Morinville council wants to hit the brakes on its plans for the rec-centre lands, saying their staffers drew up a $4-million plan without consulting them.
Town council received a draft concept plan for the rec-centre lands at a committee of the whole meeting Oct. 16. Councillors voted to debate the draft at their Oct. 23 meeting.
While town residents got detailed plans for the rec-centre building last year, they have yet to see any such plans for the 62-odd acres of land around it. The closest thing out there was an illustration in the 2017 rec-centre business case document that depicted the kinds of sports fields that could go on those lands, but not necessarily their locations.
The plan
Council asked administration to come up with a detailed plan for how the rec-centre lands would be utilized as part of this year’s budget. John Buchko of EDS Group presented them with the first draft last Tuesday.Like the business case illustration, the draft features a bean-shaped toboggan hill with four baseball diamonds to the east.
Immediately north of the rec-centre is a dry pond (a stormwater pond that drains completely) which could be used as an off-leash dog park and fireworks launching area, Buchko said. To the east is an outdoor ice rink, and to the west a community garden, museum, playground, clubhouse, the LAV III monument and a pad that could be used for pickleball and other sports.
“A lot of these things closer to the building are things that need power,” Buchko explained, such as illuminated ball diamonds.
The draft features soccer fields west of the hill and north of the ball diamonds, a future parking lot and permanent washroom in the northwest corner, and five dedicated picnic sites.
Buchko said it would cost about $4 million to build everything in the draft, about a quarter of which would be for grading and grass.
Town community and protective services director David Schaefer told council they should act quickly if they wanted to make any changes to this draft, as crews were already grading the site.
Council reaction
Several councillors balked at the draft, saying that they had not had a chance to weigh in on it.“This is coming to us at the 11th hour and council has had no input,” said Coun. Stephen Dafoe.
“I’m very troubled by that,” he said.
Coun. Nicole Boutestein called for a halt to this planning process until council could hear from residents and weigh in on what goes where, adding she was “heartbroken” and “angry” they would now have to spend tax dollars to change the draft.
Boutestein said the draft plan needed to better account for emerging recreational activities such as pickleball, and suggested council leave swathes of the rec-centre land untouched for other up-and-coming sports.
“Everything here costs money. If I’m not playing hockey, if I’m not playing ball, and I’m not playing soccer, I really don’t have a place to go besides to take my dog for a walk.”
Buchko said the rec-centre site didn’t have to cover all the town’s recreational needs and was best viewed in context of the plan’s new recreation master plan, which he was set to present to council later this year.
In an interview, Schaefer said about 60 per cent of this draft came from the 2017 business case illustration that council had adopted, and that it had been shaped by open houses and consultations on the rec-centre held in the last two years. The draft was meant to roll out over three to 10 years, faster if community groups step up with funding.
Schaefer said the only parts of the draft that were fixed right now were the toboggan hill, the dry pond and the stormwater pond. Based on council’s remarks, he would ask crews to grade the rest of the site flat so council could rearrange elements as it sees fit. If council wants any hills or valleys, it should add them now.
In an interview, Mayor Barry Turner attributed this situation to poor internal communications, and said council was working to get more updates on the rec-centre project.
