Fredericton works to make Killarney Lake Park a fun, affordable Atlantic destination
A mountain biking trail, disc golf course, playground and accessibility features will be added
With a disc golf course, and new mountain biking trails, among other additions, Killarney Lake Park is on its way to becoming a regional destination, the City of Fredericton says.
"It is really exciting," Coun. Ruth Breen said of work that began at the north side park earlier this month. "It is going to become a provincial and Atlantic Canadian destination park."
Killarney Lake will have up to 32 kilometres of mountain biking trails for competition, beginners and toddlers, as well as a skills park.
Work will be done this summer and fall on an 18-hole disc golf course that will turn into a nine-hole course in winter. Disc golf, sometimes called Frisbee golf, is played by rules similar to conventional golf.
The par-67 course at Killarney Lake is set to be championship-level, and Fredericton Disc Golf was a part of the consultation phase.
"One of the things that we heard from the public was the request for an actual disc golf course that we could host some competitions at," said Bobby Despres, the city's recreation and culture manager.
The city is ensuring that both disc golf and the mountain-biking trails will be competition level.
Killarney Lake Park already offers a variety of recreation such as biking, swimming, fishing, hiking, showshoeing and the chance to see wildlife.
Despres is excited about the upgrades to what the city calls its "active park," to be used for recreation, compared with the more "passive" park, which the city has identified as Odell.
"This brings nothing but excitement to me to see that we can bring people together and celebrate all different disciplines of sport activity," Despres said. "This is an extension of people's living rooms."
The city also had requests for mountain-biking trails and is working with River Valley Cycling. Construction of the trails hasn't yet begun, but a tender is being prepared. There will also be a skills park that includes jumps and ramps.
Despres said it's challenge, but the city is trying to avoid cross-over between the new trails and existing cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails.
"There's one area of the park … it's known a spaghetti junction, and that's kind of what it feels like when you look at the trail system," Despres said.
The bike park will rollout in two phases and will cost $350,000 in 2025 and $250,000 in 2026. The disc golf course will cost $300,000.
Other additions will follow a key principle of accessibility, which was outlined in the city's recent recreation and leisure master plan.
There will be an inclusive playground, which will begin construction in the fall, an accessible beach mat and trails that are adaptive-bicycle friendly.
"It's great to see these concepts come to fruition and seeing those principles right in the plan, so that there's accessibility for everyone in the different parts," Breen said.
The city worked with Participaction, a non-profit organization working to make thing more accessible, to create the new playground.
The playground will cost an estimated $1 million and was approved in the 2025 capital budget, Breen said.
The accessible beach mat is described on the city's website as a "hard and stable surface for visitors using a wheeled mobility device to access the lake."
There will also be an "accessible pathway" from the parking lot and play park to the beach."
This adds to an accessibility dock that was installed in June.
"There's so many different features that allow folks of different ages who want to visit a playground, as well as folks of different abilities to visit a playground," Breen said. "I think this really ties into something important."
According to planning documents, the current trails use four per cent of the park's 1,594 acres. The additions will now "comprise approximately nine per cent of the total park area."
"The natural aspect of the park is still there," Breen said. "There's still lots of space for folks that just want to get in the woods, enjoy the peace of nature."
The city also has plans to build multiple baseball fields in a 65-acre parcel just below the Killarney Lake Rotary Centennial Lodge.
Despres said the fields are in the design phase, and futher details won't be available until 2026-2027.
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