Kelowna Parks Challenge – Trip #19
This week, as part of my Kelowna Parks Challenge, I made my first foray into Rutland, on the east side of Kelowna. I saw a total of six parks, in both the centre and eastern part of that suburb.
Read on for my impressions and reflections.
The Trip
East of Downtown Kelowna, in Midtown, where Mission Creek and Mill Creek are at their closest, the lakeside floodplain where Kelowna is situated reaches its narrowest point. Beyond that, the land rises and the plain widens. Here you will find the community of Rutland.
Long an agricultural area, Rutland became primarily a residential suburb after it was amalgamated with Kelowna in 1973. Nowadays, it is one of the city’s five urban centres, along with Downtown, South Pandosy, Capri-Landmark, and Midtown. As such, the city has been focusing tax dollars on improving the local livability of Rutland’s commercial core.
It was easy to see those dollars at work at the beginning of my adventure. Starting out in the centre of Rutland’s commercial district, along provincial Highway 33, I explored recently redeveloped parks then headed northeast along a route that made a large circle through the residential zones of east and southeast Rutland. Eventually, my course brought me back to my starting point at Roxby Road and Highway 33.
Roxby Square
Earlier this decade, when the city of Kelowna surveyed Rutland residents for ideas to improve their community, renovation of Roxby Square was high on the list. Located in the heart of Rutland’s commercial strip, this public plaza is designed to be available for community markets and public festivities. As a case in point, check out the communal Christmas tree in the photo above.
Even at its most bare, the new Roxby Square is furnished with several seating opportunities and has been decorated with a grove of sculpted trees, each adorned with a cluster of programmable LED lights. They lose something of their charm in the daytime, I’m sure. I will have to make a point of visiting again at night.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park, but only on-leash.
Rutland Centennial Park
Located across the street from the Rutland Centennial Hall, it is difficult to believe that this sizeable park is less than five years old. Nevertheless, I have read that until 2015, when it was acquired by the City, the entire lot sat undeveloped. Since that acquisition, the park has been developed in three stages, with a fourth and final phase set for next year. Already built are a sports field, a playground, and a garden. Soon to come are an entry plaza and an all-season public washroom.
This park is very large and makes a great asset for the residents of Rutland. Only a block from Highway 33 (ie. “Main Street”), it is just down the street from Roxby Square, with the Rutland Exchange bus loop between them. Clearly, the city planning department is intent on creating a centre of gravity here, vis-a-vis community living.
There wasn’t anyone else using the park when I visited, but I think that was due to the snow. I for one, look forward to coming back in the spring to see how the garden is filling out.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park, but one will be added in 2020.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park, but only on-leash.
Briarwood Park
This park is a great neighbourhood park. Located along a walkway connecting two culs-de-sac, it feels a lot like a playground in the middle of a housing development. Entirely fenced in, the park is surrounded by multi-family housing, townhouses in particular, and is a perfect example of the kind of park you can send your kids outside to play in without having to worry about them.
The kids were in school during my visit, but footprints and other tracks told me the park gets used in the winter as well as the summer. The main feature of the park is a playground and the only other features are a small hill and a couple of trees.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Because is it taken up by a children’s playground, dogs are not allowed in this park.
Mugford Park
Located out on the eastern edge of Rutland’s residential zones, this park is either new or very recently redeveloped. Occupying an area equal to ten nearby residential lots, its major features are located on its south side, leaving the north half empty.
The park’s design reflects a refreshing sensitivity I have come to expect from modern parks. Rather than levelling the slightly rolling hills of the property, the park’s design responds with curving paths and different levels. Both the playground and the basketball court here occupy ovals and are surrounded by plantings.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park, but only on-leash.
Brighton Park
Situated at the centre of a residential neighbourhood south of the highway, this is another example of a small neighbourhood park dominated by a playground. Taken with the streets around it, this park and its surrounding streets reminded me of those I saw in Bankhead and south of Capri-Landmark.
The most wonderful feature of this park, other than the relative safety it gains from being so far from any busy roads, is the stand of mature oak trees that covers it. In the winter, of course, their fallen leaves are beautiful to behold, but I imagine their benefit is even more appreciable in the summer when they provide the entire park with shade.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Because is it taken up by a children’s playground, dogs are not allowed in this park.
Rutland Lions Park
Only a block south of Highway 33 and Roxby Square, this large park has clearly been a centre of civic life for some time. Covered in mature ponderosa pine trees, which I assume date from before the property was developed, this park has all the hallmarks of a mid-twentieth century recreation ground.
Even if it weren’t for the carpet of grass that has replaced the original understory, or the old-style concrete pillars that show where the original boundary fence once hanged, you could date this park to before 1973 by the fact that it is home to the Rutland Cenotaph. Though the plaza around this feature was renovated in 2009, the simple fact that Rutland has its own cenotaph attests to a time when its residents thought of it as an independent community.
Lions Park is a wonderful semi-natural space in the heart of a growing urban centre, and I hope it keeps its charm for many years to come. I have read that an annual car show is held here among the pines. Perhaps I will have to attend if only to see this park in its summer splendour.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is a washroom in the northeast corner of this park. It is not open in the winter.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park, but only on-leash.
Reflections
Rutland
Rutland’s reputation as a bedroom community preceded it for me. Due to the fact that the housing prices are lower there, relative to the rest of Kelowna, Rutland is thought of as being home to a lot of working-class and younger people. I could see on my walk, however, that many of its residents have enough means to afford two vehicles and an RV, so that easy characterization is surely an oversimplification.
Nevertheless, the impression one gets in Rutland is of a predominantly residential area. Time will tell if the city’s efforts to develop the fabric of the community bear fruit.
Bottom: the cenotaph in Rutland Lions Park.
Urban Centres
With this visit to Rutland, I have now explored parks in all five of Kelowna’s urban centres. In fact, there are only two urban centre parks left that I haven’t visited! I have enjoyed getting to know the different characters of these communities and look forward to watching them grow and hopefully improve over the coming years.
Conclusions
With this trip, I have now seen ninety of the 203 parks on the Official List, in one hundred forty-seven days. In other words, I have seen 44% of the parks in 40% of the year. I expect to fall back a bit next week, due to the holidays, but I am confident that I will remain on track in the new year!
Here’s hoping you’ll be along for the ride!
