A preliminary vision to improve accessibility, flow, and access to Clearwater Arena has been revealed.
The rink, near the corner of Wellington Street and Finch Drive in Sarnia, was originally built in 1975, and expanded into a double ice pad in 1989.
Up until this year -- when about $1 million was spent on renovations to incorporate a new library and nearly $3 million to build a new transit terminal -- there had been no significant changes to the property since it was built.
McMichael Ruth, with Architects Tillmann Ruth Robinson, detailed a master plan to Sarnia Council on Monday, that would transform the property into a community hub.
"For those who've accessed the site, and know of the site, there are right now, five different ways of coming in and off of Wellington Street and Finch Drive," said Ruth. "We want to bring that down and make it two more obvious, prominent, main entrances into the site."
The main drop off locations would be where the entrance is currently located and a new one would be built on the west side of the building.
"We're also proposing to eliminate one of the driveways around the right hand side of the arena. In addition to that, we've removed the storage facilities at the back corner of the parking lot and have that view corridor all the way through. Anyone going to a baseball diamond, or coming and going out of the park, the idea of a view corridor is very important for a destination. To be able to see where [you're]heading, makes it much more welcoming and easy to navigate," he said.
A new welcome desk, meeting rooms, office space, concession, washrooms and change rooms -- including ones specifically designed for sledge hockey players -- have been incorporated.
Future expansion, behind the Bert A. Logan Fire Station, was also included in the design.
"You can imagine now, having a front door and a street presence for Clearwater Arena on Finch. Maybe it operates in parallel with the arena, maybe it offers different programming, or different hours of operation, but it has a really great street front and it connects seamlessly into Clearwater Arena," Ruth said.
Building a new Parks and Recreation Building is proposed to the west of the transit terminal.
Ruth said they'll be engaging with user groups now, for input and review of the design.
"Once we have a plan that is agreed on, our engineering team gets involved and they put together a system of designs that take the facility to the next 50 years and beyond. Then we have a cost consultant, that would then put a cost to it all, and we could assign various phases to it," he said.
Councillor Anne Marie Gillis really liked the plans.
"That parking lot can be madness on a busy day," Gillis said. "[The new plans are] going to make people drop their children off for hockey, or park, and then come back. I think from a safety perspective... I think people will embrace that."
