Norm Perry Park Master Plan
We’re looking to the future of Norm Perry Park, establishing a master plan for the 9.2-acre athletic park to ensure it continues to serve the user groups, athletes and spectators who utilize this signature recreational space.
Named after Sarnia Imperials football legend and two-time Grey Cup champion Norm Perry, the 9.2-acre park includes the City’s only artificial turf sports field.
Why a Master Plan?
Many of the amenities at the park are nearing the point where they need considerable investments or replacement. While the City continues crucial maintenance efforts, we want to look to the future, to ensure the park continues to function as a vibrant, flagship athletic facility that meets the needs of its diverse user groups and visitors alike.
A master plan allows us to:
- Identify and advance the most critical maintenance needs
- Plan for and advance capital investments such as replacement / improvements to existing amenities and the addition of new amenities through the annual budget process
- Ensure future investments benefit the widest possible number of users and balance needs across multiple user groups
- Be prepared with identified projects for future grants, funding, donation or sponsorship opportunities
Like so many in our community, we value the importance of the park, and a master plan will help us ensure that investments into this facility are well planned for and ready to go, while illustrating what is needed to keep this facility operating and improving during budget deliberations.
Norm Perry Park Today
The park is an important facility for a variety of sports, including football, rugby, lacrosse, ultimate frisbee, and soccer, with a diverse set of user groups such as the Sarnia Imperials, Sarnia Saints Rugby Club, Sarnia FC, and the Sarnia Minor Athletic Association.
The facilities current season extends from April 1 to Oct. 31.
Norm Perry Park features:
- Artificial turf field with lighting, score clock, broadcast booth and bleachers
- Natural grass field
- Two parking areas
- A storage building
- Fieldhouse with changerooms, washrooms, storage and concession area.
Current Facility Challenges
As well-used as the space is, there are challenges with the park we hope to address through the master plan, providing a roadmap for improvements that will better serve visitors while extending the life of this park.
Current challenges include:
- Fieldhouse facility is beyond its end of life
- Inadequate change room space
- Accessibility challenges
- Turf field near end of life
- No protection for artificial turf field resulting in inappropriate use
- Insufficient parking
- Under-utilized grass field and former tennis court space
We’re looking to address these and other challenges through the master plan, ensuring any changes or investments meet the needs of current and future users.
Get Involved
A key factor in all our considerations is ensuring that our recreational facilities meet the needs, both now and tomorrow, of facility users and our residents. It’s why we’re looking to the community at large and key stakeholders such as current user groups, for their input.
Your input, alongside program analysis and facility assessments, will help to create a vision for Norm Perry Park that maintains its status as a key athletic facility in the community.
Survey
To start we looked to all our community members to help us better understand their current experiences; what they use the park for; and what improvements they would like to see via an online survey in July 2024.
The survey closed on August 2, 2024.
Stakeholder Meetings
The City is hosting stakeholder meetings in August with current facility user groups, and other prospective outdoor user groups in the community.
Town Hall Meeting - October 30, 2024
Join us Wednesday, October 30, from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Kiwanis Room at Pat Stapleton Arena to learn more about what we've heard and found so far, alongside potential future directions, and for the opportunity to provide additional insight and feedback.
The project team will present on the current state and future of Norm Perry Memorial Park and provide opportunity for you to voice your perspectives, questions, comments, and feedback on the current plan.
We will cover:
- Project background
- Findings from public and user group public engagement
- Site assessment findings
- Identified needs
- Ideas for the future of the site
Can't make it out in person. Join the meeting online at https://meet.zoho.com/uBX6rHsliM