The board of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) is once again asking for more information about the proposed Coopers Green Hall rebuild, but the project is being included in the draft financial plan.
An amount of $528,000 in project funding will sit as a “placeholder” in the SCRD’s budget, but will not impact property tax this year.
The proposed rebuild of the Halfmoon Bay community hall was discussed on both days of Round 2 budget meetings, after a decision was deferred from day one. Ultimately, the board assigned staff a number of questions about the project, mostly concerning scale, scope and location of the community hall. Directors also asked staff to address the boat ramp, parking, a new geotechnical plan and policy around community halls.
On the first day of Round 2, directors asked what the impact of voting not to include the hall rebuild in the 2021-25 financial plan would have on the $2-million grant from senior governments.
General manager of planning and community development Ian Hall told the committee that not including the project in the financial plan would make it difficult to continue, and significantly changing the scope or location might mean requesting a new project.
Chief financial officer Tina Perreault said the final claim date to use the grant is 2027, but told the board it is not advisable to postpone the project to 2025 as even a couple of years could significantly escalate costs associated with the hall. Further complicating matters is the more than $345,000 in community donations raised for the Coopers Green Hall to be built in the hall’s current location.
Halfmoon Bay director Lori Pratt said the Halfmoon Bay community wants the project to proceed in the hall’s current location and take advantage of the government funding.
Elphinstone director Donna McMahon said she’s not ready to kill the project, but she and other directors expressed their concerns about a number of the project’s elements and wanted more information.
Roberts Creek director Andreas Tize compared Coopers Green Hall to the Site C dam in terms of sunk costs.
The voting directors unanimously moved to approve and incorporate Coopers Green Hall replacement in the 2021 budget and send a list of questions to staff.
Since the list is long and answering could take up a lot of staff time and resources, CAO Dean McKinley requested that staff review what it would require to complete the list and report to the board before tackling the questions.
