The plans for a new hockey training rink on Gainer Street in Allanburg came to a dead stop in City council on Tuesday night after members voted 7-1 to deny a rezoning request for the planned facility – despite recommendations from city staff to allow for the project to go ahead.
Now, coun. John Kenny, who was the only member who voted in support of the facility, fears that a costly legal battle will lay ahead for the city if the applicant chooses to appeal the city’s decision.
“It is a waste of money,” Kenny said to ThoroldNews.
“If this gets appealed, we will have to retain outside legal counsel to represent us. It will probably cost the taxpayers $10,000 dollars. Why are we going to spend that to fight a legitimate business?”
It was in September that local hockey trainer Michael Agrette presented his plans to city council to open a training rink for small-scale private hockey practice in a vacant building on his newly bought property, previously used as a workshop.
The news did not sit well with neighbors, who spoke out at a virtual public hearing, and in recent weeks have organized a petition with around 50 signatures showing addresses - but no names - of opponents, as well as a stream of emails and phone calls to councilors, pleading for the city to strike down the request.
Opponents are citing traffic- noise and privacy concerns, fearing that the quiet setting of the area will be disrupted by the athletes coming into the community to train.
“I see no benefits to having a sport business with possibly rowdy teenagers and parents disturbing our community. What about the possibility of increased littering and garbage in the community?” one resident wrote in an email to the city.
“The city has not maintained the streets or the train tracks well enough for the families who live here. This new business is certainly going to interrupt the privacy of our back yard,” another objected.
Agrette had said, via his lawyer, that the training would take place on a Monday-Friday after-school basis, with no more than 12 athletes at one time.
The exterior would not be modified, except for a cooling system.
Kenny said he was disappointed to see his fellow councilors go against the city’s staff recommendation, and said the split between council and staff could leave the city in a precarious negotiation spot.
“If this gets appealed, they will win since staff recommended that this could go ahead,” predicted Kenny.
During the Tuesday night meeting, councilors said the concerns from the residents had been heard.
“It doesn’t seem like a home-based business to me. It seems like a business, put in the middle of a rural, residential setting. It just doesn’t fit. We need more business, but just not there. It should be somewhere else in Allanburg,” said coun. Anthony Longo.
The issue will now land at the table of the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), who will decide if council was right in denying the request.
Michael Agrette's lawyer Rocky Vacca told ThoroldNews that he would subpoena the city of Thorold's planner on the issue to testify in that hearing, leaving the city with no choice but to hire an external planner to defend the council's position.
"That is the only way the city can defend council's position," said Vacca.
He said he and his client were disappointed to see councilors side with neighbors and disregarding the recommendations from staff, and that the real losers in the affair are the many young hockey players who are currently facing hardship due to a lack of open arenas, shut down by the pandemic.
He said the appeals process will push back the plans at least a year for his client.
"It is very disappointing. Quite clearly the decision was based on the complaints of the neighbors. The issues they raised were proven to be nonissues in the city's own report."
