New site for sports dome fails to satisfy community
Concerns same but now affect a different group of people, spokesman says
The proposed sports dome at Garneau high school appears to be on the move.
After an initial public outcry, the French Catholic school board is now suggesting the seven-storey dome be erected over the existing football field, off the corner of Orléans Boulevard and Carrière Street.
This new spot is about 200 metres west of the original site on the east side of the school — a pair of baseball fields bisected by walking trails.
The board, the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est, made the alternative proposal at a meeting with the Chateauneuf Community Association in mid-December, said association president Pat Leonis.
“Residents are still not enthusiastic about it,” he said of the new plan, which seemed to come out of the blue. “Now it affects a different group of people.”
The first proposal, unveiled at a community meeting in the Orléans neighbourhood on Nov. 14, calls for an inflatable dome measuring 76 by 144 metres — large enough for an indoor football field — with a ceiling that peaks at 23.5 metres.
The immediate neighbours, some as close as 14 metres, were not happy with the visual intrusion, the loss of green space and the possible nuisance effects of traffic, lighting and noise and impacts on drainage and even wind patterns.
Some compared it to an airplane hangar suddenly dropped in a suburban neighbourhood, but one with a constant pneumatic drone.
While a petition was being gathered against the plan, residents were also concerned that the board refused to say who would operate the dome and how appropriate it was to hand over public lands to a private, fee-charging authority.
The new site appears to be slightly more buffered from the mature neighbourhood, as it has the school on one side and Carriére on the other.
However, residents across Orléans Boulevard and Du Sommet Place certainly would be affected, said Leonis, as well as those on nearby Rodin, Montcerf, Gaultois, Bremen and Superior.
It isn’t clear, either, whether the board will take its new proposal back for broad public consultation.
The dome is estimated to cost between $5 million and $6 million.
Leonis also said the Catholic board wants the dome so it can compete for students with the French public board’s Louis Riel high school, which has both a dome and a tailored sports-academic program in nearby Blackburn Hamlet.
It is not the first time a local school board has teamed with a private partner to build and operate a domed athletic facility.
The French Catholic board’s west-end counterpart has just opened a “megadome” beside Paul Desmarais High School in Stittsville. That project is a partnership with the Ottawa Sooners football club.
While the domes allow the schools to expand sports-study and regular gym programs, they also have room for off-hours community use for activities like indoor soccer and court games. The board has yet to submit an application to the city.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan @postmedia.com
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