The Town of Newmarket is adding one basketball and two pickleball courts to Proctor Park based on resident feedback.
Residents spoke out during an online town hall event held by the municipality Oct. 17. The town is preparing to install a new concrete pad in the Primrose Lane park near London Road, featuring two pickleball courts alongside a basketball court. This comes after a survey with more than 460 responses, in which 35 per cent wanted pickleball as a leading response to what sport should be at the court.
Ward 4 Councillor Trevor Morrison said it is very exciting for the ward.
The number of responses “just shows the energy and really the interest in what we’re doing here,” Morrison said.
The courts are part of Newmarket’s recreation playbook and an effort to expand recreational offerings while requiring people to travel less far for them. In addition to Proctor Park, Newmarket has also surveyed residents about courts in Environmental Park, with those results to be shared at another online meeting Oct. 21.
Capital works project manager Danyal Sakrani said the project should be complete by the summer 2025. The courts will be located next to the Proctor Park playground, with open benches so that parents might watch both the courts and the playground. Seven trees will be moved and two trees cut down and replaced based on their age.
“Newmarket is a rapidly growing urban area, which is putting new pressures on our local recreation systems,” Sakrani said. “The goal of the recreation playbook is really to build sports courts in every ward to decrease travel time across the community.”
Residents asked several questions about the project. Notably, tennis was the second most voted for sport with about 27 per cent of the vote, followed by basketball at about 23 per cent. But Sakrani said they opted to skip tennis for this project, given that a massive new tennis facility is coming to the south end of town.
Some residents raised concerns about noise and a lack of additional parking for the new courts.
“Please consider expanding the parking lot to handle the growing number of park visitors,” one resident wrote in.
Sakrani said they do not see more parking will be needed based on the experiences of other municipalities building sports courts, but it is something they would monitor.
Other concerns relate to stray balls. Sakrani said that given that the courts are oriented in opposite directions, they do not expect stray balls to be a big issue. However, he said they may consider a barrier to protect from stray balls hitting parked vehicles nearby.
Staff plans to incorporate feedback received into the final design. Construction could start in November weather-dependent but could get left until early spring.
