Rocky View County (RVC) council deferred a decision on funding for the design of a new Langdon recreation centre, opting to wait until the completion of the County’s Recreation Master Plan later this year.
At a regular meeting June 23, Gurbir Nijjar, acting manager of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, provided an update to council on the recreation centre – a proposed joint-use facility in Langdon between RVC and Rocky View Schools (RVS) that would be located next to a new high school slated to open in 2024.
"The current high school plan shows integrated opportunities to connect to a future recreation facility,” Nijjar said. “However, no commitment has been made by either RVS or Alberta Infrastructure to include the rec centre as part of the high school project. The project is timed for a high school alone and not a joint-use facility."
At a meeting April 28, council approved committing $100,000 towards the design of RVC’s portion of the joint-use facility, with funds coming from the Langdon Special Tax over a period of three years.
Then, RVC’s Recreation Governance Committee passed a motion May 21 to have administration take a lead role in the design efforts of the facility, Nijjar said, to explore the projected revenues and expenditures of that facility and the completion of design works.
However, Nijjar told council June 23 it was staff's position that spending $100,000 on design costs now would be “premature,” and the funds should, instead, be reserved and used in the future once funding sources for the rec centre’s construction have been determined. Considering the County is actively undertaking a Recreation Master Plan, he added it made more sense to withhold the design funding for the Langdon rec centre until the plan’s completion, which is expected by the fall of 2020.
"[The Recreation Master Plan] will define the optimal strategy for us for the provisional recreational amenities in the county, including the Langdon area,” he said.
Nijjar said doing the design work now would only provide the County a partially accurate estimate of the facility's ultimate cost.
"By performing engineering and design at this time, what we would be doing is a schematic design, which would show the building layout and various rooms and components in the building," he said. “That would get us to the same point as the master plan. It would give you a high-level number somewhere in the range of $13 to $20 million to build this facility. It still leaves us short of where the funding comes forward for construction.”
While most of council seemed to support staff’s recommendation, Deputy Reeve Al Schule, the area councillor, said engineering and design work should not be halted any more than it already has.
"I don't want to stall this anymore,” he said. “This community has been working for 15 years – they've done so many different studies and so much work.
"They have an idea of what they want there already and we've had a lot of community input. How much more could we put in?”
Other councillors disagreed. Coun. Kevin Hanson said he could not support starting a design without knowing where plans would lead.
"I know it's been 15 years, but we have other communities that have also been looking for recreation facilities for 15 years," he said. "Part of what the Recreation Master Plan will do is cast its scope county-wide, and we make decisions based on scarce tax dollars, looking at the county as a whole.
"I just think it's premature and we could very well be wasting design work if we're not designing the right thing," he added. "Any delay at this point is just to make sure we get it right."
Coun. Samanntha Wright equated funding design work now to "putting the cart before the horse."
"[The funding] isn't going anywhere and will be earmarked for this particular project,” she said. “I don't doubt for two seconds Langdon needs a joint-use facility. I'm not saying it doesn't and I don't think anyone on this panel would ever say it doesn't.”
Schule moved to table the item until the completion of the Recreation Master Plan. The motion passed unanimously.
