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The Leaside Curling Club is very supportive of the
addition of new recreational facilities in our community.
However, we want to ensure that changes to the Leaside
Memorial Gardens Complex do not encroach upon our members'
access and enjoyment of our club.
Regular updates about the arena expansion will be
published here.
Please send any comments or questions to the LCC
Arena Expansion Committee at
arenaexpansion@leasidecurling.ca
Updates from the Leaside Arena board will be found on its website at leasidearena.com.
Updates
A message from Brooke Biscoe, Leaside Arena Board Chair
18 January 2012
Last
night Toronto City Council approved the Leaside Arena
Expansion Project as part of the 2012 city budget. The
$12.5 million project includes a $7.5 million loan from the
city and a $1.5 million loan from the province against
future operating revenues, $1 million from the city in
accelerated capital improvements, and
$2.5 million raised by the local community.
As you know we undertook to have met this local fundraising
target by the time city council voted on the budget. And
I am pleased to say that we succeeded!
Yesterday Expansion Committee Chair Paul Mercer and
Fundraising Committee Chair Charlene Kalia confirmed that
the $2.5 million cash-in-hand local fundraising target "to
get a shovel in the ground" was achieved on Monday and that
this information was formally passed on to city officials.
Meeting our community fundraising goal represents a huge
achievement and I want to thank all those who have been a
part of making it happen. To Paul and Charlene and the
members of the fundraising committee who have worked so hard
for the past eighteen months, to the families and volunteers
associated with our three main user groups the LHA, LSC and
TLGHA, and to all those local businesses, families and
individuals who have contributed financially to this effort,
I extend a big and heart-felt 'Thank You!' This is a
community achievement and we couldn't have done it without
everyone working together. It doesn't mean that our
fundraising efforts are finished. We will still need
to raise funds to finance aspects of the project that are
not part of the tender and will provide more information on
this later. In this regard, I encourage you to attend "Laugh
out Loud in Leaside -- Act Three".
This event has been a great success the past two years and
promises to be another enjoyable evening of good food and
drink, comedy and music, with great silent auction items.
A flyer for the event is attached.
I would also like to thank Councillor John Parker for all
his hard work behind the scenes in bringing the various city
departments together when required and in guiding the
project through the approvals process at City Hall. We
can now focus on getting the project out to tender, awarding
the contract and beginning the construction phase as quickly
as possible.
So, while there is still a lot of work ahead of us, I want
to again emphasize that yesterday represents a huge
achievement on the part of the Leaside community and a major
milestone in the long process of getting our second rink at
Leaside Gardens. As Paul Mercer said, "January 17th is
a day worth remembering! Congratulations to all board
and committee members. And a big 'thank you' to the
over 900 individuals and corporations that have made a
financial contribution."
Brooke
Biscoe, Arena Board Chair
Leaside Memorial Community Gardens.
Flyer
for Laugh out Loud in Leaside -- Act Three
Arena Expansion Update – Wednesday, September 21, 2011
There is no word at this time as to a
start date for the construction.
The City has agreed to let us continue to use the old
Film Board parking lot until it is needed for the
construction.
A notice will be posted here as soon as
we know we will be losing access to the Film Board parking
lot.
It is not too early to start
carpooling!
Stay tuned!
Arena Expansion Update –
Friday, September 16
There is not a lot new to report at
this time, but here is some information to keep in mind once
construction starts.
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We will lose access to
the old Film Board parking lot.
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Access to the Club will
be through the Arena.
You will need to enter at the Main Arena entrance,
walk through the arena and then across the front of the pool
building to get to the Club.
The route will be well signed.
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Wheelchair access will
be maintained throughout the construction (the arena
passageway will have ramps where needed)
-
Parking on site will be
extremely limited.
Check out the Carpool service link
on the website main page, start early, avoid the rush.
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE
08/17/11
The City Committee of Adjustment
approved the site plan with 288 parking spaces, which is a
win for everyone (one proposal had only 260 parking spaces).
Latest word on the project is that they
plan to have the RFP for the construction of the new Arena
sent out in September, with the hopes of having
‘shovels in the ground’ around the end of October.
Once construction starts, parking on site will be
VERY limited.
Information on alternative parking sites, street parking and
carpooling will be posted on the website
soon.
Demolition of the old Film Board
building is complete.
Access to the old Film Board Parking Lot will depend
on the construction schedule (stay tuned for more
information as it becomes available).
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE 5/11/11
We had a joint meeting with the arena expansion group this
week and have the following updates.
-
They are making good progress with their
fund raising and still have $600K to raise
by this summer. A community request will be
distributed in the surrounding area in the
next couple of weeks.
-
The plans for the arena are still working
their way through the various approval
processes and will probably go to Committee
of Adjustment in June. They will need a
variance for parking spaces. As reported
earlier, the site requires 306 spots but
currently has 280 – 290 spots. The number of
spots is partially affected by the trade off
of 1 versus 2 entrances/exits from the
property.
-
The arena expansion group will host a June
meeting with representatives from all user
groups (hockey, skating, pool, curling,
bridge etc.) to discuss how each group will
manage the reduced on site parking during
the construction period.
-
The film board building demolition will
start within 30 days. The current schedule
for the arena building is to have the shovel
in the ground in September.
Gail Walker
President
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE
4/12/11
Parking for the
completed site remains projected at 280 spots, which is +70
spots versus the current combined parking of 1073 and 1075
Millwood. There will be 2 exits - the current one at the
lights and a “right in/ right out” close to the film board
driveway.
I expect to have the
current drawings available for our AGM on April 21st.
Gail Walker
VP & Director of
Community Relations
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE 3/29/11
Representatives of LLC’s board are working with the arena
board to co-ordinate major events dates for the 2011-12
season. Our objective is to have only one major event at any
given time to minimize the strain on the parking demand.
Fund raising for the arena continues as they still need to
raise $1M before August in order to proceed with the
project.
There has been no further news on the approval process for
the designs
Gail Walker
VP & Director of Community Relations
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE 3/15/11
The key challenge as the arena designs move towards approval
is that the parking spaces required for zoning (which
matches the parking being requested by LCC) is being
challenged by various review groups.
To maximize parking, we require a large parking lot with
none of the “humanizing” features such as breaking the
expanse of pavement with groupings of trees and bushes.
Groups such as the Design Review Panel or the Toronto Green
Standards may request that parking be reduced in favour of
trees etc. If this happens, the design will go to Committee
of Adjustment and the membership of LCC will once again be
called upon to support adequate parking for our facility.
I will keep you posted!
Gail Walker
VP & Director of Community Relations
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE 3/1/11
City Council has improved funding for the Leaside Arena
Expansion project.
In summary, Council approved the
project at an estimated cost of $9.5 million of which $7
million will come from a loan from the city to be repaid
through future operating revenues, and $2.5 million must be
raised by the community. The fund raising committee for the
arena announced that they are 50% of the way to their goal
but will still need substantial support from the Leaside
community to complete fund raising by August.
The project is continuing to
proceed through the various levels of the planning process
and is expected to go through the Committee of Adjustments
before getting the green light.
Gail Walker
VP & Director of Community Relations
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE 2/15/11
We have good news to report. On February 2nd, the
LCC Arena Expansion Committee met with Peter Klambauer.
Peter works for Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation and is
the project manager for the Leaside Memorial Gardens Arena
expansion. The two key areas of discussion were parking for
the new complex and the possible eastward expansion of the
curling club.
Current parking plans should generally meet the needs of
complex.
The concerns of the curling club have been heard and the
city is taking steps to increase the parking capacity over
the plans presented in November. Moving some locker rooms
and other facilities to the lower level has reduced the
footprint for the new ice pad. Peter shared some interim
drawings that dramatically increased the amount of parking
spots. While he cautioned that the plans must go through
several departments for review, he believes that we will net
a minimum of 280 spots – a 33% increase over today. (The
current combined 1073 & 1075 properties have 211 spots.) A
city funded parking study is currently being conducted to
confirm the needs of the future complex.
There will be more of a community feel to the new complex.
City planners have requested two major changes to enhance
the community feel to the complex. First, the arena will
have an entrance that opens onto the courtyard with the
curling club and pool entrances, providing the feeling that
all of the facilities are equals in the complex. Second,
there will be an indoor hallway from the main arena entrance
to the back courtyard entrance, providing better access for
people arriving on foot or by TTC
LCC will not be able to expand on the east or west sides of
our building.
Peter reviewed the current regulations for building adjacent
to railway tracks. Basically, you must have a set back of
100 feet from the property line. If you wish to build
closer, you must erect crash barriers strong enough to
deflect a derailed rail car. These barriers are
prohibitively expensive. The curling club is built right to
the southern property line, which abuts the railway
property. The 100-foot setback would mean that any possible
expansion would be restricted to the area opposite sheets G
and H that is currently the entrance/foyer and the office.
Should we wish to expand our locker rooms in the
future, we would need to develop plans to expand to the
north side of our building, wrapping behind the swimming
pool for one locker room with the current facilities being
redesigned into one larger area. Such an expansion is not
currently being considered.
Gail Walker
VP & Director of Community Relations
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE
2/1/11
LCC has had a good
conversation with the City Zoning Examiner to highlight our
concerns surrounding the most recently presented arena
plans. The examiner was not previously aware of the use of
1075 Millwood for overflow parking.
We have initiated the appropriate communication from
the Parks, Forestry & Recreation department to confirm our
use of 40 spaces. This will help us to ensure that accurate
figures are being used to calculate the required number of
incremental spaces for the new ice pad.
The PF&R Project
Manager for the arena will be meeting with the LCC arena
sub-committee on Feb. 2nd to provide more updates
on the current plans.
Gail Walker
VP & Director of
Community Relations
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA UPDATE 1/19/11
There has been no news to report over the Christmas period.
The arena architects have been revising the plans in light
of the public meeting and subsequent discussions with City
departments. The
key changes will be:
1) The new construction will have a slightly smaller
footprint, which will be achieved by moving some of the
facilities, such as locker rooms, underground. This should
increase the parking area but we do not know how significant
this change will be.
2) The design should reinforce a community feel for the
complex by embracing the access to the pool and our club. We
expect an interior corridor from the main entrance, between
the rinks, leading to a second door onto the court where our
main door is located.
The architects are scheduled to present revised plans to the
arena board this week.
The arena is running a “Laugh Out Loud in Leaside”
fundraising event on January 28th. Details are
available at
www.leasidearena.com.
Gail Walker
VP & Director of Community Relations
LEASIDE MEMORIAL GARDENS ARENA EXPANSION UPDATE -12/7/10
On
November 30th, there was a well-attended public
consultation meeting about the proposed second ice pad for
Leaside Memorial Gardens. Our club was well represented and
I thank everyone that was available to attend. The Arena
Board & City have selected an architect and are preparing to
move this project through the planning process. They hope to
start construction in August 2011 with completion 12 months
later. More information about the project is available at:
leasidearena.com.
Several concerns were raised and answered as follows:
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Adequate Parking - The architect is looking
at ways to maximize the number of parking
spots. He stated that the new arena would
require an additional 100 spots. There are
currently 171 spots on the 1073 Millwood
property and a further 40 at 1075 Millwood
for a total of 211.
The current plan has 240 spaces. This
leaves a shortfall of 71 spaces or 23%.
However, the architect & city planner
had not taking into account the parking at
1075 Millwood and projected a shortfall of
only 31 spaces or 13%. They were advised
that the curling club had been parking at
1075 Millwood for at least 10 years. A
formal parking assessment is a necessary
step for the approval of this project and
your curling representatives will be taking
an active part.
-
Access From The Leaside Community And TTC
Stops – A request was made to minimize the
walking distance from the starting point of
the driveway to the entry to the pool and
curling club with a possible route being
inside the arena, between the 2 ice pads.
This was duly noted.
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Access To The Curling Club During
Construction – Actual construction logistics
will be planned after the builder is
selected. However, we will experience
disruptions next year and likely will not be
able to drive to the door. Access will be
open for emergency vehicles.
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Expansion of the Curling Club Facilities –
Several curlers expressed concern that the
current plans would preclude the future
expansion of the curling club either for a
second ice shed with 8 sheets or a wider
lounge and enlarged locker rooms.
Unfortunately, the current building code
precludes new construction within 100 feet
of rail lines without very expensive crash
barriers. An alternative expansion option
would be the green space behind the swimming
pool. Councilor Parker also reminded the
audience that most of the funding for the
new ice pad was coming from private sources
(fund raising and future cash flow
projections) and not from the city. If the
curling club wants to expand, the source of
funds would need to be addressed and we
would need to go through city assessments to
confirm the need for these changes. It has
taken the arena 10 years to get this far.
Next
Steps
– The Board has formed a committee to specifically keep a
close watch on this process and represent the concerns of
the member of the Leaside Curling Club. This Committee is
comprised of Neil Anderson, Donna Mayer plus Board members
Gail Ann Ferguson, Rob Harling and me. Watch for regular
bi-weekly updates both on the website and on the office
bulletin board.
Gail
Walker
VP &
Director of Community Relations
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