A city committee has given their nod of approval for homes to be built at Kinsmen Norman Road Park.
The Development & Heritage Standing Committee met Monday afternoon, with one report looking for approval to rezone the south part of the park to allow for six single-unit dwelling lots.
Each lot would be approximately 12 metres wide by 30 metres long.
The entire park is approximately 9,500-square-metres with this development portion taking up approximately 2,400-square-metres.
While this change has been a controversial topic due to homes being placed within parkland, revenue from the sale of the lots will go towards rehabilitation of the park.
While the committee approved the report, there were concerns raised over if the sale of the lots would be enough to make the park improvements. City administration stated they were unsure what the lots could sell for at this time.
Committee member and ward 1 councillor, Fred Francis, says there needs to be enough revenue from the lot sales to fund these improvements.
"If we're not able to do that then there's really no point to move forward, not in my opinion anyway. So, if we're unable to achieve the objective we're setting out to achieve then we probably don't want to move forward in it. So I'm prepared to move it forward at Standing Committee with the understanding that more of a business plan, more of a financial plan, a real estate plan will come to us when this comes to council."
He says if the lots sell for $200,000 or $400,000... that's a big difference in revenue.
"Obviously if you're looking at six lots for about $400,000, then you're approaching the $2-million plus mark, depending on what they're going for. So, I guess the market drivers will necessitate what those numbers are, but obviously $2-million to $2.5-million is a whole lot better than $1-million to $1.2-million."
Francis says park improvements aren't cheap.
"Off the top of my head when you're looking at playground equipment, you're looking at anywhere between $500,000 and $1-million, so it's not cheap depending on what kind of footprint and what kind of playground equipment you want to upgrade to. So that's what I want to see from the parks department, that's what I want to see from the real estate department... make this make sense for me."
The park at 1730 Olive Road currently offers open space, trees, and a community soccer field.
The list of proposed upgrades for the park could include new soccer nets, a basketball court, a multi-use trail, trees, lighting, a gazebo, benches, and more.
If approved by city council at a later date, it's estimated the lots will go on the market as of spring 2026.