VELODROME
…as of Friday, January 12, 2024
The Argyll Velodrome Association is working with the city on building the new Coronation Park Recreation complex. The city had agreed to having the cycling track as a first construction priority for the new facility partnership.
Nearly eighteen years ago the Argyll Velodrome Association (AVA) began work on designing a covered track to upgrade their facility and allow for year-round training. In the early stages of this discussion it appeared their plans were compatible with the District Park's use for outdoor recreation activities. At a public meeting in 2007, regarding the Park Master Plan, the City invited the AVA to show some of their plans and sketches. What appeared then was a facility much larger than previously described to Argyll, with additional components in order to generate additional operating revenue. The AVA partnership with the City mandated the operation be self-supporting. But details emerging from the sketches, and release of a more detailed business plan, alerted residents to a number of issues arising from this much expanded recreational facility.
Argyll Community League struck a committee of volunteers to address our concerns with City Council as well as to the AVA, but we were met with serious resistance to any consideration of relocating the new facility to a better address (more compatible with its city-wide appeal) or to have the project scaled back to the first idea of simply covering the redeveloped smaller track. In April of 2008 a recommendation from Community Services Branch to redevelop the Velodrome track on the same property where it how exists was voted on improperly by City Council after nearly a full day's debate (with presentations from our residents and others). We brought this court challenge to our community AGM and funds were approved to take the matter forward.
Argyll engaged a lawyer who presented our concerns about this vote to the Court of Queen's Bench on October 30th, 2008. What we did was file a request for a judicial review of the Edmonton City Council decision (of April 16th, 2008) to challenge that the current location of the Velodrome was not properly deemed "essential" as required in the River Valley Bylaws.
The court's ruling was released to us on February 01, 2009 and dealt with all of our complaints separately.
We continue to monitor this issue as it continues toward a happy conclusion.
City Council approved funding for a cycling facility to be incorporated into an existing plan for the Coronation Park Recreation area. The plan is to build a large multi-purpose indoor recreation facility and connect it to Coronation Pool. This facility will handle a wide variety of recreation activities but will feature a modern, indoor, world class cycle racing track. It will also allow the AVA to conduct training and hold events indoors during the cycling season and not be constrained by Canada's climate.
The Woodcroft Community has embraced the addition of this to their new facility and the Triathlon Association in Edmonton has become an important partner in the process. The close availability of running swimming and cycling in a single are has been highlighted as unique within Canada. Our community has continued to support the efforts of the AVA to have their indoor track attached to the Coronation plan. We also expect the AVA to continue to be a stakeholder in our parks area as well as continue to hold outdoor events which would be anchored by their clubhouse.
The later issue of de-commissioning the current outdoor track has not seen any serious discussions or been given any budget considerations as of 2024.
I've created a new section just about Cycling as it has become an issue in the neighbourhood lately. Go to the CYCLING page to find a growing collection of pictures and descriptions around the Cycling issue in the Argyll Community.