Lively/Walden: Help Shape Your Future

The focus of the project is to create a new park, focused around water, animated with four season, passive activities for multi-generational users.

The park would be a new gathering place; the heart of the community where unique and extraordinary features support cultural activities and play, uniquely accessible and connected to the community.

November 26, 2025 – Site Evaluations Unveiled

Thank you to everyone who attended the public open house on Wednesday, November 26, regarding the new Lively recreation facility.

The project team, led by 3rdLine.Studio, has released conceptual designs for the Anderson Farm Museum property, the preferred option identified by the Lively Recreation Advisory Panel as the site of the new Lively park and recreational site.

If you were unable to attend the session at the Michael Vagnini Community Hall, you can still review the designs and share your thoughts. The City is committed to ensuring all residents can provide feedback on this important community project. The survey form on Over to You will remain open until December 19, 2025. Feedback gathered from the open house and the online engagement period will be combined with the Advisory Panel’s evaluation. A project update is scheduled to be presented to City Council in Spring 2026.

Evaluative Criteria

Evaluating criteria was developed by the project team. The Lively Recreational Committee rated each of the developed options against the criteria.

All three sites contained desirable elements and will improve the community. However, this process identified the Anderson Farm as the site that best fulfilled the overall goals of the project. Given the proposed functional program budget and time frame, Anderson Farm is in the best position to support the development of a new community heart. Sensitive development of the site was viewed as supportive of the community’s heritage, and provided a venue that, with available funds, could support the development of unique and desirable features.

The other sites are worthy of development. However, the Ski Hill East Park could not be developed in the time frame desired, required significantly more capital funds than is available and presented safety concerns; the Kin Park site was not large enough to accommodate the functional program. Neither of these two sites could provide the optimized value of capital improvement to the Anderson Farm site.

The Lively Recreation Panel concluded that the Anderson Farm site was the most worthy site for the proposed project.

Project History

The Lively Recreation Advisory Panel was established in the fall of 2021 with ten members from the Walden/Lively community. While most panel memberships expire with a new term of City Council, this panel's membership continues due to its project-based nature, ensuring knowledge transfer and continuity of work.

Following direction from Council, the terms of reference were adjusted to replace two youth panel positions—due to a lack of participation—with new adult members. Staff will now consult with local youth leadership groups to find new ways to engage this demographic.

Two rounds of community engagement have been completed: the first in September 2021 and the second in June 2022. This engagement included online surveys, idea boards on the "Over to You" platform, and paper copies at Citizen Service Centres/Libraries. In June 2022, Oracle Poll conducted a city-wide telephone survey on the project's next steps. The panel members are currently collaborating with City staff to prepare the next set of recommendations for City Council, utilizing the polling, engagement results, and the panel’s work.