Several Brantford residents attended a public open house for the future southwest community centre and park on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.
For roughly 15 years, the City of Brantford has been working on planning, designing and building a new park for the southwestern part of the city.
Located on property between Shellard Lane and McGuiness Drive, the 24-acre community site will be the largest park in the area.
Once completed in 2026, the park will include a variety of amenities including:
- Accessible playground with rubberized surfacing and swings
- Splash pad
- Paved multi-use court for basketball and neighbourhood ice rink
- Five new outdoor pickleball courts (two of which are accessible) and bleachers
- A regulation-sized artificial turf soccer field
- A regulation-sized tournament cricket pitch and field house with washroom facilities and change areas
- Activity hub building with a concession stand, washroom facilities and change areas
- Skate park and disc golf
- Shade structures and new plantings
- Paved parking lots, walking paths and trail connections
During the drop-in open house, guests had the opportunity to chat with City staff, ask questions, check out various design mock-ups, and submit their name suggestions for the new southwest community park.
They also had the chance to learn a bit more about how the Grand Erie District School Board, the City of Brantford and the Brantford Public Library have all teamed up to build a new elementary school, public library and community centre next to the park.
Located on 7.2 acres of land at the intersection of Shellard Lane and Strickland Avenue, the joint-build will include an elementary school, child-care centre, public library, recreation and community centre (with two competition-sized gymnasiums and spectator bleachers) and multi-purpose rooms to be shared with the school.
Jennifer Elliot, the City of Brantford’s Director of Engineering Services, said that after years of investigation work, geotechnical reports and archeological studies, the City officially started construction last year, and have been hard at work preparing the site ever since.
“We started construction on the park last year around the fall and that will go on until 2026 when it’s finally opened to the public. We’ve already formed up the roadways and we just need to now get some of the utilities in,” she said. “We’ve got sanitary sewers in and we’re going to be doing work with the water main and storm sewer soon; actually to make most use out of our real estate, we’re putting the storm water management facility underneath the cricket pitch so that we can maximize the land and get more out of it.”
She said that after over a decade of planning and preparation, she’s looking forward to seeing the end result come to fruition.
“I’m excited to see the buildings come up and see the amenities start to take shape,” said Elliott. “I’ve been in construction all of my adult life and I’ve been with the City for 25 years, so I really love to see these things come into actuality. I think once it’s done, it will really help to complete that southwest part of the city.”
Ward 1 resident, Peter Blahut, was just one of the many people in attendance for the open house.
He said that it was interesting to see how the project has changed over the years and how it’s now taking shape.
“Its different than I thought it would be. My wife and I have lived in the area for 15 years now and we were told that all of this was going to be happening, but it’s a bit different from what I’m seeing,” said Blahut. “I think originally they were talking about the community centre being a separate building more geared towards things for seniors, and they were talking about putting in some sort of residential housing with stores in the area, and baseball diamonds. I know when I was talking to Jennifer, she said it had changed because the interest in the area has been more geared towards cricket.”
He added that while he had some concerns here and there, he’s overall looking forward to seeing how it all comes together.
“I can see myself coming by and checking out the various things going on, like if they have tournaments and stuff like that, I would probably come and check that out,” said Blahut.
For those who may have missed either the Wednesday or Thursday open houses and are interested in suggesting a name for the community park, visit the Let’s Talk Brantford website here: https://letstalkbrantford.ca/namingsouthwestpark?tool=brainstormer#tool_tab
“We’re going to be taking all the suggestions from tonight’s open house, as well as tomorrow’s, and the suggestions on the Let’s Talk Brantford site, then we’re going to organize them into groups,” said Elliott. “We’ll have a bit of a workshop to present those to the Ward councillors, and then from there we’ll work on presenting one to the council at a later date. It’s all very exciting.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
