City council has extended a letter of intent to a local organization hoping to build an indoor multi-sport facility in Cranbrook, according to Mayor Lee Pratt.
Mike Robinson has taken the fundraising lead for building the facility — a 2,600 square metres of indoor heated floor space on artificial turf catering to a number of sports such as soccer, baseball, lacrosse and football.
Moir Park and Balment Park were identified as two of six potential locations from an open house earlier in June.
Council has offered land at Moir Park for the facility, but others say the facility should be in a more centralized location such as Balment Park.
Pratt provided the update during a city council meeting on Monday evening, noting that Robinson, who has been leading the indoor facility efforts, had met with Chief Administration Officer David Kim earlier that day.
“The process for them now is to sign the letter of intent and open up the dialogue to talk with us and try to make it happen,” said Pratt. “I know that Mr. Robinson met with the CAO this morning and he was assured that mayor and council are behind the project.
“We’re not trying to cancel it by any means, but we had to make the decision where we want it and we’ll work with them as much as we can to make it happen; we want to see it happen.”
Pratt pushed back against accusations that the city wasn’t listening to people who wish to see the facility at Balment Park.
“It’s not that we’re not listening, it’s just the people who were making a lot of those comments and getting the emails and that, they don’t know the facts,” Pratt said. “They’re dealing with a wish and us as councillors, we’re elected to make those decisions based on urban planning, the future of the city and where we want to go with it.
“It’s not a wish list that we react to, it’s what is best for the long term of the city.”
The discussion was prompted at the end of the council meeting with both Councillor Mike Peabody and Councillor Ron Popoff lamenting that insight into council’s decision-making process wasn’t as transparent as they would have liked.
Due to legislative rules around land acquisition, Pratt said discussions had to be done behind closed doors.
Robinson confirmed that he had received the letter of intent from the city and that the Kootenay East Youth Soccer Association board is considering their next steps.
“KEYSA received a Letter of Intent from the City on June 28th,” said Robinson. “Since then, KEYSA has been continuing discussions with City staff regarding several different aspects of the project, including location and operations. As indicated in the statement KEYSA provided to update citizens, an out of town location presents significant operational limitations. Our main focus now is working though how to address those challenges.”