Nanaimo city council voted to allocate $10.2 million for a new boathouse and community space at Loudon Park on Long Lake at a special finance and audit committee meeting on Friday.
This comes after an initial plan for a new boathouse and community space last spring was reconsidered and postponed by council after community members organized to save 29 trees in the park that would have had to come down for its construction.
According to a staff report, the next step will be a detailed cost and design estimate using as much of the previous design work as possible to ensure cost efficiency. Council would then need to consider the costs and make it a priority in the city’s capital plan. Construction of the project could start in 2027, with completion by the end of 2028.
This fall, the city purchased two neighbouring properties for $2.2 million to add that land to the park.
The new building location will straddle that new park land, preserving a grove of large trees on the beach and in the park area.
The money for the new building will come from the city’s reserves and will not directly impact property taxes, but will limit other projects that the city can proceed with, city staff told council on Friday.
The option that council chose is supported by both the Nanaimo Rowing Club and Nanaimo Kayak Club and includes boat and equipment storage, club space with fitness equipment and office space, a bookable community space and prep kitchen and new accessible public washrooms.
Rowing Club would like to see two-storey design for building
The Wellington Action Committee, a local community association, said it approves of the new site plan that would preserve the grove of trees in the park.
“The proposed site layout diagram solves a lot of problems by saving the mature trees, playground and beach areas in a cohesive way that allows for easy public access and maximum use,” Lana Fitzpatrick from the Wellington Action Committee told councillors.
However, while the group said it recognizes the city’s desire for more bookable community spaces, it would have preferred that the $800,000 estimated for the community space be used for outdoor park improvements instead, per a city staff presentation.
The option passed by the Finance Committee did not include $1.3 million estimated for non-building park improvements. In the staff report, it says there is an opportunity to phase those costs at a later date following the construction of the new building.
During the budget town hall meeting on Monday, Coun. Hilary Eastmure said she “completely missed that” during the finance committee meeting and thought council members were committing to the non-building upgrades as well.
Isaac Morgan from the Nanaimo Rowing Club said he would like to see a two-storey design with unheated boat storage in the lower level and the heated club and community space on the second floor. Morgan said this would reduce the building’s footprint and would “take part of the two new lots and put it back into the park for general users.”
As previously reported by The Discourse, the current boathouse consists of a converted picnic shelter, dated inaccessible bathrooms and an aging portable trailer with no heated space or access to hot showers.
The staff report states that the proposed budget does not consider the cost of building a two-storey or stacked building, which would increase costs. For a two-storey building, staff and council would need to weigh its costs and benefits following the preliminary design stage, per the staff report.
This has led to incidents where young people training in winter months have been hypothermic after plunging into the cold water with no quick way to warm them up on site.
Morgan said the rowing club has recently actively relaunched a fundraising campaign with a goal to raise $100,000 for the new facility.
Community space will help address shortage in Nanaimo
Lisa Bhopalsingh, the city’s general manager of community services, told council that the current bookable spaces in Nanaimo’s community and activity centres are being used at a high capacity.
“You have to think well in advance to book facility space,” she said.
The loss of the Departure Bay Activity Centre to fire in 2022 and the conversion of the Harewood Activity Centre to house the local search and rescue team has meant that bookable community space has decreased. At the same time, Nanaimo’s population has grown.
Coun. Sheryl Armstrong said the Kin Hut in Departure Bay is also aging and the city does not own that property.
“Community space that’s affordable for local groups is very important,” she said.
Jennifer McKenzie, a dentist who lives in Nanaimo, said the additional community space would allow residents to enjoy the lake year round regardless of the weather.
“The inclusion of a bookable indoor community space would truly allow the entire community to be able to use the park, not just active lake and trail users,” she said. “It would open the park up to those requiring indoor space to host an event regardless of weather or temperature outside.”
Loudon Park development will not increase taxes but will limit other projects by city
On Facebook, Eastmure wrote that, “council had already set aside $4.9 million for this project, which has been in the works for a long time.”
The staff report noted that option C.1 — the development option the city is going with — would increase the Loudon Park development budget by $5.5 million to pay for the building, dock and circulation road. The project would be funded with $2,675,000 from the city’s Special Initiatives Reserve, $2,776,248 from the Strategic Infrastructure Reserve Fund and $57,170 from the Sewer Operating Reserve.
Eastmure said that while she supported the preferred option for the building, the city still needs to plan for a new RCMP station — which she said is being quoted to cost around $250 million — as well as improvements to the city’s public works yard.
“When we have exhausted the money in our Strategic Infrastructure Reserve for this project, it’s going to be tough,” she said.
Coun. Ben Geselbracht said he would have preferred to discuss other projects first before making the decision to fund the boathouse project. His motion to defer the decision failed 6–3 with Geselbract, Eastmure and Paul Manly voting to delay the decision.
Mayor Leonard Krog addressed the perception that the boathouse was spending public money for an elite private club.
“I have resented to no end the suggestion that this is somehow a facility for elitists, as if someone who chooses to participate in a particular aspect of a sporting activity is somehow elitist,” he said. “This is a good project. It needs to get done.”
The motion for the boathouse and community centre passed 8–1, with Geselbracht opposed.
