The City of Cranbrook is eying Moir Park as the location for an indoor sports facility as negotiations continue with one of the main user groups who were advocating for Balment Park.
Kootenay East Youth Soccer Association (KEYSA) has been heavily involved in fundraising for the indoor sports facility and pushed for construction at Balment Park, however, the city’s preference is Moir Park.
KEYSA is concerned the relatively remote location of Moir Park could impact the revenue streams and affect operating budgets, as financial losses would fall on individual board members.
However, while the City prefers Moir Park as the location for the indoor sports facility, the two sides continue to negotiate a solution that will be to the benefit of all parties, including the public, says Mike Robinson, who has spearheaded the efforts to build the project.
“We are continuing to discuss with the City how we can make the offered location work,” said Robinson. “Mayor and Council have been a partner on this project from Day One, and continue to be enthusiastic supporters of the facility. I am optimistic that we will have a path forward in the near future. We are just smoothing out the final details.”
Last week, KEYSA issued a press release detailing their efforts in finalizing a location, which identified Balment Park as a more desirable spot due to it’s centralized location to schools and community accessibility.
“Daytime users that have voiced support for a more central location include schools, seniors programs, and health practitioners,” states the press release used by the KEYSA board. “Summer use can include trade shows, concerts, markets and portions of community events such as Sam Steele Days and Canada Day on years with poor weather.”
READ: Indoor sports facility fundraising campaign starts off strong
KEYSA has taken the lead for organizing fundraising, but has approached the city about providing land towards the project. The board says it was informed by the city that land at Moir Park is to be offered for the indoor facility.
In consultations with city staff, the board says six locations were identified, with Moir Park ranked the lowest based on criteria such as accessibility, respecting existing uses, constructablility and security.
The facility, which has raised over $1 million from grants and local donors, will feature 2,600 square metres of indoor heated floor space on artificial turf that can cater to a number of different sports besides soccer, such as baseball, lacrosse and football.
“Presenting this as a ‘soccer’ dome demonstrates an uninformed opinion and is detrimental to the project and the non-soccer users that have strong support for the project,” reads the KEYSA release. “Our community stands to benefit greatly from this facility recreationally and financially. It is not for any one group.”
While organizers have raised a significant amount of money for the project, KEYSA — which will be running the facility under their umbrella as a not-for-profit — the proposed location of Moir Park will have significant financial impacts to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.
Given their status as a non-profit, KEYSA says the loss of operational revenue puts their business plan — which the board says it presented to council last year — at risk.
In a detailed Facebook post, Councillor Danielle Eaton says she has considered a number of factors for supporting Moir Park as the facility’s location, such as feedback from community, the impact on a BMX park near the proposed Balment location, and the need for strategic planning with city lands.
“City Council has looked further into not only options available for the soccer dome, but rather all locations available for the future development of a City owned, multi-user group facility,” Eaton wrote. “Balment is one of few candidates for a much larger, permanent structure. Cranbrook has very little land in town otherwise.
“While the smaller facility KEYSA is proposing will be beneficial to a number of groups, I believe that our Council needs to be strategic in regard to our minimal available space in the central core.”
Councillor Wes Graham noted the same point in his own Facebook post.
“Short term, Balment had some quick wins, but for future and long term planning it didn’t fit well in my opinion,” Graham wrote on his Councillor Facebook page. “The past few years we have been working to drive more events in the community utilizing the area around Western Financial Place as well as downtown. Also this is an area that has the potential to be spot for a multi-use facility down the road.”
The KEYSA board says site selection delays has put the project at risk for the 2018 construction window, which is fast closing.
