The message is loud and clear: Coquitlam residents do not want an adventure playground in Mundy Park.

Long regarded as the jewel of Coquitlam and the Tri-Cities' answer to Stanley Park, Mundy is a special place. It's in a natural enough state that it's different from the average city park, and allows visitors to feel they've left the cares of urban civilization behind. As the Tri-Cities grow, Mundy Park will become even more important to residents.

As for the city's trial balloon testing public reaction to the adventure playground idea, it's destined to deflate rapidly once council resumes meeting this fall.

Judging from letters to the editor (14 and counting), and results of a poll on the city's website (91 per cent opposed), Mundy is not the place for such a facility. Whether it's concerns over the commercialization of parks, loss of habitat for wildlife or increases in traffic and pollution, residents are letting council know they feel the same as those who spoke out against the city's last major plan for the park: a golf course.

So why was this trial balloon launched at all? Perhaps council members forgot the level of public anger over the golf course proposal. Or maybe they thought that since it's summer -- the time of year when most people are more interested in barbecues and pool parties than what comes out of City Hall -- the plan would attract little attention.

Whatever the reasons, the fact that so many people have come out against the proposal before it has even been publicly debated should leave council members with a clear choice: either ditch the idea altogether or find a more suitable location.

To do otherwise would risk igniting a local version of the anger B.C.'s Liberal government is now facing over the HST.