Barrie city councillors switched it up again.
The plan now is for a new multi-use sports field at the old Barrie Central Collegiate site and a new performing arts centre at the Sea Cadets site near the Spirit Catcher, once the young sailors relocate.
Sitting as general committee tonight, councillors gave this plan initial approval. City council will consider final approval at its Oct. 23 meeting.
“The right move is not saying ’no’ to something, it is saying ‘yes’ to something,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall. “It took a lot of moving puzzle pieces around.”
“I’m pleased with where we have landed, understanding that some of the conversations were difficult,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson. “I believe as a community we have reached a great place with a clear consensus on the vision and the path forward.”
“We managed to sway some decisions and we managed to save our waterfront,” said Coun. Amy Courser.
The plans approved Wednesday night are detailed and Nuttall said there is more to come.
Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA) would be retained to complete a schematic design for a new performing arts centre at the current Sea Cadets site at an estimated cost of $200,000, to be funded from the city's theatre reserve fund.
Its design would be prepared with an approximately 45,000-square-foot facility that includes both 600-seat and 250-seat performance spaces. The maximum total would be $65 million in hard and soft construction costs for the building itself, including fit-out of all seating and audio visual components.
Next, city staff would determine the feasibility of using the current Sea Cadets site and any required surrounding city land for a new performing arts centre, with the cost of such investigations to a maximum of $375,000 and also be funded from the theatre reserve.
A full-time capital project manager would be hired by the city to co-ordinate the site investigations and schematic design work, and the position would be funded from the performing arts centre redevelopment capital project theatre reserve.
Next is preparing a design concept and costing to locate a multi-use sports field at the old Barrie Central Collegiate site, at the former Fisher Auditorium location on Dunlop Street West. That’s to ensure the field meets the minimum size requirements to accommodate a sports field of this nature and minimize impacts to the surrounding area and report back to councillors.
City staff would hire a consultant to do all this, at an estimated cost of $250,000, with 30 per cent funding from development charges, 20 per cent from the tax capital reserve and the other half from the cash-in-lieu of parkland reserve.
Also, the Sea Cadets parade ground would be removed as one of the uses for the proposed multi-use sports field and staff would provide a concept plan, including costs for locating a drill square with hard surface to the west of General John Hayter Southshore Centre as an extension to the parking lot, and again report back to councillors.
City staff would also prepare a design concept to locate a passive park east of Southshore Centre, to include a minimum of two acres of grass cut area, to allow for overflow parking for historical events that will occur on the property, and accessible walkways through the naturalized area and report back to councillors with the concept and costing.
Wednesday night’s actions came hot on the heels of a city report outlining public opinion on these projects.
A public survey on whether the city should approve a synthetic turf, multi-purpose youth sports field and parade grounds, close to Lakeshore Drive, on a portion of Allandale Station Park, resulting in a resounding ‘no’. A total of 98.9 per cent of survey participants agreed with not proceeding with the proposed multi-use sports field.
And the same survey, asking if the city should develop the current wooded area and meadow there, to the southern shore of Kempenfelt Bay, as a passive park got a resounding ‘yes’ answer from 99.4 per cent of survey participants. This space would protect existing wildlife, have accessible trail systems, include an educational component and the land would be zoned environmental protection.
And if the Sea Cadets relocate to the Southshore Centre, there was 60.7 per cent support for their site and the required surrounding city land become the location of Barrie’s new performing arts centre.
Coun. Jim Harris, who, along with Courser, opposed the waterfront multi-use sports field, said the choices were tough.
“I thought that multi-purpose field wouldn’t get built, I really did,” he said, referring to the significant level of opposition to it. “As a sports lover, it was hard not to vote for a sports field. But that field on the lakeshore would have been a compromise.”
“At the end of the day, we are going to get what we have been pushing for, or trying to, to get something happening, the performing arts centre,” said Coun. Craig Nixon. “We’re going to end up with a sports field — not right downtown, but pretty close — that will do nothing but enhance and be a huge part of revitalizing the downtown core.”
On May 15, council approved a motion to build a synthetic turf, multi-purpose youth sports field and Sea Cadets parade grounds, close to Lakeshore Drive, on a portion of Allandale Station Park.
Also approved was a 6,400-sq.-ft. addition to Southshore Centre for the Sea Cadets’ new home. Long located near the Spirit Catcher on Lakeshore Drive, the young sailors need another location for water safety and facility space reasons.
City staff refined the location of the sports field and parade ground in June, to reduce the impact on existing trees in the area, making the field smaller and closer to Lakeshore Drive, to ensure the paved walking path is not impacted and to consider the use of natural barriers instead of fencing.
Marshall Green, a retired lawyer with a specialty in municipal law and land-use planning, authored The Southshore, Barrie Sports and a Revitalized Downtown this past summer.
And on Aug. 15, the day after Green presented his report, Nuttall used his ‘strong mayor’ powers to pause action on the May 15 motion and allow for public consultation on Green’s report.
The city offered five weeks of public consultation on Green’s report, from Aug. 22 until Sept. 25, hearing from approximately 3,307 residents. That number combines the online survey (3,101) and in-person (206) consultation.
Aside from the sports field and parade grounds, along with the passive park on the southern shore, surveyed residents offered feedback on moving the Sea Cadets to Southshore Centre (72.8 per cent positive), have Barrie Baycats play at Queen’s Park (74.7 per cent positive) and should school sports fields be available for community use when not being used by schools (92.9 per cent positive).
