Fleming arena plan not likely to proceed
The city appears poised to abandon Fleming College as its site for a new twin-pad arena — city councillors are interested in relocating the project to Morrow Park instead.
The n ew twin-pad was planned for the main campus of Fleming College on Brealey Drive in the south end of the city.
But at a committee meeting on Monday, councillors gave preliminary approval to city staff’s recommendation to consider building on city-owned Morrow Park since Fleming cannot move forward with development any time soon.
The plans for the twin-pad have been in the works for six years; this will be the second time the location has been changed.
“This has been quite the frustrating journey — not just for us, and our staff, but for citizens who want to see us get this twin-pad going,” said Coun. Lesley Parnell. “And we do need to get going.”
The new twin-pad arena was originally planned for Trent University as a replacement for the now-closed Northcrest Arena. But a year ago council changed its mind about the Trent location because the building would have impinged on a provincially significant wetland.
At the time, council had a short window to choose another site, as it wanted to apply for a grant from the provincial and federal governments on a tight deadline.
Council then chose a site it had considered previously — at Fleming College — and the application was made.
The city applied for about $38 million of the project’s $52.5million estimated cost.
But then councillors heard recently that the funding application was rejected, leaving the fate of the project up in the air.
City staff met recently with college staff and First Nations representatives, according to a new staff report — and that’s when the college asked for the project to be “paused” while the college works its way through the pandemic.
But city staff reports that the demand for ice time at city arenas is as strong as ever — even in the pandemic — which is why relocation is advised without delay.
Moving the site to Morrow Park will mean retaining some of the design work previously done by architects Perkins + Will, said city project manager Gillian Barnes.
While the concept for the building may remain similar at the new location, the detailed design must be redone to suit Morrow Park, she said.
Meanwhile, the city is left without funding from the provincial and federal governments, meaning it must now figure out how to pay for an arena.
One way to do that would be through a private-public partnership, or else through borrowing money.
Coun. Gary Baldwin said that borrowing would be a good idea, since interest rates are very low.
Coun. Dean Pappas, the finance chair, agreed this might work; council has been careful not to take on more debt lately, he said, and this might be the project where it makes sense to go ahead and borrow.
But Pappas wanted to make clear that the city isn’t to blame for having lost out of the provincial and federal grants. He said there had been nothing wrong with the grant application, and that the program had been “oversubscribed.”
Pappas added that he wants to ask the province to “step up” and finally help fund some infrastructure in the city.
“I think we have to really stand up for Peterborough here and say we need these projects funded,” he said.
Regardless, Parnell said it’s time to move forward with the planning and consider Morrow Park.
“I agree 100 per cent that we need to move ahead with this arena — we need to come up with the money, put shovels in the ground and get it built,” Parnell said.
“Let’s get ’er done ... We owe it to our citizens.”