Public spaces connect people to their community. As Clarington grows, recreational needs are changing and diversifying. That’s why the Municipality of Clarington is creating a Parks, Recreation, and Culture Master Plan: to understand and plan for services and facilities to meet the community’s needs now and in the future.

It involves:

  • Parks: The parkland and natural areas that provide places for play and leisure
  • Recreation: The facilities, services, and programming that activate our public spaces, including indoor and outdoor facilities, play equipment and infrastructure
  • Culture: The facilities, services and programming that highlight our community’s identity, including libraries, heritage, visual and performing arts.
  • Trails: The links between our communities that encourage active lifestyles and exploring our natural features

The Master Plan will map out Clarington’s current resources and assets, create a vision and make recommendations for future spaces and services that are fiscally and environmentally sustainable while suiting the unique needs of the community for the next 10 to 15 years.

Project Update

On March 18, the project team presented an update at the Planning and Development Committee meeting. The project update covered Phase 1: Background Work and Phase 2: Public Consultation.

Pop-Up Open House Events

The Municipality of Clarington hosted five pop-up open house events from November 23 to December 4, 2023. Thank you to everyone who came out to learn more about the plan and share your feedback.

Online open house video presentation

Watch the video presentation from the Parks, Recreation and Culture Master Plan virtual open house held on December 4, 2023.

Why a Master Plan?

Clarington has been the fastest-growing Municipality in Durham Region between 1996 and 2021. This is expected to continue over the next 30 years to reach our population forecast of 221,000 people—an increase of 110 percent.

We know Clarington is a great place to live in part because of our recreation facilities, parks and green space. As we grow, Clarington remains committed to achieving our parkland standards and expanding community services. At the same time, there are important initiatives that need to be advanced, such as the development of our waterfronts, new recreation facilities, the revitalization of Camp 30, and the 34-acre park on the former Bowmanville Zoo lands. We also need to explore the need for performing arts spaces and other culture services through our Library, Museum and Archives.

The Parks, Recreation, and Culture Master Plan will help make sure we’re planning for complete communities that continue to provide a great quality of life. The Master Plan will help us understand the complete picture of our current resources and recommend how we can build on them to create a thriving system of parks, recreation and culture, programming, services and facilities. It will also be used to inform other initiatives, such as the Active Transportation Master Plan.