After years of waiting, a group of Amber Trails residents is moving ahead with plans to create a neighbourhood park near the corner of Leila Avenue and Strasbourg Drive.

While the land at the site of the proposed park area was been designated as green space by the city, it has remained undeveloped for nearly seven years.

Area resident Ron Sarran said a website was created to solicit feedback from Amber Trails residents about how they would like to see the space developed. Flyers were also distributed to encourage input, he added.

"Once the neighbourhood got together we realized pretty quickly we all had pretty much the same idea — to create a place and make it safe and enjoyable for all our residents, especially our children," he said.

"We found quickly and early on that many people supported the idea."

The feedback the group received was used to draft a preliminary plan for the site.

The group has approached all three levels of government about funding for the project.

The city has committed $70,000 in funding to date and the group has received an additional $35,000 from the province’s Community Places program.

Plans call for the first phase of the project to include a children’s play structure, which group members hope to see completed by the fall. The city is expected to issue tenders for the play structure later this summer.

Sarran said the second phase of the project will be the remediation of the rest of the land at the site. He said the land will require an extensive clean-up before any work begins on installing soccer fields, pathways, trees or benches.

With more and more new families moving into Amber Trails something needs to be done to enhance parks and green spaces in the neighbourhood, Sarran said.

It’s a sentiment area resident Lorianne Kowaliszyn shares.

"The park will be a great meeting place. There is really no public place in the area for kids," she said.

Facebook.com/TheTimesWPG
Twitter: @TimesWPG

rob.brown@canstarnews.com