Rendering of a new multi-use aquatic facility in Red Deer. (GEC Architecture)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

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Aquatic centre to be built at Michener North

Jun 21, 2021 | 7:29 PM

A future multi-use aquatic facility in Red Deer will be located at the Michener North lands.

Council approved the scope and design for the facility, currently pegged at $83 million, upon receiving a detailed report on it last December.

The report also identified Rotary Recreation Park downtown as a potential location.

RELATED: Council approves scope, design of future aquatic centre

On Monday, City administration told council their rationale going with Michener North included the fact the City is purchasing that from the province, solidifying a location allows for the project to be included in the visioning for Michener North in early 2022, it would serve as an anchor to this future park node, and finally, it means that planning can start related to future aquatic needs.

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Administration shared that a site analysis using criteria from GEC Architecture shows the downtown location actually scores 3.6 points higher than Michener North. It says Michener scored lower primarily based on constraints related to uncertainty around price and existing contamination of adjacent lands, concerns that have been addressed since the December 2020 report.

It also noted the downtown location is build-ready, whereas Michener wouldn’t be ready until 2025, and that the Michener site would cost about $6 million more based mostly on land acquisition and site development costs.

An updated score analysis based on economy, efficiency, effectiveness of strategic alignment, design and access, as well as environmental impacts and fairness in terms of land use, had not been done ahead of Monday’s meeting.

“We’ve been on this journey for 20 years (with the aquatic centre), and very definitively since 2015 when we started the capital savings plan, but especially in the last two years, we’ve committed to the public that we’d resolve the scope and location issues. I do think it’s critical we make a decision (now),” said Mayor Tara Veer.

“As a municipality, we often get frustrated with the provincial government when they don’t make a determination, and we’re then left not knowing about a critical project. This is an example where user groups in our community have uncertainty because of our own processes.”

Veer said making this decision would give the public the certainty it’s looking for.

“When council last debated scope and design, the aquatic centre community responded very well about the prospect of Michener, and in a way they haven’t for many years.”

Councillors Dianne Wyntjes and Buck Buchanan voted against the resolution saying the decision is being rushed given the project isn’t even in the 10-year Capital Plan. Councillor Michael Dawe was absent.

A future city council would need to move the project into the Capital Plan or Budget for it to move forward.

Currently, the facility includes a 53M x 25M pool with 10 lanes, ranging in depth from 2.5M to 3.8M with diving platforms at the deep end and two 1.5M movable bulkheads.

The facility also includes a 25M x 20.6M pool with eight lanes, ranging in depth from 1.2M to 2.2M to accommodate swim competitions, warm up for aquatic sport competitions, and floor based depths serving local community programming needs. There will be two hot tubs, steam and sauna amenities, universal change rooms, spectator seating for up to 750 people, storage, and a sport group dryland training area.