Construction on a replacement for Place Maillardville could begin sooner than city staff expected if Coquitlam council gets its way.
During Monday’s meeting, councillors said a replacement for the Cartier Avenue facility should be built sooner than the 2020 to 2025 timeframe stated in a staff report.
Most at the council table said they would like to see the project move up the priority list and that it should be complete no later than 2020. But that could mean some other priorities may have to be moved in order for staff to devote more attention to Place Maillardville, said Raul Allueva, the city’s general manager of parks and recreation.
“If it is council’s wish to make it an ‘A’ priority, we would make it a priority,” he said, adding that more information would have to be brought back to council in order to re-prioritize the projects the parks department is undertaking.
Place Maillardville was built in 1979 and, according to a staff report, is incurring frequent repairs and expensive maintenance. There has been $10 million set aside for the replacement and discussions at city hall on what a new community centre would look like are still in their infancy.
