Nanaimo council to reconsider Loudon Park boathouse project

On April 19, a rally was held at Loudon Park, placing sad faces on the tree that would be cut down for the proposed boathouse. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

After concerns from the community that a new boathouse at Loudon Park would see 29 mature trees cut down, Nanaimo city council is reconsidering the project.

At a City of Nanaimo council meeting on May 5, the gallery was packed as many audience members came to encourage council to re-examine the $10.8 million project that would take up a significant area of the small park and remove the aforementioned trees.

The project would build a new 10,000 square foot boat storage building, which would include new public washrooms and a community meeting space. The building would also feature a training facility for the Long Lake Flat Water Training Society. As well, the project would upgrade the current aging playground.

Speakers with the Save Loudon Park group took to the mic as delegations to council. One of the speakers was Heather Baitz, a member of the Rock City Neighbourhood Association and one of the organizers of the group.

She told council the group is not opposed to upgrading the facilities at Loudon Park, but is asking them to reconsider the design of the building in consideration of the loss of public space in the park.

“I do support the use of our tax dollars to upgrade the amenities that the paddling clubs need, because I believe they offer some excellent programs. What I don't support is this footprint that meets the needs of their clubs at the expense of our already extremely limited public waterfront green space,” Baitz said. “The design that was approved puts everything under one roof in a sprawling single-story building that takes over the park. What if we instead built the needed facilities in the same place where the current facilities stand, or built a two-story building that could achieve the same square footage in half the park space?”

After the delegations, CHLY spoke with Mayor Krog about whether or not he would change his mind about the current plans for the boathouse.

He says he has been fairly steadfast in his views, and the delegations did not change that.

“I appreciate that the loss of trees is very upsetting for people, but I have to consider the needs of the youth of this community and the larger community. The support for this project continues to be supportive, by the way, which has been confirmed in reading by both Snuneymuxw First Nation and the mid-Island Metis,” Krog said. “You can always rally a crowd to oppose something, it's hard to rally people to come out and support something, and I'm very conscious of that.”

He says in accordance with City policy, that while 29 trees would be cut down for the project, 100 more trees would be planted throughout the city in exchange.

“This is essentially a community park where swimming is allowed, and it is the only body of water in the city of Nanaimo that is suitable for kayaking and canoe use, and the kind of racing and competition that would be attractive to our community if we had decent and proper facilities. Right now, we have an aging washroom, no heat, a crap facility,” he said. “With great respect for all those young rowers, I'm looking to the young people, and I'm responding to, I think, appropriately, in my terms in my personal position on this, to the views of those who aren't heard that loud.”

Later in the meeting, councillor Tyler Brown, who originally voted in favour of the $10.8 million project, made a motion for the reconsideration of the project.

“I think the plan, as presented, is a good one. However, upon review, I think there is an option for a much better one that would mitigate concerns and also provide community amenity space. It's not just for this park or this neighbourhood. We are a growing community,” Brown said. “Unfortunately, we've actually lost community amenity space that hasn't been replaced, and we need a bunch more of it.”

The motion for reconsideration was passed with councillors Brown, Ben Geselbracht, Sheryl Armstrong, Hilary Eastmure, Erin Hemmens, and Paul Manly in favour. Those opposed were councillors Janice Perrino, Ian Thorpe, and Mayor Leonard Krog.

Armstrong was another councillor who originally voted in favour of the project but decided to vote in favour of reconsideration.

She said while attending the meeting via Zoom, while she is in favour of the project, after hearing concerns from the community, she believes there needs to be a second look at the project.

“Now, based on what we're hearing from the community, I think that there's an option to look at this so it could serve both needs,” Armstrong said. “I'm concerned about the lack of amenity space, and in my replies to those who emailed me, I talked about the fact that we did lose the departure Bay Activity Center, and that's very much needed.”

Perrino, who was against the reconsideration, says she will not be changing her vote toward the $10.8 million project.

“My concern is that by stalling this again, we are going to do only one thing, and that is raise the cost some more, because the construction cost keeps going up and people keep waiting for this project to be completed,” Perrino said.

After the council meeting, CHLY’s Joe Pugh spoke with Heather Baitz following council's decision to reconsider plans for Loudon Park’s upgrades.

She says it was a relief that council will have a second look at the project.

“People spent their weekends going door to door with petitions, people sent in emails, people took their Monday evening to go and show their support at the council meeting “Baitz said. “So it's really nice to see so many people who care and want to make sure that we find a solution that's going to really work for all the users at the park.”

Baitz hopes that the next steps for the project move forward quickly, as the local boating community has waited a very long time for the upgrades.

“So I hope things move forward quickly, and hoping also that at this next stage, as any further discussion is happening around particulars of the design, that there will be more voices at the table with the city, including the council, or however that process unfolds with the city staff, that the neighborhood associations might have a voice at the table,” she said.

 Further decisions on Loudon Park upgrades are deferred to the next council meeting scheduled for May 26.

With files from Joe Pugh – Midcoast Morning.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.