'Adult playgrounds': Aurora considers building outdoor fitness parks

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 5, 2021

Should Aurora’s recreation opportunities be expanded in a post-pandemic world?

Resident Johnny Kwan thinks so.

While indoor sports facilities like hockey arenas aren’t going anywhere, he wants the town to broaden its horizons by introducing well-designed outdoor fitness parks, which are dedicated drop-in spaces offering fitness equipment that is accessible to all ages and skill levels.

“Typically, these fitness parks are designed as a complete full-body circuit. Depending on the audience we are looking to entice, all equipment should be usable by all age groups. The most popular stations are usually the pushup bars, pull-up bars, and parallel bars,” Kwan said.

“By having all the equipment next to each other, it becomes easier to train without having to run around. Ability to socialize is a bonus.”

At the moment, Aurora has two “partial fitness parks,” as Kwan calls them, at Sheppard’s Bush Conservation Area and Ada Johnson Park.

But he says the equipment is inferior and improperly spaced, limiting a quality workout.

“With Toronto having over 50-plus fitness parks scattered throughout the city, Aurora is falling behind with two partial fitness parks,” he said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic closed down or placed capacity limits on gyms and other indoor spaces and as the supply of home gym equipment dried up, more residents have looked to outdoor recreation alternatives, Kwan said.

Council has agreed to look at the feasibility of outdoor fitness parks, including potentially in the southwest quadrant of town, which has a lack of recreation amenities.

That will go hand-in-hand with a review the town is conducting of its parks and recreation master plan next year.

This isn’t the first time a resident has asked the town to consider implementing a new outdoor activity amid the pandemic.

Last winter, Todd Billo pitched the idea of disc golf, which uses Frisbees and wire baskets.

“The sport has exploded since COVID happened because it is one of the very few outdoor activities that is COVID-safe,” he said.

Outdoor fitness parks can be found across Canada and are a potential revenue-generating source for municipalities, which could charge fees for programming and rentals, said Coun. Rachel Gilliland, who brought the idea to council in late September.

Providing outdoor fitness parks, which she called “adults playgrounds,” could be good for residents’ physical and mental health, especially amid the anxiety of the pandemic, Gilliland argued.

A 2021 survey in the Canadian City Parks Report conducted by Park People Network, a group focused on activating the power of city parks, found 60 per cent of cities said COVID-19 had negatively impacted park budgets but that 85 per cent of Canadians said they want to see more public funding invested in parks.

The report found 94 per cent of cities said that park use had increased during the pandemic.

Two-thirds of Canadians spent more time in parks during the pandemic and of those, 82 per cent said they expected their use of parks to continue or increase in the future.

Aurora’s current parks and recreation master plan covers 2016 to 2021 and needs to be updated to reflect population growth, evolving demographic characteristics, and changing preferences for recreational activities, director of community services Robin McDougall said.

“The update would involve a significant public process and consultation with all user groups to assist in developing the revised plan,” she said.

“There is no specific focus on the review. The goal of the review is to obtain feedback from the community and user groups as to what amenities they are looking for in the community, such as ice pads, gymnasiums, court sports, splash pads, skateboard parks, parkland, trails, etc.”

The master plan update will review and incorporate those outcomes, McDougall said.

“If new ideas like disc golf or outdoor fitness equipment come up, they will be raised in the study by the residents/user groups for consideration,” she said.

The town has recently completed supplementary studies specifically on aquatics and outdoor sports fields, McDougall added.