Campbell River is looking to play ball big time with Willow Point Park over the next decade.
A recent draft of the city parks and recreation plan looks to transform the park into a baseball “hub” with five or six upgraded diamonds focused on U10-U18 teams.
“While 5 diamonds technically exist at Willow Point Park, their dimensions and amenities vary and are not able to accommodate all types of organized ball needs or support future participation growth,” the report states.
Planning Manager Jason Locke says it will benefit the city economically.
“The notion of a baseball hub, I know that’s for a very specific group. That’s an opportunity to draw in, be an economic driver in order to host larger events, tournaments and whatnot where people will be staying over the weekend or over the long weekend spending money in our community,” Locke told a committee of council Tuesday.
The plan calls for a retrofit of Nunns Creek Park with four diamonds for a slo-pitch focused site or it might look for another location.
Mayor Kermit Dahl hopes the plan will bring a “long term solution” around issues with baseball in the city instead of “continuing to kick this can down the road.”
“It has been a serious piss-off for three years and I hope that this is the last year that we have to listen to how angry slo-pitch is for the decisions that we made in this room three years ago,” Dahl stated.
Dahl is referring to minor baseball being moved from Nunns Creek to Willow Point after safety concerns regarding the homeless encampment.
The parks and recreation plan still has to be presented to Campbell River’s three baseball user groups. Coun. Susan Sinnott asked for a city liaison for that meeting with the user groups. The liaison hadn’t been chosen as of Tuesday night.
Statistics from the city estimate Campbell River Minor Baseball requires about 1,500 hours of ball diamond time while Campbell River Slo-Pitch needs 672 hours and Campbell River Masters Slo-Pitch requires 20 hours.
None of these changes are expected to happen within the next three years – for now it’s status quo.
The final parks, creation and culture plan is slated to be finalized by July.
