Nanaimo city councillors are choosing to go forward with a $10.8-million Long Lake boathouse design, rather than the scaled-down $6.5-million option they had previously recommended at the committee level.
The finance committee recommendation was shot down by council at a meeting Monday, April 7, before council passed the first reading for the $10.8-million option in a narrow vote.
Coun. Ian Thorpe, who wasn't present for the original committee meeting, moved to have the recommendation dismissed. He said he was shocked by committee's choice to go with the cheaper option.
"I have concerns about the appearance of that and also the lack of amenities that would be associated with it," he said. "In my opinion we could do better, much better, and we should do better for this park."
He was supported by Mayor Leonard Krog and councillors Janice Perrino, Tyler Brown and Sheryl Armstrong.
"For me, the deciding factor is we hear the [more expensive] option is the larger option," Perrino said. "That's important for the future of this park, because I think we will continue to have a number of rowers and kayakers. We need this space for the future development of the sport."
During last month's committee meeting, councillors passed a recommendation to proceed with a scaled-down design at a cost of $6.5 million. There are several differences between the two options.
The alternative design is approximately 40 per cent smaller than the primary design, as it only addresses the basic needs of boat storage and washroom replacement. The $10.8-million version has a gross floor area of 10,500 square feet and includes architectural features such as mass timber, a curved roof and glazing throughout. Approximately 29 trees would have to be removed to accommodate the larger design, as opposed to 15 in the alternative.
The $6.5-million option features two separate buildings. The first building is described in a staff report as primarily a pre-engineered steel warehouse-style facility for boat storage with a timber-frame component for club space. The second building is a timber-frame structure with accessible public washrooms built in the location of the existing public washrooms.
Coun. Ben Geselbracht remained strongly opposed to the more expensive option, saying he almost fell out of his chair when he saw what it would entail. He suggested that he believed the "majority of the public would be very shocked at how it would change the nature of the park."
"It's proposing to put a large building in the middle where the trees are at Loudon Park. Basically 50 per cent of the trees would be removed and when you pull into Loudon Park with this new enhanced facility you basically wouldn't see any trees and you would walk into a building," Geselbracht said. "So you would have to walk around the building to get to the beach."
Others in favour of the cheaper option included councillors Paul Manly, Hilary Eastmure and Erin Hemmens.
Eastmure moved to defer the vote after learning that the boat storage would be the same size in both options, but her motion failed.
"If we are going to be proceeding with a building that includes community space I think that we need to be re-scoping the project and looking at ways to simplify the design," she said. "For example, like I pointed out, the fully glassed-in boat storage is not making sense to me as meeting a compromise between form and function."
The additional money needed to increase the project budget will come from reserves – $4 million from the special initiatives reserve and about $2.2 million from council's strategic infrastructure reserve.
