Recently, North Perth council passed a resolution calling for the North Perth Recreation Complex (NPRC) committee “to proceed to plan, to develop and to prepare for construction of a new North Perth Recreation Complex that would replace the Listowel Memorial Arena”.
This is a significant endeavour for the whole community, according to the NPRC committee, and further clarification on the need, planning process and project directions will benefit community members.
Past planning reports and infrastructure studies indicate that the Listowel Memorial Arena requires approximately $4 million in rehabilitation work to address health and safety, accessibility, equipment replacement and a series of other needs. These studies have also identified the community’s desire for a multi-purpose complex. Council initiated the formation of the NPRC committee to address the best course of action with regards to the 50-year-old facility.
The Municipality of North Perth advertised publicly for volunteers willing to donate their time to serve on the NPRC committee and sub-committees. These applications were reviewed by the director of recreation, the chief financial officer and the mayor, who then presented their recommendations to council for approval.
The committee, in reviewing the various documents, assessing the state of the arena and undertaking broader discussions, developed a recommendation that strongly supported the development of a new multi-use recreation complex.
This complex will create opportunities that supported the broader recreation needs of community members. Based on these assessments and the recommendation of the committee, council passed the resolution in regards to moving towards a multi-use recreation complex.
At this point in time, the committee, in partnership with the municipality, has entered a process to determine the feasibility of developing such a facility. This feasibility assessment will have three phases:
• Phase 1 is a community consultation that involves interviews with various user groups, a survey to be distributed to each household in North Perth to identify the needs, preferences and perspectives of North Perth residents. This phase will be initiated in the spring of 2010.
• Phase 2, the results of the survey will be used to prepare alternative concepts for a multi-use recreation complex. These concepts will be presented at a series of public open houses to be held across the municipality that will allow residents to gain further facility, financial and related information on the project, and to identify their likes, dislikes and preferences.
• Phase 3 involves the preparation of a business plan that will identify a preferred alternative based on the community consultation, provide capital cost and funding considerations, operating cost perspectives, property tax impacts, operations and marketing plans and related information. At the end of this phase, an opportunity will exist for the public to review the recommendations of the business plan and provide further input before a final business plan is approved.
The committee says it wishes to assure all residents that the resolution of council focuses on starting a process to determine the needs and interests of the community, to assess multi-use recreation complex activity and space alternatives, and to complete a business plan. This feasibility process will require four to six months to complete and will be supported by a series of public consultation activities and ongoing communication.
The North Perth Recreation Complex committee is excited to be working with all community members on this important initiative to improve the level of recreation services in the community, and to help determine the best alternatives for the future delivery of recreation services in North Perth.