Huge update from the January 16 special meeting of council today:
Councillor Rod Power tabled a motion to build the Chinguacousy Library at Howden Recreation centre.
Their reasoning in the meeting was that it's cheaper, don't have to acquire land from region of Peel or Morguard. They also said it's faster to build in 2-3 years over 5-8 for a standalone library on acquired land.
Rod stated 3 bus route are in the area to counter the distance from the Bramalea bus terminal of the old site.
All councillors supported this motion.
Arguments were made of the synergy of recreation and library together.
Benefits of being on the cycling/MU path network.
My thoughts:
I question the synergy. This isn't a large rec centre like gore meadows or Embleton . It only has a FIBA court and multi use rooms with outdoor fields slated. A 30,000 sqft Library may dwarf the rec centre at 45,000. We could lose the outdoor basketball court in the footprint above with the redesign.
The lot is narrow shared with the school next door. Parking may be difficult on the site for this scale.of library. BCC could scale overflow with their huge parking
Bus terminal is 1km away with a BRT coming, it's not convenient for riders.
There are many of towers coming to BCC, a new community centre with arts spaces and Library like the civic centre made sense long-term. Knightsbridge and seniors home will have to cross under Queen st for 1km north.,
When I visited the old Ching library I would visit the city centre mall at the same time. That was real synergy of spaces over a small recreation centre housing a dry floor sports court nextdoor.
I would rather they just acquire land near the bus terminal and not shortchange the future. Bramalea sacrificed their civic centre without public input to the claimed benefit of the city. The city should pitch in restore the list space back to where it was.
This is a downgrade from what we had in the civic centre.
If others are happy with this then so be it. It doesn't seem right to me.
