Aud expansion gets a green light

Kitchener Council has given final approval to a proposed expansion of the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. It was passed by a slim 6-4 margin.

The “yes” votes came from Mayor Carl Zehr and councillors Kelly Galloway, Bil Ioannidis, Berry Vrbanovic, Scott Davey and Paul Singh. The “no” votes were from councillors Frank Etherington, John Gazzola, Zyg Janecki, and Yvonne Fernandes. Councillor Dan Glenn-Graham was absent.

The lengthy discussion included issues raised by councillors and delegations, including how to deal with parking. An amendment, put forward by Councillor Berry Vrbanovic, directed staff and the Rangers to develop a parking plan by February 2012, and requests the Rangers implement a shuttle bus service as soon as possible.

Rangers COO Steve Bienkowski says he recognizes that parking is an issue and pledged to work with the city on solutions. “We’ve had some input from the neighbours,” he tells 570 News. “The shuttle was one. Pick-up zones is another. Preferred parking if you have multiple people in cars…It’s not necessarily that you have to have more parking spots. What you have to do is change the culture and have more people per car.”

Another issue raised was the potential costs to taxpayers. Bienkowski maintains that not only are the Rangers paying all the capital costs of the project, they’ll also foot the bill for any additional operating costs.

The expansion includes, among other things, an extra 1,000 seats, a new concourse area, fourth-level media room, new washrooms, concessions and renovated team space. It comes with a price tag of $9.6 million, which the Rangers will borrow from the city and repay, with interest, over 15 years.

Earlier this month, city staff had recommended that the Rangers borrow the money for the expansion from Infrastructure Ontario but instead, councillors voted to lend them the funds. The Rangers have borrowed from the   city before and always paid the money back.

Overall, Bienkowski says he’s pleased to be moving ahead with the project. “It’s been three years of efforts by a lot of people and so, to get it recognized and allow us to move forward, I think it’s good for us (and at) the end of the day, good for the community,” he says.

Bienkowski says the next step is to finalize the construction and other details, with a plan to break ground on the expansion in March.

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