For many of the people opposing the plan to build a sportsplex on the Cambridge side of the Conestoga College campus, the biggest issue is location.
For many of the people in favour of it, the biggest reason is timing.
“What concerns me is, if we prolong this, we can’t afford to build it,” Cambridge Coun. Frank Monteiro told CTV Kitchener.
Monteiro was speaking after a Tuesday meeting in which city councillors agreed to take another look at where the sportsplex will be built – even though they’ve already voted in favour of Conestoga as their preferred site.
“The community has asked us to look at it. We’re prepared to do that,” Mayor Doug Craig said in an interview.
Local sports groups and other Cambridge residents have voiced concerns about the location in large numbers, saying they would prefer the facility be built elsewhere.
“This isn’t bringing the business into the city. The proper thing is to centralize it or bring it into Cambridge … not so close to Kitchener,” Tom Vann said after Tuesday’s meeting.
Vann, a longtime coach and volunteer in the Cambridge sports scene, says he’s “terribly frustrated” by the idea that he’d have to drive most of the way to Kitchener to continue that involvement.
“Why would you buy a Cadillac and park it in your neighbour’s garage?” he said.
“It’s a bad location.”
Craig says the location isn’t the only factor the city should be considering in coming to its decision.
He says the Conestoga proposal would provide the city with a facility full of all the bells and whistles the sports community has been asking for, as well as 1,000 parking spaces, in exchange for construction costs and $2.5 million – which would go toward a 60-year lease of the property.
Finding another site elsewhere in the city, proponents of the Conestoga location say, could mean cutting back on the scope of the project, while costing more to acquire.
“I want to see the sportsplex go ahead, but we can’t simply allow this to expand in terms of great sums of money,” Craig said.
“The fiscal aspects are very, very important here.”
The price tag for the sportsplex has been estimated at $70 million. Monteiro says he expects that to increase significantly with each year that passes before it is built.
That’s another reason he’s in favour of building at the college, where construction could start on a moment’s notice.
“They can start building on this site immediately. All the environmental assessments are done,” said college president John Tibbits.
Tibbits says the school’s offer came from the realization that Cambridge was looking to build an athletic foundation, while Conestoga realized it had a parcel of land within the city’s boundaries that it didn’t expect to need for several decades.
“People have a right to argue where it should be, but they have to understand that we are not trying to force that,” Tibbits said.
“All we’re trying to do is give them another option, that we think will provide them with more room at a cheaper price.”
Tibbits sees a number of potential benefits for the school as well, including the ability to add some features for its own needs to the design, as well as potential part-time jobs for students and opportunities for some school departments to make use of the facility.
Partnering with Conestoga could also make the project a more attractive investment for the provincial or federal governments, Craig said.
As for claims a sportsplex at Conestoga College would service Kitchener residents more than people living in Cambridge, the mayor said the city could charge higher fees to anyone from outside the city looking to rent its ice rinks and other amenities.
The issue of where to build the facility is expected to be settled – for the second time – in September.
Craig says the city will take into account timing, cost and other variables before coming to a decision “that the public will understand.”
Separate from the location debate, the city is moving ahead with plans to determine exactly what the sportsplex will contain.
The next meeting for that part of the project is scheduled for May 18.
