The Castlegar Curling Club says the redevelopment of the Pioneer Arena site has left them with a parking problem.
President Myron Nichol appeared before city council this week to appeal for a solution to their predicament before curling season resumes.
He explained that when the club’s current facility was built in 1973, no provision was made on the property for parking because members continued to park next door at the Pioneer Arena, which had previously been home to curling sheets.
Now that the Pioneer has been demolished and work is getting underway on a housing project, the club’s approximately 300 members will have very little designated parking.
Nichol said the impact on the club’s parking was flagged early on in the project, and they have been meeting with city administration and looking at different options.
“We appreciate the city would like to keep their options open with regards to the redevelopment of the property,” he said. “But it certainly leaves us in a bit of a bind in terms of not knowing what’s going to be available for parking.”
Nichol said the club needs about 30 dedicated stalls during the day on weekdays, about 50 stalls on weekday evenings, and up to 70 stalls on weekends, especially when bonspiels are hosted or the facility is rented out for events.
He suggested some of those additional spots could come through a shared arrangement with future users of the Pioneer site, which is also earmarked for a primary care centre.
Nichol said the matter became more urgent last year as demolition of the arena was set to begin. They met with the mayor and city staff and reached an understanding that a formal parking agreement was needed.
This past April, city staff provided a draft agreement to the club that offered land north of the curling club that the city felt would be suitable to turn into a parking lot of up to 30 stalls. The agreement stipulated the redevelopment would be at the club’s expense.
However, the club was concerned the city wanted to be able to revoke the agreement without penalty.
“Where that leaves us is perhaps a large expenditure to develop parking on land that we don’t own, and then having the possibility that the city might change their mind and revoke the use of that land and leave us with nothing,” Nichol said.
The agreement didn’t address the additional spots they feel they will need on weekends and evenings, Nichols said, adding that they responded to the draft but there have been no further discussions since. He said it is also important to establish who would be responsible for snow clearing and other maintenance of the lot.
Mayor Maria McFaddin responded that the language in the draft agreement wasn’t meant to tie the curling club’s hands, but reflected the uncertainty the city faces. She said it wasn’t a lack of understading that has led to the situation, nor was the city trying to take advantage of the curling club. Rather, it was a matter of weighing the needs of different groups, she said.
“It’s not that we don’t see the need or value what the curling club does, but our job is to weigh all of the needs and figure out what to do,” McFaddin said. “That’s very complex. Three hundred [curling club] members is a lot of members, but so are the hundreds who need housing and thousands who need primary care.”
She said they don’t want to overcommit to something before they have a solid plan.
McFaddin said it’s unlikely that bonspiel traffic can all be accomodated on site, but she suggested the club might be able to use the primary care facility’s parking spots in the evenings. Other alternatives, she said, were underused private parking lots across the street or the Interior Health parking lot a block away.
She said she was confident they could figure something out.
Nichol said they had been told the parking lot in front of the Pioneer Arena would remain available to curlers until the second phase of the site’s development, but when the contractor took over the site in April, the area was fenced off.
McFaddin said the city will check with BC Housing and unless it is a safety concern, they will try to make that area available to the club again.
