’Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions, so here’s a simple resolution: get the Bradford Community Centre revitalization going already.
The town’s website suggests, “The town began working with the community and with consulting firm MHBC Planning in June 2017 to determine the future of the 18-acre parcel of land and existing facilities located at 125 Simcoe Road”.
The plan that came back in August 2018 from consultants rightly sparked a backlash: that strategy sought to replace much of the existing recreation space—the ball diamond, soccer fields, tennis courts and mini-skate park—with “recreational green flex space”.
As a consultant myself, I’d like to try to be charitable in this Christmas season to the consultants who came up with that 2018 plan, but there is no messing around with what needs to be said: the goal was to provide better recreation space, not less. Generations of kids have played soccer and baseball at the community centre and local small businesses rely on that foot traffic in the summertime.
So let’s just simplify things, OK?
There’s 18 acres or so of land, with the existing curling rink and “old arena”. The soccer fields, ball diamond, tennis courts, mini-skate park—even the parking lots—need some serious upgrading. That’s step one.
I also agree with the goal of building a civic centre as a new town hall to this area. It will be good to have all town staff in one place, and it will be great for the economy of the old downtown to have, too. That’s step two.
But we don’t need to make this some big production, and we don’t need to ruin what’s good now about the recreation options. We need to fix up an existing asset and build a town hall, that’s all.
Town council has already begun to purchase the few homes fronting onto Simcoe Road, so there’s even more land available, and there’s certainly enough land to build a civic centre and keep the playing fields, if done correctly.
This is one of those things that does not need to be overly complicated: build the civic centre, refurbish the sports fields and build a nice bandstand area for Canada Day and other major events. Eighteen acres is a lot of space to work with; the consultants can figure it out. But the goal is to keep the recreation centre, not to replace it with whatever the heck “recreational green flex space” is.
Now, this refurbishment and new facility will be very expensive with a potential $75 million price tag (ouch). But as I’ve argued before, the town is already bleeding money from staff being housed in random rental properties all over town and, frankly, our town needs a civic centre to come together as a community. Plus, the old community centre has been neglected over the years, and it’s long past time it got the TLC it deserves, not least because it would also invest in the older part of town more generally.
Council has done a good job managing the town, but this is a legacy project—and a fitting thing to start in earnest as we enter a new decade.
