If you follow the Hawthorne Villager forum, you will see there’s been quite the discussion amongst the posters about the potential velodrome in Milton. There is one more report to go and that will be received by council on January 23rd for review. As soon as the report is made available online, I’ll post a link.
UPDATE: I am including links to the Town of Milton’s website for the velodrome reports that council has reviewed during this process. Please take some time to review them and feel free to email or post here any questions you might have.
Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games – Velodrome Status Report November 21st 2011
Velodrome Status Report, December 5th 2011
If you’ve been following my blog recently, you will have noticed I have posted quite a bit of information on the progress. Someone tweeted me recently to ask “what does Mike think?” So here it is.
The basis behind this facility is that its more than just cycling. Its a facility that can be and will be multi purposed. As with those other velodromes others talk about as failures this will provide more than just cycling. Basketball courts, indoor tennis, or if turf there’s indoor soccer, cricket maybe, football practice field (Ticats are you listening?)
As I mentioned during the special council meeting, the $3.8 million has already been budgeted for similar use facilities. Its in the bank so to speak and not coming out of taxes. We have been able to stand above other municipalities in the Greater Milton Area for a reason….partnership with the private sector.
This deal could NOT have been done without the assistance from the private sector. Mattamy is just ONE of the companies involved in the fundraising process for this deal…there are many many more. Tim Hockey, President and CEO of TD Canada Trust who is also an avid cyclist, is getting behind the project personally and will assist in fundraising for the velodrome. The pool of resources isnt just in Milton, its national organizations…international organizations as well that can assist in the fundraising.
That’s where other municipalities failed. They couldn’t harness the power of the private sector in getting things done. We as a council made it very clear that if we were to move forward on this there has to be minimal to NO impact on taxpayers. This can only help in growing our business base … and hence more tax revenue in town.
The Milton Education Village is just one of the keys to that success. The land is ready to go, our partners are ready to go and the provincial government needs to see that by approving Milton as one of the locations for satellite university campuses (as they have already acknowledged) it will go a long way for THEM to keep a promise made in the last election for increasing the number of post secondary spaces in Ontario. This MEV project moving forward can help kick in the pants OTHER things that Milton needs, like an interchange at Tremaine Road so that everyone on the west side of town doesn’t have to drive along Derry and or Britannia to go to the 401 and help with the backlog of traffic that way.
With moving the Canadian Cycling Association here to Milton with this facility we can help increase travel and tourism to the area. Right now we only have 2 hotels. We WILL need more (any entrepreneurs out there?) for when they hold national/international events that’s even more businesses that can benefit…from hospitality to restaurants to local businesses the impact can be huge.
Having the velodrome on campus adds some other benefits that can be looked at for revenue generating possibilities. The parking lot can be used at the university and we can charge a monthly fee for profs using it or what have you. There’s also the matter of the legacy fund set up by the Pan AM games … we don’t know the amount yet, but that should evolve through the business plan process over the next 4-6 weeks.
Is it a done deal? Not yet. ONE more report to go. That report will outline the needs for commitments at all levels so that we feel comfortable the project will stay under $40 million (contingencies are already built into that number) and that we can get the job done with our fundraising partners so that we don’t have to dip into the tax pool on this.
Sorry for the rambling and Im sure Ive missed a few points but I wanted to make sure we let people know that theres one more step in the process before its a go and I can assure you if the numbers don’t add up for me, even though Im excited about the project I wont want to see it move forward.
This town has shown others that we’re not the sleepy town we once were. I watched a Hamilton city council meeting recently when they were discussing their umpteenth attempt at getting it back and the almost disdain in their voices when they mentioned MILton of all places. We aren’t 35,000 people anymore. I know I sound sales-y by saying this but its true. Milton is a force to be paid attention to from now on. This is a project I know we can put together, that can be used for the games and years after so its not abandoned like the others and that it can help kick start the business growth we need in town to add more revenue to the town and to be the “new” centre of the universe in the GMA.
Thanks for the info Mike, I agree that the Velodrome could be beneficial to Milton, especially if it does get used for the national/international events you mention. However, those are presumably not guaranteed, and as I’m sure there are many velodrome’s globally how do we know that ours will be chosen as the site to host these events vs others elsewhere?
Also, while we may get private funding for the town portion and legacy funding afterwards, eventually this is going to become something that Milton has to pay for on an annual basis, and those costs will likely exceed whatever estimates are provided (as these things always seem to).
Further, when you look at the legacy of events like the Montreal and Vancouver Olympics (granted this isn’t on par with those) you often hear stories of ongoing costs that spiral out of control and end up costing the city in question millions of dollars more than was originally estimated for years longer than was ever expected.
While I agree with the concept of a velodrome (potentially) raising the profile of Milton and bringing ongoing events and business to the town, I am concerned that most councillors seem to be taking the position that this “won’t cost us anything tax-wise” which I think is an unrealistic expectation that could come back and bite us hard down the road. These things always cost the town something at some point, and if the expected usefullness turns out to be overblown, we may end up with a very expensive white elephant to maintain. Not sure if that’s worth the risk compared to other town projects that may add more short term and long term benefit.
Anthony
Any facility that the town builds will incur operational costs. The key would be to maximize a revenue stream which from what I understand will be included in the business plan. The university will be able to use the velodrome as will members of the public. The parking lot can be used for university students/proffesors as paid parking per year which could add to the revenue stream.
The $3.8 million the town is putting forward has been redirected from similar projects already in the pipeline, paid mostly by development charges.
As most people who know me I am someone who tries his best to keep an eye on how money is spent in this town. I have been critical of the last two budgets and voted against those budgets because the increases were over the rate of inflation.
Again I am very excited about this idea as it can kickstart business development in Milton. The residential growth is there and will always be there so this council has to focus on creating a positive economic environment not only for the residents but for businesses as well.
That includes making sure we are running a tight ship when it comes to spending money and making working/living in Milton as affordable as possible.
I worry about some of the long term spending committments (ie new transit routes in 2012 as well as $1,3 million spend on new buses) and when the report is released I will be reading in earnest with my calculator in hand.
Its a great opportunity for Milton and ill be doing my best to ensure the taxpayer is represented well during the discussion.
Thanks for the comment Anthony.
Thanks for the information Mike. Im really glad youre on top of this along with council. In the past projects like this were approved quietly and quickly and youve done your part to get people involved and informed! Great job Mike!
I wasnt to sure about this but after speaking with you this weekend and reading what you wrote, Im onside with the idea. As long as this isnt just a cycling facility and can be used for other things the town needs, Im ok with it.
Im glad youre around the council table Mike. I really apprecaite your common sense approach to things. Keep up the good work.
As soon as the business plan is ready for review I’ll have it posted on my site.
Thank you to everyone for your comments. I appreciate them all.