving on to delegations. Uh the first delegates is Robert Livingstone for the item 11.7. The same item on draft tennis and pickable strategy. Mr. Livingstone, you're online. And yeah, the the floor is yours. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Counselors. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. I saw many of you at the sports awards last month and thank you for supporting our our young athletes, our young successful Richmond Hill athletes. I'm sure you agree that that was an amazing and inspirational event. Uh for many years I coached youth soccer and and baseball in this city and enjoyed the many purposebuilt facilities for those sports. There's nothing more important than providing uh the best for our um for our kids and providing the best for everything they need. But as our city ages, diversifies, and grows, uh, so do our needs. So, I'll cut to the chase. Recommending anything short of a large purpose-built built yearround indoor pickleball facility or hub in Richmond Hill, I think, is a failure. Um, so, first, thanks to everyone involved in generating this report. I know it's quite a challenge, especially for those who may not be familiar with the sport. I spent 25 years um visiting venues and studying plans around the world and writing about them. Um so sports venues and I took a deep dive into this report. Um I also play a lot of pickle ball in Richmond Hill so I'm familiar with the facilities here. My takeaways are this from the report. Um where where is the vision for pickle ball? Um I don't see it. It's a patchwork of tactics to fill gaps. um not a single strategy to build an opportunity for this community. It's a creative word word of document. It dresses up sweltering summertime arenas, wrongsized bminton nets, um and a repurposed repurposed tennis courts as a plan. Um and I will dispute the claim that a majority of the courts are um in good condition. They're just not. And they're not a lot of them aren't even appropriate. Um, and the plan relies heavily on seasonal courts that are available only three or four months during the summer where most of our demand is during the winter and that kind of leaves us without um those opportunities. It's not a strategy. It kind of just pushes the problem down the road. And and correct me if I'm wrong, but I but I heard there was a plan to play pickle ball at the GO station parking lot. Is that real? I mean it we like grass and trees and to use the mayor's analogy that um he's looking for the lowhanging fruit. Well, this is a fruit that's already rotting on the ground. Uh it's it's a horrible idea and I I don't have time to get into that and describe that. But um the staff report says that uh the um the surveys weren't statistically significant. So if that's the case, um what is this report based on? Um what are the recommendations based on? Uh it the report talks about pillar two that focuses on supporting Richmond Hill's unique character and sense of community through programs and events. So let me finish off by telling you the story. On Monday I was playing uh pickle ball at Carville Community Center and I know that's yes that's in Vaughn. Um that that those are the best facilities that I can find that are close to me. Um the best available options. So 75% of the people there were from Richmond Hill. It was quite crowded. Um there were 25 or so players on uh the four dedicated courts surrounded by trees, not trains. And um I I was speaking to a young man. He was playing tennis at the adjacent tennis court. His partner left. So he had nothing else to do. He checked out the pickle ball courts to see what was going on. He was overwhelmed with the welcome he received um by people who were strangers to him who welcomed him to join them in different matches. These were people across different demographics and skill levels and he was impressed and he joined this WhatsApp group of people who joined there regularly to to be part of that. Um that's what pickle ball's about. And that that can't happen at a random court or two here and there. There just crowds won't gather. There won't be that sense of community. But imagine what a large yearround pickle ball hub would do to build and solidify Richmond Hill, our community. Um anyway, this report by its own admission doesn't have the data for you to really make an informed decision. So I invite you all to join me one morning at a court in in Richmond Green or Elgen Barrow or wherever you know is suitable. You can discover the human factor, the sense of community, you can talk to people, just not see numbers. Um so I mean the clerk's office has my contact info. I really hope to hear from you. Um, even if it's just to follow up on my concerns, I' I'd love for you to join us and and see what pickle ball is all about and what our needs are. Um, so I really hope that this report starts a dialogue, doesn't just end it. And um, I' I'd like to hear more about this from you in the future. So, thanks a lot for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Livingstone. Uh, the next speaker, Barry Ranieri. online. Yep. >> Hi. Uh, mayor and members of council, my name is Barry Reeri. I'm a Richmond Hill resident of over 30 years and I'm here to speak on behalf of the Richmond Hill Pickle Ball Advocacy Group. I want to begin by acknowledging the positive aspect of this report. We support the recommendations to build a 12 dedicated pickle ball courts at Richmond Hill. Dedicated courts are badly needed and this is a step forward, albeit a small step forward. 12 courts will not be enough and if you doubt my observation, just ask New Market Vaugh and Markham. They learned firsthand that their initial predictions quickly fell drastically short. However, after more than three years of study, consultation delay, many residents are asking the simple question, where is the pickle ball strategy? As someone who plays regularly at Baby Hill, I see firsthand what residents are experiencing. Four dedicated courts, long wait times to play, frustration over court rotation, and mixed skill levels. One court being permitted while dozens of residents wait. Players are traveling to Vaughn, Markham, Aurora, and New Market because they are tired of playing on parking lots and uneven non-standard courts. There are simply not enough quality playing opportunities in Richmond Hill. These are not isolated incidents. They are signs of a system that is overwhelmed. Yet much of what is proposed in this report continues the same approach we have seen for years. Line tennis courts, popup courts, portable nets, seasonal facilities, arena floors. They're slippery and not safe. We have two pickup courts at KCP, four courts at Bay View Hill. This is not a strategy. How do people get into the game and fit in? Pickle ball is not tennis. These may be temporarily temporary solutions, but they are not a long-term strategy. The report talks about inventory, but residents understand there is a big difference between a dedicated pickle ball court and a temporary pickle ball court between badminton courts too close together with incorrect dimensions and a surface not conducive for play. The question I asked council is this. If these temporary solutions are working, why are programs selling out immediately? Why are dedicated courts overcrowded? Why are so many Richmond Hill residents leaving the city to play elsewhere? This time next year, many will be traveling to New Market's new 20year round courts. The population of New Market is 93,000 versus Richmond Hill at 220,000. Why is there still no indoor pickable strategy? Why not a compreh comprehensive year round strategy? One of the most disappointing aspects of this report is what is missing. There is no meaningful communication club communication community pickupball strategy. There is no organized play strategy. There is no indoor facility strategy. There is no clear long-term vision beyond the proposed Richmond Green courts. What happens after those 12 courts are built? What is phase two? What is the plan five years from now? What is the plan 10 years from now? These questions remain unanswered. I would also encourage council to look closely at what neighboring municipalities are doing. New Market has embraced dedicated pickupball facilities, work directly with clubs and user groups, and developed a long-term vision for this sport. They did not pay 150,000 for a report that is deficient and lacks a strategy. Richmond Hill should be doing the same. Most importantly, I would ask council to spend more time listening directly to the people who play the sport every day. Not just through consultants who in this case failed to deliver a pickle ball strategy. Not just through reports, but through ongoing engagement with residents, volunteers, clubs, and user groups who understand the challenges and opportunities facing pickle ball in this community. Pickle ball is not a temporary trend. This is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. Residents are not asking for special treatment. Richmond Hill has in excess of 80 dedicated pickup courts with only sorry tennis courts with only six dedicated pickup courts. We have been made to feel less than and by this council uh itself lowhanging fruit. It's insulting. We are asking for real leadership, proper planning, proper recreational infrastructure and a strategy that reflects the reality of what players are experiencing while other municipalities are actually doing this. This council continues to delay. Thank you. >> Thank you. So the next speaker, Mr. Michael Bott is on. Yeah. >> Can you hear me? Yep. >> Okay. Um I had originally had a prepared uh um script to uh to um go over, but after listening to this and some of the comments that were made from some of the previous speakers, I'm just going to improvise it. And um and one of the things that that I find very frustrating about this whole process is we listen to the reports that was presented. We listen to the counselor's comments and then we have no ability to dialogue and speak to some of the points that were made which in many cases are not accurate or properly reflecting the context. So when you talk about line tennis courts and then you don't add are those line tennis courts actually being used and counting that as inventory it's really problematic. And when you talk about provisioning levels and you get the impression that we are providing more than what we, you know, other municipalities, if they're not being used, then do they really count? If you're talking about gyms and and community centers and they're so close together and they're badminton courts and they're using badminton nets and their floppy nets and their badminton poles, are they really pickleball courts? Nowhere in this report does it actually speak to what is a dedicated pickleball court. So, in Richmond Hill, when it comes to provisioning, most of this strategy really speaks to seasonal seasonal courts that are used for part of of the summer and even then you have to deal with the wind, the weather, and everything else. There's no indoor strategy at all. There's no community club strategy at all. And it's very frustrating that we can't have dialogue back and forth. In fact, we've had no dialogue with staff even on this report. We've talked to the consultants, but we've had no dialogue back and forth with staff on on what is really going on with pickle ball. So, when you get this information, you get this impression that you're doing so much when in fact you're doing very little. And all I would say is if you just looked at a a town like New Market where their provisioning levels is this time next year will be one for 3,900 residents. They have 12 outdoor pickle ball courts. They have eight dedicated courts. They're going to have 20 indoor courts. In fact, New Market has simply taken the DDOP strategy report that was put forward for the incredible pickle ball facility that was going to be built there and they've adopted it. It's incredible what New Market has done. Um, so you you sit back and you look at these reports and you it's just so frustrating to look at it when you realize that there's just so many inaccuracies in what's already been said here and and council is not getting the right information. And so you you take a look at the 2017 tennis strategy. I was deeply involved with that because I was running the tennis club. I don't even know if council realizes that you didn't even implement the strategy. You were supposed to take over the courts at Blackmore. you were supposed to do provide these facilities and said you gave a 20-year lease to the for-profit operator. So, when you come up with these strategies, do they actually even get followed or implemented? It just seems like you do what you want to do, and it's very frustrating. So, you know, I I can't go on about this long enough. We've been we've been down this road for three, four years waiting and waiting and waiting and and the people that are suffering are the actual pickleball community, which is which is over 3 4,000 5,000 people and growing every day. there's no way for these people to actually get into the game and and a scattered approach of courts here and there and courts that aren't even used but being counted as inventory is just not a solution and that's really lacking from that report and it's extremely disappointing. So I'm sorry to go off script on this here. I had a different script prepared here, but just listening to some of the comments that were made earlier and the fact that we can't have dialogue back and forth is extremely frustrating. And um I would just encourage council to go out and talk, go to Bay View Hill, go to KCP, talk to the people there, and then spend time in New Market and talk to what they're doing there because they have the best pickup ball strategy of any community in New York region. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Boycott. Uh now we have uh Miss Carol Monroe. the chambers. >> Good morning, chair, counselors, mayor. My name is Carol Monroe and I'm speaking today as a member of the pickle ball uh advocacy group of Richmond Hill and as a resident of over 40 years who has followed the pickle bill pickle ball discussions at council for several years. I've played on a representative cross-section of existing temporary and permanent courts in Richmond Hill. I attended many of the meetings, reviewed the reports, spoken with residents, and listened carefully to the concerns being raised by the pickle ball community. In addition, I have spent the majority of my career as a global executive responsible for devising successful business plans with coherent strategies and tactics that addressed real customer needs. Like many residents, I'm pleased to see the proposed 12 dedicated pickle ball courts at Richmond Green. Additional dedicated courts are needed and this is certainly a step in the right direction. However, I am struggling to understand how after more than three years of study, consultation, and public discussion, we ended up with a report that appears to provide very little long-term direction for pickle ball. There is no indoor pickle ball strategy. There is no yearround pickle ball strategy. There is no meaningful discussion about how community pickle ball clubs fit into the future of the report. And there is continued reliance on temporary solutions such as popup courts, arena floors, shared use courts, and seasonal facilities. One of my concerns throughout this process has been whether the experiences and feedback of actual pickle ball players have been fully reflected in the final report. Residents have repeatedly raised concerns about overcrowded courts, long wait times, conflict at shared facilities, limited organized play opportunities, and the need for dedicated indoor facilities. Yet many of these day-to-day realities received little attention in the final recommendations. I was also surprised during previous council discussions when councelor Shu asked why we do not take out a baseball diamond and replace a propersized facility at Richmond Green, one that anticipates not just current growth but future growth. The response was baseball is lucrative. And the discussion ended there. Lucrative for whom? Lucrative compared to what? A yearround indooroutdoor pickle ball facility with 3,000 plus members. Why was there no followup or mention of this in this report? Why did not one counselor ask these questions? I believe residents deserve to understand the analysis behind those decisions. Were alternative facility concepts evaluated? Were larger pickle ball hubs considered? How was demand measured? How was long-term utilization evaluated? And why are those discussions largely absent from this report? These are reasonable questions for residents to ask. Most importantly, I believe council should recognize that this discussion is about more than pickle ball. It's about how Richmond Hill plans for future recreational facilities. Pickle ball and growth. Pickle ball has simply exposed a larger issue. Residents want to know that their input matters, that their concerns are being heard, and that long-term planning decisions are being driven by community needs. I respectfully ask council to engage with the pickle ball community like the town of New Market has done. They have adopted the DDOP, as Mike Boke uh said, their court strategy. They do not rely on $150,000 consultants. They engage with the user groups and develop their own strategy. And most importantly, they execute on it. Before this strategy is finalized, it would be helpful if it had a pickle ball strategy, including an indoor pickle ball strategy, a community pickle ball club strategy, and a clearer long-term vision for the future of pickle ball in Richmond Hill. I ask one that one of you counselors make a motion right now to adopt this approach of engaging with user groups to jointly develop a true pickle ball strategy that meets residents needs. This way you can vote on it right away and we can get going. Thank you. >> Thank you Mick. Thank you Miss Monroe. And that's exhaust our delegation list and now getting into business. So the first item uh is 11.7 draft tennis and pickle ball strategy. Uh so Mayor West, do you want to move in and speak? >> Yeah, thank you very much and thank you to the delegates that have come out um today. Uh I um like I think it's clear to me for sure over the last number of years that there's there's a huge demand for pickle ball and I mean that's obvious. There's just no question about that. and and I think that the faster that we can move on getting some of these courts uh in use is absolutely the the goal for that I've had for a while and and it's certainly going to be uh I think the goal of this this uh strategy. Um we also need to have and I agree with with some of the comments that you know we need to have good quality facilities. the um you know and I think we do but I think we need to be getting uh you know as time goes on and as we develop this strategy we need to get more and more and more of the dedicated purpose-built type facilities um and so um this strategy has been done with consultation and it's been done with consultation from uh all stakeholders that's in the staff report um I get that some people it's not coming quick enough and I get that some people uh don't like every aspect of it and so on. But the reality is we have done the consultation. Um the challenges that we've had right from the very beginning, right from the from the time that we you know frankly in retrospect I wish we hadn't gone down the DDO uh site path because frankly that wasted some time and it was clearly going to be in a location that would be completely unacceptable to the community. It's it pickle ball is just too noisy to put a big giant multicort facility smack dab in the middle of a subdivision. That can't happen. And it it happened in Niagara. They ended up shutting it down. It would be a giant financial mistake for any municipality to ignore that. Um so that has been in my mind one of the bigger um problems in or challenges let's say in in finding out where to put this. The reality is Richmond Hill is not building net new parks to the degree that we did a number of years ago when all all the parks that we have right now or many of them were built and at that time we put tennis there because tennis was a thing. Pickle ball hadn't been invented yet and the amenities in those parks reflected what we were doing at that time. So right now what we're trying to do is uh retrofit uh new and emerging uh uh uh recreation opportunities into the parks that we have. Um but I think that uh and that reality I think needs to be recognized by by all of us on council for sure and and the rest of the public. Um, but I think in a lot of respects the uh the folks that have spoken here today and the many many people that I've spoken to uh over the last number of years that play pickle ball are we're actually pulling on the same rope in roughly the same direction. Maybe not exactly. Um, but I think that what we're what we really need to try to achieve here is is to get the facilities that we need to get done as quickly as possible. Um, I'm going to speak on the second round because I don't have enough time to do it on this round and I want to put forward an amendment that will I think will speak to that and we'll we'll move some uh some of our our efforts forward more quickly. But um I I would ask Mr. Chair if you could put me on as first speaker on the next round. Uh that would be great. Um you know I just maybe one more thing just with the minutes I have left. There was a comment made about um taking out baseball because it's lucrative. I that wasn't the answer that I recognize in in that question. The reality is Richmond Green is was designed at a time uh when as I said the amenities were what we put in that uh that facility. The amenities were the ones that people were looking for. It really does serve as a as a real baseball uh hub in in uh in Richmond Hill and beyond. And you know, the diamond that we're talking about putting this pickle ball facility in is it's a compromise, but we can take that diamond out without creating any less uh value for the community. But if we start taking out other diamonds or any other recreational facilities for that matter, there is a cost to it. And I think in in the the statement that was made, there needs to be an understanding that, you know, we don't live in the black and the white here. We live in the gray. there's everything is a compromise. Everything is a balance. And I think what this strategy does uh to a I think to a a good degree is to try to find that balance between getting the pickle ball done as quickly as possible because we need it. It's certainly something that is of value to the community and we all recognize that but also doing it in a in a cost-effective way in a way that that works into the community really well. So, those are the subtleties that we all live with on council and uh I I actually think this this uh strategy does uh goes a fair distance in that way. Um and you know, we're certainly going to be looking at at uh tweaking and improving and and doing the best that we can over time um to make sure that we accomplish the goals that people are looking for. >> Thank you. May West. So, uh, the next speaker, Councelor Davidson. >> Thank you and through you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to staff for this report. Um, my perspective is that I I think this report recognizes that pickle ball is rising in popularity and I feel that this report tries to get some new courts for pickle ball while uh also keeping some tennis because the Canadian Tennis Association says 37% of youth are playing tennis and that tennis is on the upswing too. So, I'm glad we haven't gone with just one racket sport and we're sticking with a tennis strategy as as well. Um, with that in mind, I I'm excited about a possible North Gormaly neighborhood tennis uh hub. Is there are there any plans I'm asking staff for a pick a permanent pickle ball uh if not a hub, more courts in the north end of Richmond Hill, the Oakidges area or nearby? um to councelor Davidson through you, Mr. Chair. We could not find a park with sufficient distance setbacks in um Oak Ridges in order to place a hub and this was why we moved forward with the discussions with Metro Links that I spoke about earlier. Um there are parks in Oakidge's area that are planned to have the neighborhood uh courts but not a hub. >> Okay, thank you. Um, and speaking of Metro Links, I I understand it might not sound great and it may not be uh everyone's cup of tea, but I feel I I thank staff for contacting Metro Metro Links. I brought that motion forward a few years ago because to me it's a win-win for taxpayers. That's a huge parking lot that only a very small amount. There's two huge parking lots. only half of one is really used and taxpayers have already paid for that tarmac and now to see if it will work as a seasonal courts I think is brilliant because it's a win-win for taxpayers. They already paid for it. Now we're going to see if we can make better use of it. If it's not someone's cup of tea, I guess they won't play there. But and if it's not popular, it won't last. But I really appreciate the city trying things that think out of the box and in an effort to provide more courts and more play for people of all levels of skill. Um I do have a question about how are um clubs permitted to use courts in Richmond Hill and how many clubs are permitted? How does that work? >> Uh through you, Mr. chair, the director of recreation and culture will respond to that question. >> Okay. >> Uh yes, uh through you uh Mr. Chair. Uh so we do permit to the Richmond Hill Pickle Ball Club and we do permit uh 50% of the courts over at the Richmond Green uh Sports Center uh for specific periods of time uh for permit. >> Thank you. And um Oh, says it's on. Okay. For other courts, is it mostly uh free play? I'm just concerned. I want to make sure there's lots of free play time for people who just want to pick up a racket and try. >> Yes, through the chair. That is correct. Uh we do allow permitting at Bay View Hill Community Center or sorry the Bay View Hill Park uh for one pickle ball court so that the public can reserve a space. However, all the other uh courts are available for public use. >> Thank you. Um and through you Mr. uh Mr. Chair, there was there's a line there that says um they're going to you're going to look at potential pilot for commercial use. What does that mean? through the chair. So, we would permit for commercial use uh depending on if there is uh available courts uh and really only if there are the requests. So, it wouldn't be at our high use facilities uh or high utilized courts. So, at this point with pickle ball uh certainly it's not being considered. Uh it's more for the tennis courts. >> Okay. Thank you. Can you just tell me what what would a commercial use be >> uh through the chair? A commercial use would be for say tennis lessons. >> Oh, I see. Okay. Thank you. That was actually my next question through you, Mr. Chair. How do we Is there any way to sort of um firm up when people I mean I know lessons aren't allowed on public courts, but of course they happen constantly and they certainly do in my neighborhood. Is there and I do get emails from people who are who are upset that that the time it's sort of honor system. Is there any way to make it a little more reliable that if you have court time when your time's up you go? I mean I know we don't have attendance everywhere but can we look into somehow to make it more equitable >> uh through the chair. So that is the pilot uh that we are looking to uh make permanent. So the rotation that would be on the hour uh so that is uh what is being requested to be approved uh at this point. >> Okay. Thank you. Um well anyway like I said um I I I understand that pickle ball is is is increasing in popularity. I do feel like rather than than taking a long time, we're trying to come up with solutions quickly and um and like I said, keeping in mind tennis because I there are people in my neighborhood who play tennis and people who want a green top tennis and I mean I'm not a tennis player, but I appreciate that we're keeping both racket sports uh in the four and and I I definitely support this report. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Davidson. So, next speaker, Councelor Silus. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, thank you to staff for this incredible draft strategy. A lot of work went into that. And thank you to Miss Dobby for um her presentation. And thank you to everybody who spoke. Miss Monroe, thank you for being here. And to those who spoke um online. One thing I would like to say is I'm pleased to see that Miss Monroe and Miss Reneri identify themselves as part of the Rick Richmond Richmond Hill pickle ball advocacy group. Thank you for noting that because we never knew who that was. All we see in on Facebook are adversarial negative comments uh generated by AI about what we are doing in Richmond Hill for pickle ball. and um AI photographs of myself. I You want a photograph of me, take one. Uh you don't have to generate it through AI. Um it doesn't even look like my mother. Um I will gladly speak to anybody who wishes to have a discussion with me about pickle ball and about what we are doing and how we are doing it and why we are doing it the way we are doing it. For instance, in that one um AI generated slide on your advocacy group uh Facebook um it said that my comment was we are doing everything we can. We are stand by that comment. We are doing everything we can. I understand and I I accept your passion and your love for this game 100% as I do for all recreational sports that we play in the city and there are many if I may. The city has to take care of the following soccer fields, baseball and softball diamonds, tennis courts, beach volleyball courts, basketball courts which can also be used for other court sports like ball hockey, skateboard and BMX facility, indoor opportunities, facilities andor programming, although this is not a comprehensive list is for badminton table tennis volleyball, basketball, figure skating, hockey, swimming, synchronized swimming, archery, and I'm sure there are many. They're just not listed here. So, what I'm trying to what I'm trying to say here is that this council as your representatives and your voice to the city, to our staff, we are doing exactly what you need us to do. We are not adversarial. We want to work in a collaborative fashion with everybody. The only person I've ever spoken to in this regard was Mike Bcott a couple of years ago when I discussed with him uh the possibility of having the DDP um uh hub and I thought it was a good idea right at the beginning as did most of us great but it wasn't because once we had gone through comprehensive stakeholder discussions it was very very clear that that particular hub could not be placed at that particular site because it was way too close to the established residence. So, we have to take into account all of those matters. We are taking into account your pickle ball matters. We are taking into account everybody else's matters with regards to what we can and cannot supply in services with regards to um recreational sports. So there's a number of things that are that are stated on your pickle ball and I'm just looking at you Miss Maro because you're sitting here in the audience. I'm not signaling you out. I'm just simply looking at you. There are a number of number of things that are said on those uh slides for the pickle ball advocacy group on Facebook which are just absolutely incorrect. So I would support and I welcome having a discussion with any of you all of you to get all those facts right so that the people out there our residents have those facts as well because this these are facts. What's in here is facts. Our staff doesn't give us that. You can shake your head, Miss Monroe, but these are facts. Our staff do not give us non-factual information. They're professionals and they're hired by us. While I understand that you may not agree with us all the time, nobody does. We may not agree with you all the time. It's not possible to do that. But we are absolutely trying our best. And this draft which is not has not been approved by council. This is a draft which will continue to move forward. I know everything seems slow. It always does. Red tape, municipals, municipalities, provincials, all of that. But there's a reason behind all of that. We have to be able to finance all of this and we have to be able to support it. That's my 10 cents. >> Thank you, councelor Cifus. Next speaker, councelor Leo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much for the uh report and thank you all the delegates for uh coming out or online today. Um there's no doubt there's a big huge demand for pickle ball and uh and I remember you know when we were at the design you're nodding your head Muhammad. Yeah. at the design stage of the Bay Hill Park. I I I purposely asked for the four uh pickle bokea courts to be built and uh and now we can see the huge uh demand um at at Bay Hill Park and it's always a lineup whenever the weather is good. Uh you can hardly find a court there and and we understand that and I have been talking to lots of uh uh pickle ball players to be honest. cuz I I I play a few times at uh at um I'm sorry to say that the Sheran Parkway fitness club. I play there. Um because you can hardly find um public courts um uh outside um and is definitely that we need more indoor courts and I think we need to focus more on uh building a allseason facility. Um and um and through you Mr. chair. Um I'm very curious about the uh the Richmond Hill the 12 courts um facility. Uh I think I I asked that before. Um is it a bubble or is it a concrete structure um through Mr. the chair to staff? whoever wanted to answer that >> and any staff take this commissioner still >> uh through you Mr. Chair. So the exact construction of that facility is not determined yet. We're still working on uh figuring out what it what it will be. The idea is to get uh the design underway as soon as possible. >> Yeah. Because I the reason I asked that is uh a lots of people ask me, can we put more quartz at Richmond Green? So, I'm I'm just wondering if it's a concrete structure that can fit more courts or a bubble that can fit more courts. Um, whichever way I hope that we can get more than 12, I hope staff and go back and review it and hopefully we can get like instead of 12, can we get 15 or you know the number that I got from the public is 20. um um I don't know how feasible is that but I think the the other problem we are facing is um we don't have that kind of real estate the public land for a pickle ball center let's say indoor all season um that's why I always wanted to comment that have we ever explore private um public partnership and in and in in in getting something you know that that that makes everybody happy because when I see other municipality um they have privatelyowned um sports center so-cal and that alleviate a lots of pressure from from the city um and the other thing I would like to comment is um I understand I talked to lots of pickle ball players what most of them are like um they're like okay the season the weather's good let's go out and play um they don't very very concerned about the surface. They just want to have fun. And another group of people, they want to play regularly. They they they have a community club and and they not only play pickle ball. There's a social, you know, aspect in it. And I totally um get that. So, um I I think we should focus more on finding more indoor courts because it's all season um instead of temporary because you know five months out of a year um there's snow um that we have. Um I think on pickle ball that's all my comments and I would like to I also like to comments on uh tennis. Um I think the court management system is very good. I I think it's a very wellreceived. I know that Bay Hill Park is is is uh is is implementing that. Um the one hour playing time. Um lots of people tell me um this is a very good system and and I'm looking forward to the pickle ball too. Um the 11 points um court management. But at the same time I don't know as councelor uh car Davidson said um because of the huge demand is always arguments sometimes you know because of the wait time I don't know if we have the resources to put some um court monitors um just a suggestion um so that you know we can have people there to actually talking about equity um you know to to resolve arguments. I I there's resources during peak hours, not every day. Um that's my two cents there. Um yeah, I think my times is up. I might save it for my second round. That's all my comments. Thank you very much. Um uh Mr. Chair, >> thank you, Councelor Leo. The next speaker, Deputy May Chen. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. And um thank you, uh all the delegates. Um I have to start off I share your frustration. Um it has been a few years as a uh mentioned by every single dedicate and uh like kung um yeah I mean when I have a chance to to to to learn uh actually I did go to uh Rwood uh that's indoor but surprisingly I have to go to other municipality which is a private uh uh uh facility uh and I've been up uh to uh Stoville uh that's odor along on woodbine and I see some nodding maybe people know where that is u so I understand the frustration um and but on the other hand that um I honestly don't believe our staff provide us with um inaccurate information that might not be the information or that we would like to see because I do see it because I kind of get excited when I initially see uh you We're getting I believe 26 new courts and so on so on. I saw nodding from consultant but then I look that's by 2041 in 15 years. Um whereas some of the needs are really um now not 15 years from now. That's why I I try to ask about that position ratio because well if we are higher and in automous parties in both indoor service level outdoor why am I I'm not seem to be only council member hearing of the frustrations from um uh pickle ball players. So, it's something we can really try to uh move along and I I did hear from uh both um uh Moroy and other people say where's the long-term strategy? That's something we certainly need to strive for and um I'm not going to make amendment or something but I would hope that maybe next term council might have advisory committee kind of sort uh so that we can really work along together um with our staff uh with um council members and also with the rich um rich Richmond Hillbased pickle ball uh uh uh players um and I think it's more productive and constructive if you engage with each other or work along and um and I I think one of the things that may maybe I miss it um in a report it kind of touch on it but I don't see a presentation. I wonder through Mr. chair is that the staff can help share some insight how that um using the arena uh space during the hot war normal weather when the ice is not required. How is how is that working out in terms of having some I know it's not only temporary but uh you can call it popup whatever it means but it does increase the number of courts for pickle ball. uh how how how has been the uptake or how is it working out um that might help to address some of the gaps at this point in time through Mr. Chair? >> Uh yes uh through the chair uh the arena floor uh pickle ball courts are extremely popular. Uh so they're very well utilized uh throughout the I guess off season when the ice is out. So they are very extremely popular actually. >> Okay. Yeah. I I I know it's only temporary measure but I I think that's part of the things that to the extent that um we collectively at a city um would um try to you know perhaps well um yeah additional arena uh all over the uh city because I also noted um the geographic distribution of courts are limited compared to tennis. So to the extent that you know north, south or middle uh we could to the extent that we can expand way before we get to 2041 that will be great. Um so it's one point I want to raise that. The other one is that moving forward I do see that the report uh through working with the um consultant uh does have a plan uh may not be a plan that everybody think that is the best but I I I I'm impressed to a certain extent that from page six on in the report to page nine it does set out uh what is going to be done but I I'm not quite sure page eight um for you Mr. Chair remain remaining time. I may have to come back a second round. Is how is it going to having 50 minutes play would work as proposed for pickle ball? I can see the score of 11 um to try to really in a sense a more uh manageable time for players on court so that the people waiting to come on. But I I'm wondering who's going to do the timing? I mean is is very much self-regulated or self police is not through Mr. chair >> uh through the chair. >> That's good. But how is going to happen? >> Yeah, through through the chair at the uh outdoor courts. Uh certainly it is self-regulated. Uh we do have uh program staff that will assist. So there are program conveners at the indoor uh pickle ball courts and uh there are times where we do have conveners at the outdoor courts as well. >> Okay. Thank you for the answer, Mr. Chair. I know I'm almost uh right at the five minute mark, so I will come back for the second round. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Deputy May Chair. The next speaker, Tank Thompson. >> Uh thank you very much. uh through the chair. Um there was some talk about uh inaccuracies and I know that uh councelor Silivitz talks about facts and uh made some comments about what AI can actually do in terms of spinning words that uh can now reflect something other than what they were actually intended u in the actual conversation. So I I do want to address a little bit about the comment of the inaccuracies and uh in particular the reference made was about uh relined tennis courts. So I guess my question to staff would be on the provisions when we're calculating those provisions would would it be fair to say that uh the other municipalities that we were comparing to they would have also had tennis courts that were relined. Uh so because the impression I was getting from the comment was that that shouldn't have been included the relined courts because it falsely or gives inaccurate readings for provisions. So if staff could just clarify that I that would be appreciated. There is um sorry for my voice. I'm still getting over a cold. Um, there is a table in the background findings report. Uh, which I believe is table nine. Uh, just switch page it is on to find it here. Camera 13. Okay, it is at page 27 of the background report. Um, our benchmarking includes both shared courts, which would be the multi-line courts that you asked about along with the dedicated pickle ball courts. Um, a good thing to remember about pickle ball is because the trend has come so quickly to to all the municipalities, many like Richmond Hill, which is uh, you know, a municipality that doesn't have as much green field anymore, doesn't have many new big parks. um we're trying to adapt very quickly and so the multi-lined uh court option was a good stop gap measure that was used in in many municipalities just to provide some form of infrastructure for this trend as it as it came about. Um so you can see on table nine the majority of the municipalities that we benchmark do have uh shared or multi-lined courts and are using that as part of their inventory. Um as we've learned more and as as the sport has evolved, people are starting to realize they're two different sports. they do need dedicated courts and that's why uh this report is listening to the public and and recommending that any new courts would be dedicated. Um but there are still the multi-line courts in our inventory. >> I I I appreciate the answer. So basically it's it's telling us that it's not inaccurate to be including the realigned courts as part of the provision numbers that we're talking about. Okay. Thank you very much for that. Um that said, my my comments and same as everybody else, we all recognize that uh you know, pickle ball has definitely grown significantly in the the recent years and that uh you know, many residents are looking for more opportunities to play. But I think the mayor outlined it fairly clearly that, you know, this is a a city and and and now our our um uh Michelle Dobby is also said the same thing. You know, we're talking about a builtout city that now has to try and find ways to put uh things into the space that we have and we have to do that responsibly. Um this is you know it's it's really difficult when most of our parks and recreation uh facilities were planned long before this demand for dedicated pickle ball courts ever came up. So finding those facilities uh space, it's not easy. You know, we're doing our best to try and make them fit within the existing parks and neighborhoods. And I think that's what this strategy is is saying despite those challenges. You know, the strategy is responding in my opinion in a meaningful way. Uh the report does say that the strategy proposes 32 new pickle ball courts across the city and that as it was mentioned before would improve access from about one in every 8,900 down to one in every 5,000 res residents. They're also talking about the uh uh the 12 court hub at Richmond Green, but also another hub in the south end of the city at the Brody uh house parket. So, and then you add that with the additional neighborhood courts, expanding programming. These are all significant investments and to me this demonstrates a clear commitment to the meeting uh to meeting growing demand. Um the strategy also recognizes that people want different things. You know, some residents enjoy organized play while others simply want to look or simply want to book a court and play with friends and then just go home. And to me, this strategy, it recognizes both. So, I see the strategy as striking the right balance. It responds to growing demand while also considering affordability, long-term planning, and the many recreational needs that exist across our community. The strategy says to me, we agree there is a a demand. We are responding maybe not as fast as some people would like and I think the mayor talked about he wants to bring a motion that might address that. Uh we have listened and we are making substantial investments and to me we're doing it responsibly. for those reasons. I'm actually supportive of the staff recommendations. And you know, on top of that, this is not a done deal. The comments are still going to be coming in. This is only to receive the draft strategy. Please keep submitting those comments. So, those are my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Thompson. The next speaker, regional local counselor dep. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um so what mo the motion is on the floor is is to just to receive this report and and to receive all the comments in this room today to receive comments from council and um comments from the members of the public. And I think there were a lot of delegates who made their um case very clear as to what uh their thoughts are about this report and what what we can what we can do going forward. um we'll have an opportunity we'll have at least uh five months before there's an adoption of a strategy. This is just a draft proposal and we thank our staff for bringing it forward. But uh we have the opportunity and a full engagement process during an election to reach out and hear more feedback from residents across Richmond Hill about whether this this strategy uh hits the mark or whether there's additional changes that need to be made. and and I think uh was mentioned there's there's a there's an enormous effort being made to accommodate uh pickle ball players. Uh it took us 80 years to get the to the level we're at with baseball diamonds, hockey rinks, swimming pools and and tennis courts. uh you know it's 70 to 80 years worth of infrastructure in improvements and enhancements in a in a growing municipality where we had lots of land and lots of lots of places to work with and lots of growing new communities and over those 60 or 70 years um the the desired types of recreational activities did not include pickle ball. So, I I've been on this council for a long time, first elected 29 years ago. It's only the last 10 years that this that this re these requests have come forward, and we're doing our best to accommodate the requests and adapt and change our our our infrastructure, our parks, and our our offerings. So, I think we're um on the right track. We we've still got lots more engagement with the public and um the pickle ball community is being heard loud and clear and um you know we're doing the best uh to to accommodate the requests that are coming forward. But uh there's just one additional thing that's not mentioned in this report and um you know until somebody formally applies to privately build a um an indoor pickle ball facility uh we we can't speak of it. we can't incorporate it into our our report, but there's been informal um inquiries uh for people right here uh manufacturing, warehousing and and uh and um buildings in the east and west creek business area that that are seriously looking at uh because of the demand repurposing their current uses warehousing. And you know, these are adequate buildings that are already built um that that have the ceiling clearance and everything else required. Um and I I fully expect that over the next year or two, we're going to be uh getting formal applications to to reszone and um allow for these buildings in the business areas to be repurposed from warehouse to to private facilities for pickle ball. And um when that time when that time comes that we're dealing with formal applications that like we we really have to consider because the current zoning doesn't allow it. So we have to um you know we have to be cognizant of the fact that that this might be something that we want to encourage um for that let let the private sector build the indoor courts cuz you know it's it's it's very difficult uh to use taxpayer dollars to to accommodate a group of very expensive indoor buildings. Um, and you know, we continue to do the job that we're doing on outdoor courts and and uh rely on and encourage the the the private sector to come forward to meet this demand because uh there, you know, not not for all touristic purposes, but there's a market for it and there's there's going to be people that jump on it. So, just wanted to add that. Thanks, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you. So, the next speaker, Council Tree. >> Okay. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. So thank you so much for our staff also for our audience and also the uh pickle ball players come to the city hall uh have this type of conversation. So I would appreciate so I see uh in the past I guess I play tennis ball as well. So I see a lot of my friends when they play uh tennis ball and gradually they move to the uh the the the picky ball the ability are highly demandings. So the can interest from this committee is asking for maybe there have voices inside of this strike plants. I just want from the procedure perspective uh what is our public consulting's process to inviting their their concerns or their request from uh pickle ball uh players community maybe ask for yeah what is our public consulting process how we can engage with different communities because I heard their voice not being heard and their demand is not there at Uh so through you Mr. Chair to councelor tree the question was what was the consultation process that we used? >> That's correct. >> Uh so we consulted in the late part of 2025 with two open houses. One was here at East Beaver Creek and the other was up at the Bond Lake Arena. Uh we used our typical uh we have a notification eblast. Uh we also eblasted the recreation um group. Uh we used our typical social media uh Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, had the banner on the web page. Um so any anyone could come out to those open houses. Uh and then for the public survey, it was the same thing. Uh we did the typical social media blast. Uh there were posters I believe in in the community centers to let people know about that as well. Uh the banner on our homepage uh so anyone could could do the public survey and uh over 500 people did. So that's a good response rate for us. And then we did six key informant interviews. Um one was with the Richmond Hill Pickle Ball Club. Uh I don't believe the advocacy group existed at that time. Um but if if they wanted to be a key informant on the draft, we could certainly set up a meeting with them now. >> Okay. So I'm not sure is it a suggestion or otherwise or is possible feasible because this a strict plan we just received comments here we're not pro yet. So in the future there is adequacy team from there is there any way city build up some channels whenever email whenever telephone calls get them engaged. So this way their voice can be heard can be documented and just for that purpose. >> Um any anyone that wants to have a a direct conversation with us they they can just email us and let us know. >> Thank you so much. That's my first question. The second one regarding to the uh the interest as we all know as a councelor Scott Thomas mentioned some people like private uh small group some people like big group big group from size of purpose perspective what is the whenever current size or futures what is the largest set court for us eight courts 12 courts what is the largest one for >> for pickle ball >> yeah for pickle ball >> uh In the strategy, the largest is the 12 court hub at Richmond Green. Um, one of the things that we are finding through the background, some municipalities are using a greater distance separation when the when there comes to be more courts together because it it ends up generating much more noise. Um, and 12 courts seems to be reasonable based on on the setback distance that other places are using. >> Okay, got it. So, um, I I I think this might be a demand. I heard from the um club teams or the tennis player teams they're looking for 20. I'm not sure if in city li we have such type of public areas available for them. Uh I want to add another one is for the winter seasons because for now the mo majority of them are look at the plan will be the seasonal. So in summer they do can play but in winter the demanding is still there. Our gymnastium or community center is really limited space. So any possible portable either bubble or doom can be used. So in winter we can bring up or even rental maybe it's another option as well put up there and in summer they we can take it out. I just defer that question to Commissioner Steel. >> Uh through you, Mr. Chair. So you mean so the the facility at Richmond Green is being considered for the design for a bubble or a structure as well. And um we are also considering as uh Miss Dobby mentioned uh whether the Northwest Community Center in the future would accommodate uh some sort of dedicated raetball facility as well which would be indoor. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Also I look at the map now for the go stations uh at Gly as well. So uh as our representative mentioned here is in summer day is so hot I can understand 30 40°ree outside. Is there any possible we build up some shade over there so people can stay under the shade and cool down a little bit? Uh, so we haven't got into the details on the West Gormley potential seasonal hub at all yet, but we would expect that it would be designed similar to the Richmond Green seasonal courts which have a smaller shade structure for people to go into when they're not playing. >> Okay. Uh maybe my last question will be I would acknowledge uh the staff. Thank you so much. Put this one time on one hour on time schedules. So last year demanding by Jeffson community players. So they start or city start to pilot for uh the the uh horse and tennis court also be uh tennis court. The feedback was so uh uh positive. I see city move forward to build up this one time or one hour on time uh cross citywide. So I appreciate all the efforts. Thank you so much. >> Thank you councelor tree. Uh so uh thank you for the staff for your great effort in putting the this report together and I can see a number of positive steps and good moves to respond to the strong and uh growing demand from the peerboard players and um I also echo with some of my colleagues that we have to put more effort and work harder on exploring to find more indoors location because indoors court is a long-term strategy for year round use and for the long term we will save more cost for the city to accommodate the needs of the pickle ball players. We have to work hard on this. Uh I have a quite a few questions um on this report. Uh looking at the report it shows that there are there was a mixed opinion from this previous survey for building new pickle ball course at DDO panh holder and just wondering will the city still look into the visibility of the pickle ball cord there or that option is no longer being considered in a DDO pen holder because uh this this what not was not mentioned in the presentation. So, I just wondering the development of this. >> Um, yes, we in in this in the report it it recommends a neighborhood scale court at DDO, not a hub anymore. >> Uh, so anywhere between two to six courts is a neighborhood scale court >> within the panhold areas >> in the panhandle. Yes. >> Is any timeline? >> No. >> Okay. So they're just subject to the budget availability availability, right? Okay. Actually better than nothing. So uh my next question is um there's a quite a good move uh including the um Alvis Duku and Elgen Barrow Arena the ice pack converting into the pickle ball court in the summer. That's a good move. But uh in W six there's another arena is uh at sackfield arena there are two ice ring as well >> and I always visit there and I can see there seems not very busy for the ice ring as well. So I'm just wondering why there's not do the same thing on exact arena to convert the ice pack into the uh pickle ball crot in the summertime. Yes. Uh thank you through the chair. Um Ed Tackfield Arena we have the ice in year round and it is uh actually uh utilized heavily uh throughout that time. So we we do have the potential um so there is Bond Lake Arena uh which this year we did have to move the uh indoor pickle ball courts from that location due to some capital work. However uh there are three arena pads uh in which we do pull the ice out which would be Bond Lake Arena uh the Elgen Barrow Arena and the Elvis Sto Arena. So those those three could be considered uh four days. >> Look forward to it. Uh so um my next question is about um the baseball diamonds uh as mentioned by one of the delegates Miss Monroe and I've suggested the last pickle ball meeting to look into converting unused baseball diamonds into pickle ball court with a bubble and I haven't seen any update on the physibility. So just uh wondering if there's any reason this option was not included in the report or considered further >> uh through the chair. So the diamonds are uh fully booked and heavily utilized. >> Oh, I mean those unused for years long because in my world there's a baseball diamonds and the bay in 16 south of 16 just near wrestle farm product there's unused baseball ring for years long. What a wasteful. So my suggestion last time is to convert this unused baseball rings uh baseball diamonds into pickable court with a bubble. But I can see any updates here. So I just wondering any update. >> Uh so the draft strategy recommends 12 neighborhood scale um pickle ball courts. Those might be one of the parks that that those courts go into. Uh we are trying because of the urgency of of this infrastructure to focus on the parks that were in the earlier part of the capital plan forecast. So needing to have repair and replacement sooner anyway. Um but if if that one is in the near term, I can't I I don't think it is though. I think it's out further than 2031 and that's likely why it it wasn't on the initial list. >> Okay. So just look forward to the next step. That means okay is it about the budget is about is it too costly to do that. >> Um so as all of council probably knows we we are in a fiscally constrained environment right now. Um, and so any any requests for additional facilities within a park or rethinking within a park, we always make sure it's paired with when the assets were were going to be reaching their end of life anyway. And that makes sure that we're using our our money as wisely as we can. Um, so there are some parks that are coming up to end of life sooner than than others and and those are the ones that we've been trying to focus on to give council and and the taxpayers the best amount uh for their money. >> Okay. Still looking forward to Thank you. Uh my last question is uh I think the city open to working with the private investor uh to develop and operate the pickle ball facilities. I would say because there are quite a few investor approaching me. They have a uh interest in investing more facilities in our city and I refer them to the city already but there's no any development or no any further report uh on this staff report. So I'm just wondering uh is there any plan working with private investor on the on this facilities on the pickle ball facilities >> uh through you Mr. Chair. So so the pickle ball strategy outlines the pros and cons of of of different models that we could adopt once we've confirmed sites and we're undertaking design. We will be looking into the operating mod, the the design and construction model to see uh which way is is best for the city to do it. Um and and there's a lot of factors that go into that. So we will be doing that for sure. >> So as it this is only the draft strategy. So after the 30 days um public comment period, so will there be any uh a more detailed strategy and what's the timeline for the next report or more detailed strategy? So after the 30-day comment period, staff would analyze the comments that that we receive and then modify as as needed based on the comments the final strategy which is targeting to come forward in 2027 after the election. >> Okay. So look forward to it. So uh that those are my comments and questions. So uh that's exhaust all the speaker list on round one. So now we entering to round two. Mayor West. >> Okay. Thank you. Um just a couple of comments and I'm going to make an amendment, but um I just wanted to comment on the the idea of getting private pickle ball facilities in the works. I think that is a something that we need to be looking at. But just to be clear, there are a number of private facilities already operating in Richmond Hill, uh the Curling Club, uh all I think most of the schools that we have if I'm not mistaken. Um and uh you know, and we're certainly welcome anymore. The only challenge and I I I don't mean to be negative about this because I think there are there's got to be opportunities is that we are also very very constrained as this council knows on our supply of employment land and there are also rules around um converting employment land to uses other than uh uses where people can have jobs and we can attract economic activity and all that stuff. And I think that speaks to the balance that we're always trying to do between recreation and the amenities that we we we need to deliver to people and the also the jobs and the economic vitality that and go goodness knows under the environment that we're in right now we're also uh trying to balance. The second thing I just I smiled a little bit when um uh Michelle Dobby said um uh she used the term fiscally constrained environment. The English translation of that is that we are being grossly underfunded uh by other levels of government and we have no money. And the thing is if we're not careful in how we spend the money uh we are going to be uh putting undue pressure. That's another euphemism. We're going to have to raise taxes where we don't need to raise taxes. And I and I know that this council we and myself are very diligent about doing that. So the pickle ball issue as I said before isn't just about money. it is certainly there's a money aspect to it and that's very important but it's also about finding the locations that work for the facilities that we're trying to build but the two of them are part of that balancing act that we're trying to achieve here um that you know I I I get that the the public some of the public wants what they want and and I don't disagree with them on that and we're going to try to deliver that but often times when we're trying to deliver that we're trying to deliver it under a a situ situation where it's not quite as easy and clear as it might look. Um anyway, uh a while ago I put when when the time was was the right time, I put forward a motion to get Richmond Greens, uh as as the location for the next pickle ball facility and that we got that going and got that accelerated. And I we needed to get all the facts before we were able to do that so that we avoid the situation where we we had with the DDO panhandle where we just decided one day that that was what we'll we'll do and and we hadn't really gone through the process. But we've I've done enough uh work with staff right now that we that at the time I put the Richmond Green uh motion in that we knew that that was going to work and we we could get on it and get moving on it and it is moving. Um, you know, the question that came up today was, you know, exactly what does that look like? And we're going to know that soon, but we are moving forward as quickly as we can on that facility. The what I'd like to do today is I I found another opportunity and and it's outlined in the in the uh report that the Brody lands are an opportunity for another significant pickle ball facility and it's it's in the report, but the timeline we need to hurry up on this and and I believe in conversations I've had with staff that we can achieve the balance that I'm talking about before to get that uh done and get that done quicker. So, what I would like to do with this amendment, if you could put it up on the screen, Mr. Clerk is uh staff be directed to prioritize and accelerate the delivery of a permanent pickle ball facility at Brody Park, including advanced design, funding, strategy, and implementation guidelines. and that the Brody Park pickle ball project be included as a priority project within the park's master plan and brought forward for full capital funding consideration as part of the 2027 budget process for council approval and be built for use in the 2028 year or earlier depending on construction. So, I know that that means that we're not going to have it tomorrow and we're not going to have it, you know, like it's going to happen as quickly as we possibly can. That is the way we uh municipalities operate. It has to be designed. It has to be funded. It has to be, you know, make sure that we're we're we're crossing all of our ties and our tees and dotting all of our eyes to make sure that we're not wasting money on on a facility that isn't designed, you know, um adequately and it's not going to, you know, it falls apart over in a few years or whatever. Um, and the number of of courts that can fit in that particular location, like the one at Richmond Green, I think it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. Staff, I want you to maximize the number of courts. We need to squeeze every little bit of juice out of that lemon. Uh, for, you know, because it it's more efficient and better for the taxpayer to do so. And I want the same thing done with this. I mean it I think in the report it says 12, but if we can get more than 12 in there, get more than 12 in there. Um this is what the public is demanding and so that would be my amendment. So um I'm hoping that we can get uh council support on that and and moving forward quickly on that aspect of it. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor West. So now we have a motion of um of the amendment on the floor. So anyone want to discuss this amendment? Uh Dr. Mayor Chen, >> thank you very much. Um Mr. Chair and Mr. Mayor, um you're absolutely right. Um yeah, the all municipalities, not just Richard Neil. Uh we have been uh uh taking all the downloading from uh well the levels of government above us so to speak and um and then we ask you to do many many things and we actually even have a special council meeting later on on this aspect. But turning back to the amendment, I I think that um Mayor West, I I want to thank you for um putting it in even though my initial understanding recommendation from staff is just receive for information and then go out to the uh public to hear the comments but this meaning I hear the word um one of the delegate is asking council show leadership and I think that uh I want to thank you for showing leadership in this that while we are listening. We are taking the within the uh fiscal constraint situation. Uh make bite the bullet so to speak and make a move. You say not just on paper and I do understand the frustration I said in my first round. Yeah, several years have been going around and this is a concrete um step taking forward. uh maybe still small step but it's looks that we are uh moving as quick as we can with fit the system then uh I'm in total support and of this amendment and thank you uh again uh for taking leadership on this one and uh I will be happy to support it and I hope my colleagues will thank you Mr. chair and um yeah, maybe 20 courts even better. Thank you. But I like the word particular permanent. I think that's what people are asking for. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker, Councelor Leo. >> Um thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and I welcome this uh amendment. Thank you very much, uh Mayor West. Um I purposely drove by um this piece of uh this parcel of land uh when I come in here today. um is is is pretty big and uh and I'm and I'm glad that we found that it's a publicowned land and the only thing I would like to add is you know um I like squeezing the last juice out of the lemon uh but also um explore the opportunity to have it enclosed. I don't know as uh because it's in the employment area is not going to um affect anybody. um is all industrial so we can put a bubble there and uh and make it not only permanent but all season. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor Leo. Uh councelor Davidson. >> Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you Mayor West. Um through you Mr. Chair. So um I I want to say uh thank you to Councelor Leu. I I'm not against an indoor facility, but the research I did before the meeting said that a dome, for example, could be between 8 and 15 million and 600,000 in upkeep every year. So, I I like the idea of partnerships, and this sounds like an exciting location. That's not going to be as much um trouble in terms of noise in residential areas. So, uh I support this. Um but I do have one question through you, Mr. Chair. Is the budget Terry part something we is is this obvious we must have some preliminary idea that in a budget sense this is this is doable um so I won't speak for staff who are you know fully ver versed in the numbers but it's in the it's in the pickle ball strategy so it's it's it's something we're going to do we've identified it as a part of the strategy is something we're going to do I just want it on now and if I may um you know the idea of whether like again what this looks like still that in the in the motion somewhere there's the word design and detailed design so that'll all come through the detailed design so I mean we have a bit of time through the process that it takes to do this and the process that we're already in on with the uh other facility at Richmond Green and you know part of That process is figuring out specifically what does it look like? Not just the color of the building, but like what is the what is the design? How many units are going to be I mean pickle ball facil uh pickle ball courts are going to be in it, whether it's going to be a a dome, whether it's going to be, you know, removable, whether it's going to be permanent indoor. I I mean any of that stuff can all be done. But but the point here is that this pickle ball strategy has given us a policy basis and a policy foundation that we can use to so we're not searching for the facts. We're searching for the actions to get the job done. And this what I'm what we're talking about here is I mean we could wait until all of this uh you know the comment period and all that kind of stuff. But it's quite obvious now that we've gone to this point in time and this point in the process that we do need more facilities. No one's questioning that. So instead of waiting for the rest of the pickle ball strategy to get completely finalized and it will be soon. Let's get started. >> Thank you. Those are all my questions. >> Thank you, councelor Davidson. Any other councelor Thompson? >> So I just want to be clear on what I heard there. So what's going to come back at some point that's when we will know whether it's actually feasible, financially prudent or you know is not going to negatively impact uh other municipal priorities is when this would come back. Is that what I'm hearing? So I'm so it's a good question actually. I'm not looking for a report back. We already have the report in front of us saying we're going to do this. What we're looking for I suppose at some point in time and maybe staff could add to this. What we're looking for is you know the staff's going to go back do all the work that is it is outlined in this in this motion and they'll come back to us at some point. it'll be in the next term of council and say this is what we're planning on doing and uh as we do with anything that we build, here's the capital uh funding that we're requesting in the capital budget that we're going to be asking for in order to build it. So, it's not like we're not going to have any say over this by any stretch of the imagination, but the point is we're we're throwing the canoe in the river and the canoe is now moving down the uh the river towards the final destination. We're not waiting for this and and there will be portage points every now and again to check in on the on the situation. But that's a pretty good analogy. I like that one. Very very summary. Um uh but we're, you know, but I want to get going on it. That's that's the point. And and by the way, actually, sorry if I may. The the noise thing, thank you for mentioning that, Councelor Davidson. I couldn't imagine a park that's well Richmond Green is also very very good with about the noise situation but there's no one there's going to be no noise problem there. >> It's one of the few locations that we've been able to find that will accommodate that. >> Thank you. Those are all my questions. >> Thank you. Any other comments or questions? So, uh thank you Mayor West for uh this amendment and I fully support this. This is really a good move. Uh just one questions. Do we have any rough estimate the number of costs uh the courts in the future rough estimate for at this location? >> No, we we won't. And and that'll all that is part a very important part of the process going forward. But um like everything that we do, we you know we you can't really say how much it's going to cost until we determine. It's like the question is how long is a piece of string? We don't know that yet. But I mean we you know have a ballpark idea in what these types of things are going to cost and we know that we can fit it into the the capital strategy in one form or another but it's you know the details will come uh as the process unfolds. Thank you. I look forward to so uh if there's no any other comments so let's vote to this amendment. So is right all those in favor oppose caranously. Thank you. So that's exhaust all the items here. >> Make a motion. >> Oh, you make a motion for this report. Okay. So, anyone want to make a motion? May West, >> you're the first speaker. No. Anyone want to make a motion? >> Sorry. >> Sorry. Thank you. Sorry. Pardon me, Mr. Chair. We actually need to go back to the main motion as amended. And there's still the opportunity for members of council to speak to that. And if they don't, then it's the vote on the main motion as amended. >> Okay. No problem. So just get back to the original motion now. >> Amendment. Amendment. Sorry. So no. >> Yeah. So anyone? Yeah. Anyone want to see brother further? No. Seeing none. So now we have to vote for this. Okay. May motion. Okay. Okay. So now we vote on this. It's so confused. Okay. So uh all those in favor oppose carry unanimously. Thank you. >> So >> so this all around for the pickle ball items. So now we get back to uh the other items to be separate. So the first item is u 11.3 there's no clearing obligation in unassumed subdivision pull out by councelor Leo. >> Thank you Mr. chair and a huge shout out to um to staff for this amazing report that uh this is exactly um what I'm looking for. Um thank you for um all the details and uh and the thoughtfulness. Um finally we can you know make the developers accountable um and also we can recover the cost. Not only to recover the cost but we might you know you know get a little bit uh more out of it. um which is really great and I think the most important thing is is the safety you know and uh all the new residents they deserve that you know whenever there's a medical emergency whenever there is you know a PSW needed to to attend a house um if the if the snow wasn't plow is is is not acceptable and I'm glad to see that you know we got to hold them the same level as the city. Thank you very much once again um for for for stop the great report. um the own and I also um very glad to see that um the reporting system we're going to enhance the communication uh to the residents and also you know if there's um more details in in terms of how uh residents can directly uh contact staff if if if the developer is not doing their job um you know a direct contact would be uh would be appreciated um and um yeah is is I only have praise I don't have anything else. And I I'm I'm very shocked to see that, you know, last winter we we have to maintain 15 kilometers of an assumed um subdivision roads and and sidewalk. Um sorry, just one question. So um so going forward in on October 1st, we're going to sign agreement with uh the developers. What about the existing an assumed uh subdivision? They will be included in that too. Um am I correct through you uh Mr. Chair? >> Sorry through the chair to councelor Leu the in assumed you're asking about the >> unassumed certification currently. Uh will they be also covered by by the nails new policy >> through the chair? No they they will not. They're already um um tied to existing agreements. Those will not be grandfathered and they will they will remain without for example the same levels of service. They'll be slightly less. They may not have wind row clearing. uh it would be very um difficult to be have to go back and actually uh um uh I guess execute 50 new agreements with with new language and this is why we're taking it forward from this point. >> That is true. So it's for the future. So I think it's more important that um you know if that happens again I need the um the direct contact for the residents to report if the developers are not doing their job in time. That's all I'm asking. So, and again through the chair to council, part of that new communication protocol that we're working on with ARA with access Richmond Hill uh is to make sure that it's properly triaged. It's getting to uh to my department or my division in cases where it's the subdivisions are unassumed so that they're not wasting time going through the channels. All right. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Leo. Next speaker, Councelor Davidson. >> Thank you. Three, Mr. Chair, I was going to ask the same thing if it can be grandfathered, but the answer is no. But that doesn't mean the city doesn't make efforts to improve snow removal on these developments that aren't quite finished. The city hasn't taken them yet, but people live there. Can you sort of tell me what, if anything, the city can do to encourage developers to live up to their to the agreement to clear roads on in unassumed neighborhoods? I know you've helped, so I just want to you to articulate how. So, uh, through through the chair to councelor Davidson, uh, I think what we're going to try to do here is essentially is remind developers at pre-construction meetings what the expectations are, what the levels of service are currently in Richmond Hill, and that the expectation is that we try to achieve those levels even in unassumed areas. We will continue to try to get them to do a better job than they have been doing in the past. I think the residents deserve that. Uh, and we will be taking every opportunity with our with our developer colleagues to make sure that we remind them as often as possible. >> Thank you. And through, Mr. Chair, there's a part of the report that says the city won't be plowing those areas, but the city is never, it's not the obligation of the city to plow them. If if someone ever saw a city plow in that neighborhood, an unassumed neighborhood, why would they maybe have seen a Richmond Hill plow in that neighborhood even though the city's not responsible for plowing a neighborhood that's not assumed yet? So through the chair to councelor Davidson, if if a resident sees a city plow in an unassumed subdivision, it would normally be because there there is an agreement with the city that the developer has not adhered to. Complaints have come in and we've gone in to do the work and that would typically result in a back charge to the developer. >> Right. So you're doing it and then they're getting charged for it. >> Correct. >> Thank you. That's all my questions. >> Thank you, Councelor Davidson. Next speaker, uh, deput. >> Thank you very much, uh, Mr. chair and I want to join my colleagues who spoke before me. Thank you uh staff for working uh on this on the report. I'll be happy to support I think the motion has been put forward already. Um and because this is I I think the uh director just said it um even though people might be quote unquote relatively new to Rachel Neil, they deserve the same service and is now make it clear uh that is the particular builder or the developers still managing that subdivision is their responsibility. So we have strong language and I like the part about the uh security they strengthen the language maybe on that part I want to complement uh reg uh region city solicitor certainly would have input to it and on that note and through Mr. chair. Perhaps it's a a question maybe more so for our city solicitor. Um would it be possible in the future subdivision agreement that also make the request that the um builder or developer or party responsible subdivision uh would consider putting in caution in their APS meaning agreement, purchase and sale that um Wind uh winter removal uh or snow removal services uh is solely responsible or solely carried out by the subdivision um builder developer until consumption. Would that be possible to make that request in the sub future um agreement on the subdivision? Because we want to uh the city try our best to uh really mobilize or maybe strengthen uh our capacity in responding with people who have uh questions. But can we also try to um put something ne negotiating or maybe working out with uh parties in um before this the sign the uh future subdivision agreement for you chair the question is to for the city >> um through you Mr. Chair, I defer to the director, but the last time I looked at it, I think that there is a obligation for the developer to maintain prior to assumption. It's simply that the city has agreed to undertake those services which are the responsibility of the developer um at the developer's request. So, it isn't a question about who's responsible. It's just the city has through agreement agreed to undertake that obligation which is wholly the de developers unless I got that but I haven't looked at it for some time but I defer to the director to clarify >> through through the chair to the deputy mayor you're absolutely right and there are warning clauses currently that speak to what the levels of service are that is some of the language that we're looking to update in the agreements and we can absolutely look at whether there can be additional language with the developer in their agreement and purchase and sale which I believe what you're referring to with the residents which give them further information as to how the process works. We can definitely look at seeing if they can make those improvements but we will be making changes to our template agreements. >> Thank you very much uh from both the city solicitor and the director and uh uh Mr. Chair because I think that's important. Um I mean this is not uh uh totally new uh unconventional so to speak because that if people are buying for example places close to where the railway is they would have caution in the agreement purchase sale please be aware that uh yeah that might be noise that might be vibration blah blah blah and similarly I'm looking for that um but people moving in those unassumed uh subdivision we know you look carefully perhaps your purchasing lawyer should draw to your attention. Read this clause carefully. You agree to an initial on it. Something like that. We're not doing a lawyer's job, but nonetheless uh so take on the first opportunity um having the uh the other signing party for the future uh subdution agreement so that the city is prepared in terms of increasing capacity to deal with it in case we have concerns and issues inquiry to uh uh access new but also hopefully um kind of really um having the front end rather than the back end after people move in then they realize who supposed to do the job and to whom they should uh raise concern to. So thank you very much uh uh for all the responses. Yes. Uh within the tool box and the uh the the the authority we have uh that's why I'm suggesting uh through Mr. Chair uh for both our staff including uh our city solicitor to strengthen the language uh so that warning uh be put hopefully in the agreement purchasing sale. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker, councelor Thompson. >> Thank you very much and uh thank you for the report. Um just a couple of things for clarification that I'd like to get and and actually I'll I'll follow up a little bit on the the liability first because I I guess um well maybe I'll back it up here. um when you were doing the research in this this particular area, you talked about um public safety, emergency vehicle access, pedestrian mobility concerns, those types of things. So I'm kind of interested to knowing if there were uh say impacts that had occurred and it doesn't have to be from our municipality could have been other municipalities where um you know if the developer failed to u do the clearing then you know did we have situations where emergency services were compromised >> through through the chair to councelor Thompson I'm not aware of any situations where emergency services were compromised. They they could be which is why we mentioned it in the report. I am however however aware of some instances in ward one where long roads stretches of roads that lead to through unassumed areas where there are no homes that lead to phases of subdivisions where there are homes were not being plowed uh in a appropriate amount of time which led to issues with residents being able to get to where they needed to go. >> Okay. Okay. So, I'll tie in the liability side then. Um, so let's say you took that example and it did impact emergency services trying to get somewhere. Um, and you end up sending in our trucks or our contractors and they end up say destroying some sod that was laid or whatever. I mean, yes, we're going to be charging them back, but is that the liability you're talking about? Now, all of a sudden, they're going to say they're going to counter that and say, "Well, your trucks, you know, created a problem for us." So, through the chair to you, Councelor Thompson. Again, it's not so much on the the damage to saw or curb or sidewalk that that gets damaged that I'm worried about or we're worried about. It's more on liability with residents making their way through their subdivision. Are they impacted in some way? If if any infrastructure is damaged as a result of us having to go in to do the work, that's going to be thrown back at the developer to to repair because we had to go in due to the fact that they didn't get in there first. >> Right. And and just so that I'm also clear and I think we got the answer uh with councelor Leu but um city intervention I was a little confused what that meant because the report on one end is saying we're taking that out you know but then on the other hand it looks like we're actually still you know using that as a back stop where we need to. So um that is what our understanding is is that moving forward the intention is we're not going to be providing the service with the conditions that we had had implemented before but it's still there as a backs stop for the situations that we're talking about >> through the chair to the council. That's correct. Yes. >> Okay. Um yeah the only other observation is that uh I don't think it matters what communication we're going to put out there. somebody doesn't have that service, they're still going to be calling us, you know, even though we're going to try and tell them, well, you got to talk to the developer, it's coming to us no matter what. So, that's the unfortunate side. But, uh, I appreciate the report. I'll support the report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Thompson. Any other questions come in? Seeing none. So, I have a one I have a one questions only. Uh uh is there any penalty mechanism in place if the developers fail to meet the requirements set by the city? >> Uh penalty mechanism >> to to you Mr. Chair if they don't clear snow in the appropriate time. Is there a penalty? >> Y >> yes there is. So what'll happen is uh if they haven't cleared the snow in the reasonable amount of time and what we're going to explain to them is similar to the city services that are currently provided >> and we have to go in and do this work. It's two and a half times the cost of the work plus taxes plus an administration fee. >> And that's every occurrence. >> And again, the intent is to uh push the developer to do what they're obligated to do. >> I see. Got it. So, uh so let's vote on this motion. So, all those in favor opposely. Thank you. Next item 11.4 dissolution of DDO and heritage center advisory committees. Councelor Silus. >> Thank you, Mr. chair. Um, I will move these recommendations forward with thanks uh from all the work staff has done here. I can only really speak to the David Dunlip Observatory Park steering committee as I don't have any affiliation to um the heritage center advisory committee. So I I just wanted to take this opportunity to um to say that uh the DDL park master plan was approved by council in 2016. We have gone through years and years of discussion and um and concepts in order to get us to where we are today. And I am satisfied that our function as the steering committee in this particular term and the function that we've played in the city's overall management of the DDL park to the state as such have been met and have been very well established. So, I I want to extend my thanks uh to our three um citizen members of the DDO park steering committee. Um Marne and uh Gloria and uh David, thank you very very much for your dedicated work over this this term. Your volunteerism is deeply appreciated. And uh to uh councelor Shu, our uh vice chair, thank you very much for all your input. and to all staff members who uh are there along there with us along the way um as as we've moved this forward. Um I want to thank you. Um I look forward to seeing um our DDO park truly moving forward um into some amazing fantastic areas that we have wished for it for so so long. So thank you and thank you to staff for all that you do. Um it's been a pleasure and a privilege to work with you all. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Silus. And the next speaker, Deputy Mayor Chen. >> Thank you very much. Um Mr. Chair, I want to echo the uh chair of the current term um the DDO park steering committee uh council serious works. um being it been an honor uh being the chair of this particular same committee in the past term and I um and as I mentioned I echo the uh thank you and appreciation of the current chair of this term uh and in particular uh as she has mentioned uh to the volunteer from the citizens uh but I also want to thank commissioner Mazaro uh that actually when I was uh the chair and and throughout the life of this particular uh committee um that with his staff has been always very diligently supporting this committee I'm sure for this term as well um then and is also uh in a sense uh a job for the uh current committee members and the previous term committee members done well with the supported staff and I'm I'm I'm kind of thinking maybe symbolic than that particular uh petition uh overpass of cycling uh just from observatory lane that go all the way to our beloved David Dun observative I should say Richmond Hill David Dunham observatory park are almost ready uh uh for uh I don't know whether it's well it's not groundbreaking but maybe uh whenever is actually allowing petition uh and cyclists to uh go through that safely so I I think that just shows that is Um um I I won't call it end but this uh actually that would be the uh the advisory work for that park according to the master plan that was planned out 10 years ago uh has been carried out to uh to a conclusion and we look forward to the next chapter uh for the over 90 year young uh DDO uh place to continue to flourish. Thank you very much. I'm happy to support the motion perhaps council have move forward. Thank you all. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Chan. And um as the vice chair of DDO committee, I support this staff recommendation to uh streamline our governance uh structures and reduce administrative duplication and I I do believe uh this this solution is not about stopping works uh but it's a sign of progress. So um we are now transitioning from an ad hoc planning phase into a standard mature corporate operations and ongoing asset management. So uh the last word I'd like to thank the chair customer uh committee members deputy mayor Chen especially citizen members for your volunteer time and expertise throughout this process. So I think um yeah thank you so much and thank you all the staff for planning the DDO park. Yeah and this is only the right beginning of the big project. This is not the end. Okay so those are my comments. So so let's vote on this motion. All those in favor oppose carmously. Thank you. Okay the next item 11.8 eight uh son Balo amendment at Beville Avenue uh pulled by councelor Davidson. >> Thank you. Um so this is regarding uh a condo just south of Bloomington on Bay View uh right on top of a a significant snively wetland. And um through Mr. Chair, I do have some I fully support the city going to OLT and trying to stop um further development approvals, but uh through you, Mr. Chair, I do have some questions for staff. So, in July 2022 before this council, the previous council approved eight an eight-story condo there with 103 units. And at that time the applicants engineers said that there was um they said no to underground parking due to the high water table because like I said it's on top of a wetland. Um I'd like to ask staff the well let me go through it. Then in 2024 January this council approved more units but the same footprint. So we were willing to go from 103 units to 135 but same foot footprint same height. Now, this applicant has asked for um I would say it's 11 stories, but let's just say 10 stories above and then one of those stories would be under would be above ground parking and then three levels of underground parking which is right adjacent to a wetland. So my question for staff is how is this even possible as an application when one story underwater was poo pooed by the applicant themselves the first time they came to council? What is this something we've ever seen? Three stories of parking below ground on a wetland in a very wet area >> uh through the chair council Davidson. So um it's not on the wetland it's adj it's immediately adjacent. So that kind of you know allows for some kind of level of development. As part of the current uh proposal uh there were hydrog and geotechnical reports that were submitted in support of the application. Uh they have not satisfactorily addressed um our comments on those and that's part of uh the basis of the ref refusal of the current application in front of us. >> Thank you Mr. Chair. I may have misspoke. When I say on the wetland I meant like your cottage is on a lake. I meant it is right up to the edge. So my here's my concern. Is it possible that this developer could go to the OOLT and and really they're asking for approval of the 10 or 11 above ground and then three below. So let's say 13 story 13 levels. Is it possible that they go to OLT and say, you know, we wanted three levels of underground. It looks like that's not going to be h happening. Is that a de facto approval for those levels to be moved up? Like will it be clear at the OOLT that the three levels below ground cannot be converted to another three levels of parking above ground because after they do their studies and realize, oh, it's cost prohibitive or we can't do it. My question is, is there is there any way that this below ground parking could somehow through an OOLT approval be converted to above ground? So now we are looking at a 14 15s story building >> through the chair to councelor Davidson. So I can't comment on what the board at the tribunal may or may not do um through the proceedings um if that was something that they proposed which is not what's in front of us. So, our council would um you know speak to that. Um our council being um our city solicitor would speak to that um and offer um some type of arguments in support or against th that what that additional proposal that they're putting in front of the board. So I would say to you that it's uh anything is entirely feasible at the tribunal but um I think that based on the position that we're putting forward and the council direction to refuse the 10 the 10tory proposal that in front of us our council would uh vehemently be opposed to that and then the the tribunal will make that decision accordingly. >> Okay. Thank you. So there could be a caveat that hey if the three below doesn't work out it would be up to the OOLT to decide if they could shift those parking above ground to make this an even bigger building. But I guess we'll have to see how it plays out. Okay. Thank you. I I hope uh I hope we are successful at OOLT and in keeping this building to the side the maximum size eight stories that this area should have to endure because it is so environmentally sensitive. Thank you. >> So I just want to make sure that you want to move it councelor Davidson. Okay. So, next speaker, uh, regional local counselor Paula. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I I just just want to say that I I do support the staff recommendations here, the way they're intending to proceed, that they're going to um, you know, advocate for the position of council in it in its most recent ruling. and that um that I'm hopeful um you know this is not a um you know a costly battle for the city. I hope that that that we're um the successful in in uh making our arguments against the current proposal, but that possibly there's some middle ground. And I I do note that in in direction D that there's uh authorization from council as a part of this to also try to mediate a solution. And I think our staff's proven very successful when it comes to avoiding costly hearings and mediating successfully uh with applicants. So um I support the recommendation and the direction and u you know hope we get a good result here. Thank you. >> Thank you. May West. >> Uh, thank you. I certainly will support this. I I just want to be clear. I mean, in the last term of council, uh, this was decided that we would allow a for an eight-story building there. Uh, I voted against that at that time because I honestly, it's not my preference to see that kind of a building in that location. However, uh since it was approved by the previous term of council or by the previous council, uh you know, we've all tolerated a number of changes to their uh to this proposal between now and then. And and quite honestly, I I think are we up to four approvals on that property now and nothing's been built? >> Through the chair, this is the fourth. >> Okay, that's is that a record? Like I I'd love to know how much they've spent in application fees. It's mind-boggling. I I Anyway, whatever. But um I I want to be clear. There's no way in the world I would be okay with anything uh like a a height and and building envelope bigger than what we have approved. You know, eight stories, you know, there's no way that that anything above that would be something that I would I would be okay with. And so I think we do need to uh I mean and by the way it's it's the developer that went to the OOLT not us. Um so uh you know I I get that going to the OOLT means that the decision authority now rests with the OOLT not us but I would like staff to do what they can to defend us uh to to to get something in there that we can live with. um and that um you know is is that w is winnable. I mean we're never going to go to the OOLT and and roll the dice in a cavalier way, but I think at the end of the day, we need to get to an agreement that um you know that that we can we can live with and that the that we feel that we could stand by um at the OOLT. So I mean we'll see what happens. Um, you know, hopefully, uh, something will get resolved at some point and something might actually get get built there, I suppose. But, uh, you know, we'll see what happens. Okay. So, uh, any other comments, questions? Seeing none. So, let's vote Nate. Um, all those in favor, opposed. Carry namsly. Thank you. So, moving on. We have no other business. We have no emergency time sensitive matters. Uh I need a motion to adjourn. Council tree. All those in favor oppose. Carryan namy. Thank you. >> So we have a special meeting after lunch. Right. >> Just procedurally um we actually have to call the special counsel meeting to order. >> Okay. >> And then we'll recess for lunch just because the the the timing for the special counsel meeting was immediately following this. So we'll just call it to