How are decisions made for new recreation centre locations in Ottcity? Is there a priority list, and is there one planned for Kanata North?
We’ve reached out to the City’s Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services team and received the following response we wanted to share with our community:
New recreation complexes are determined through the development of the City’s Recreation Master Plans that are refreshed every 10 years. These plans look ahead at project population growth, where development will occur and what recreation amenities are available and required in each area. Mirroring the City’s Official Plan, the Recreation Masterplan uses “Transects” to plan recreation services. These are geographic areas of the City that require local services. For large recreation complexes, City Council approved a service level of 1 facility per 71,100 residents. In the ten-year horizon covered by the current Master Plan, there is one new recreation complex to be build in Riverside South. This area is the most deficient in terms of service levels. The West Urban Transect, that includes Ward 4, is the best served Transect with a service level of 1:37,800. Accordingly, there are no plans in the existing plan to build an additional complex there at this time.
When the next master plan is developed, we will once again look at population growth and future projections and identify the needs for the next ten years. I can also note that the projects identified through the master plans are used to develop our Development Charge needs. These charges, that are generated by growth development, are the main source of funding for new recreation complexes. These are relatively expensive projects to fund. By way of example, the Riverside South Project is budgeted at $109M.