Chatham-Kent council is committing $18.5 million to build a new community arena.
It follows a public open house by the group, Build the Complex C-K, which called for a 5,000 seat arena at the site of the former Navistar plant.
The plan calls for both the Chatham Memorial Arena and Erickson Arena to be replaced with an indoor multisport community centre with up to 4,000 seats along with an additional 200-seat twin pad complex.
A location has not been determined.
“The funding is not in place but yet we’re beginning the project,” says councillor Michael Bondy.
Bondy, who casted one of the dissenting votes on Monday night, believes the proposed arena is too big for a community the size of Chatham-Kent and worries the project depends too heavily on federal and provincial financial support.
"We went in thinking it was going to be a 2,200 seat arena with a small practice twin pad. That changed in about 10 minutes, to a 4,000 seat arena with an indoor sporting complex which I believe is much more than the municipality of Chatham-Kent requires. It's too big,” says Bondy.
Bondy tells CTV News a minimum of $46.6 million from government grants and private funding must be secured before the project moves forward.
“This is a tax base, it has to be respected and I don’t think that kind of taxation is affordable and the funding is not in place,” says Bondy.
Chatham-Kent Council voted 13-4 in favour of the arena commitment.
The town asked residents for their input through a public meeting and online survey in February.
A report by municipal administration earlier this year shows ice at arenas across the municipality is not used 41 per cent of the time.
