The RDCK and the City of Nelson launched the Community Recreation Campus to a packed room at the Prestige Wednesday night, November 6, seeking the community’s input into the future of council facilities, including the Civic Centre, Indoor Soccer centre, Nelson Curling Rink and the empty lot on Front Street.
Over 400 people, representing themselves and or community groups, turned up to question the campus’ future as a recreational complex or if other opportunities, such as low-income housing would be considered.
Present on the night was members of Nelson Minor Hockey League, Nelson Soccer Association, Nelson Pickleball Association, Glacier Gymnastics, and more.
The engagement process is the first step to discussing options available- including resuscitate, refurbish, or redo existing space or creating new ones.
At the end, a report will be developed for the board to consider, gathering information from the community, stakeholders and experts to guide what happens next.
“What we want to do with this project is collectively come up with a vision for that whole campus. There are buildings on there, and in 30 years some of those buildings may not be there, but we need to know what the community thinks should be occurring on that particular site,” said Joe Chirico, RDCK general manager of community services.
Chirico continued to reassure community members on the night of the history and ever-changing landscape of community assets, both locally and across Canada, as they need to grow and shift with demand.
While also highlighting the current situation the facilities are in.
“You can see here, lots of the pieces that have happened over the years and, right now, we are kind of in a bad, crunchy spot.” said Chirico.
There are current geotechnical and structural investigations currently underway with the Civic Centre, and already $5.3 million has been spend on upgrades, however, it is still not up to code.
There are 12 facilities included in the recreation campus, including the Civic Arena, the indoor soccer facility (leased to the Nelson Soccer Association), the Civic Theatre, the gymnasium (leased to Glacier Gymnastics), the dance studio (leased to Dance Umbrella), the senior’s coordinating office, the Nelson Curling Rink and lounge (leased to the Nelson Curling Club) and the “empty lot” on the corner at 824 Front St.
As well as the those owned by the RDCK; the Nelson and District Community Complex which includes the aquatic centre, the arena, the fitness facility and multi-purpose rooms.
The launch is phase one of a four-phase project to gather preliminary responses from the community.
Rob Parks with RC Strategies says now is the community’s opportunity to voice their vision for the space, which aims to meet the city’s growing needs for decades to come.
“I thought tonight was excellent, I thought great participation in terms of people showing up really good questions and I thought a really respectful group of people to let everybody voice what their thoughts are.” said Parks.
“The first question is what’s your vision? The fulsome questionnaire- that’s going to come out at the end of the month.”
More information
Learn more about the project, the phases and how to submit your initial comments here.
The full survey will be made available on 28th November.
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