A lot of focus has been on Ward 2 as we elect a councillor. However, not enough attention has been on the proposed Community Centre redevelopment. As a concerned citizen I wanted to let my fellow Ward 2 residents know what is barrelling down on us.
In 2018, town council endorsed a Community Centre Redevelopment Master Plan. The Master Plan is a “shopping” list composed of wishes from town stakeholders. None of these items have been finalized by council for development. The “Master Plan” was supposed to be selected from four proposals shown at public consultations. The selected plan is none of these.
The Community Centre site is a flood plain. The soccer fields are unusable after it rains. The north end of the proposed Civic Hub building sits on the flood plain. Although an indoor pool may be an attractive feature for the Civic Hub, it is less than ideal to watch a proposed underground parking lot become one when it rains excessively. Many municipalities prohibit additions, including decks, in a flood plain let alone entire buildings. Flood plains are ideal for park space, not buildings.
With the addition of the Civic Hub, congestion would become considerably worse if all of the town employees need to drive through the downtown core every day to get to work. Traffic congestion is already a major concern in Bradford particularly in the downtown core. Bradford’s roads struggle with traffic on a regular day, let alone when there is a major event such as Canada Day. Adding the Civic Hub will make it impossible to turn at every intersection in south-east Bradford.
The Community Centre is the park for large town celebrations such as Canada Day and the end of the Santa Claus parade. The loss of this park space is a loss for the entire town of Bradford, not just Ward 2. We will no longer have a place where we can gather together for community celebrations when the time comes. Although Henderson Park has a large open field, there isn’t a building there with amenities, such as indoor accessible washrooms.
The Civic Hub development involves removing both the large soccer field and the baseball diamonds. Both of these facilities are the best fields in town, purposefully rented out by competitive teams. They are also the fields that the local children play on. The town is suggesting that these fields are redundant, as there are soccer fields at Henderson Park and baseball diamonds at Joe Magani Park and that the children of Ward 2 should go there instead. Children can’t drive. If they can’t walk there, it is not a local park and it is not accessible to children. If, by chance, any children attempt to travel such a great distance, they would have to navigate and survive the intersection of Holland and Tenth Sideroad, which can be scary enough in a vehicle.
The Community Centre site is a wonderful park and community gathering space. Plans to turn it into an office complex are short-sighted: “paving paradise to put up a parking lot”. Town council needs to recognize that this jewel of a park is a jewel because it is a park.
Tracey Melidy
Bradford, ON
