The process worked, says Barrie’s political leadership.
Plans are afoot to build a multi-use sports park at the former Fisher Auditorium site along Dunlop Street West, construct a new performing arts centre at the Sea Cadets property near Lakeshore Drive, once the young sailors have new expansion facilities at General John Hayter Southshore Centre, and a design will be prepared by city staff for a passive park east of the Southshore Centre with accessible walkways through the naturalized area.
This comes after months of rallies and protests, both in person and online, not to mention survey results, opposing a synthetic turf, multi-purpose youth sports field and Sea Cadets parade grounds, close to Lakeshore Drive, on a portion of Allandale Station Park, which was, at one time, approved by city council.
“There’s no flip-flop here,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson. "The (original) decision was made on the information presented to council. There was no ill feeling towards what we were doing. We actually believed in it.”
Thomson said the turning point was Marshall Green’s August report, The Southshore, Barrie Sports and a Revitalized Downtown, which concluded the sports field should not go in Allandale Station Park, a new performing arts centre should go at the Sea Cadets’ site once they had relocated, and waterfront land on the southern shore of Kempenfelt Bay should remain passive.
“Doing recreation there would not wreck the waterfront, OK,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall. “Is it its highest and best use, based on everything we’re seeing today? No. But it wouldn’t wreck the waterfront.
“I think that what could wreck the waterfront is if we don’t deem something to happen specifically at this location, which is what this motion is doing (Wednesday night),” Nuttall added. “If we don’t deem it for purpose, it will be six years and someone else will have a big idea and it will come forward, and it will create a lot of friction and division inside the city again.”
That the proposed sports field location drove a wedge, of sorts, into the Barrie community cannot be questioned.
“This was kind of a divisive thing, unfortunately, which is not the way anybody anticipated this to unfold,” said Coun. Gary Harvey, chairman the city’s finance and responsible governance committee.
“So I’m glad to see we have probably landed in the best possible situation that we could, that will provide exactly what all of the involved user groups are looking for, and not have anybody pitted against each other," he added.
On May 15, council approved a motion to build the sports field and Sea Cadets parade grounds, along with a 6,400-sq.-ft. addition addition to the Southshore Centre for the young sailors’ new home. Long located near the Spirit Catcher on Lakeshore Drive, the Sea Cadets need a better location, for water safety and facility space reasons.
But Nuttall said new plans for the waterfront will come with a price, and not just financial.
“I don’t want members of the community to think that moving those puzzle pieces around … came at no cost,” he said. “I think that some of the divisions that were out in public, some of the things that were said, I think they have cost. They have cost perhaps in some ways some of the credibility and relationships both around this (council) table, but also in the public in terms of maybe sometimes not getting the information prior to saying some things.
"And I think that has a cost in the community, and I think it’s going to take … this is a first step towards putting that back together, but it’s going to take some time," the mayor added.
The bottom line on some of these plans, however, has improved.
A new performing arts centre at the Sea Cadets’ site, for example, a 45,000-sq.ft. facility that includes both 600-seat and 250-seat performance spaces would be $65 million in hard and soft construction costs for the building itself, including fit-out of all seating and audio visual components.
Councillors received Wednesday — but took no action on — a report for a new Barrie performing arts centre carrying capital costs of almost $118.5 million, for a 600-seat main public performance room, a secondary 220-seat acoustic hall, and a 140-seat film screening room, catering to a variety of performances and audience sizes.
“When you look at the budget that is before us now for the theatre ($65 million), I think this actually really does now paint a path forward that the theatre could actually become a reality,” Harvey said, “opposed to when we were hearing numbers that were north of $100 million.
“I just couldn’t fathom where we would ever be able to accomplish that unless we had some significant funding coming our way," he added.
The motion for the sports field, performing arts centre and passive park will be considered for final approval at city council’s Oct. 23 meeting. It would include removing the Sea Cadets' parade ground as one of the uses for the proposed multi-use sports field. Staff would provide a concept plan, including costs for locating a drill square with hard surface to the west of the Southshore Centre as an extension to the parking lot.
