Town of Mont Royal residents have voted in favour of a new sports and community complex in a referendum held Sunday.
Thirty-nine per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in which 58 per cent voted for the $48 million project. The referendum came after more than 900 people signed a register last November to oppose a bylaw to borrow $27.8 million for the construction.
But Mayor Philippe Roy says he’s thrilled.
“It’s been 30 years we’ve been talking about this,” he told Global News. “The town lost two referendums, but this was the third and we won.”
The new complex is supposed to have three swimming pools, an indoor running track, a gym, plus multi-purpose rooms for various activities, and town authorities argue the complex is the first new municipal building to be built in TMR in more than 50 years.
“All communities usually have their own gymnasium, have their own indoor pool, have their own seniors lounge for their seniors,” said Roy. “We didn’t have that in TMR, so now we’re going ahead and we will have it.”
Residents at the old recreation centre, which is to be replaced by the new facility, say the new sports centre is long overdue.
“It’s been since the 80s that we wanted a new complex,” Rachel Cyr Paris said. “People have been arguing no, no, no and that’s why it cost so much now.”
Diep Leval agreed.
“We have a very beautiful city, yet we don’t have a sports centre of the 21st century,” she laughed. “It’s rather in the 19th century.”
Town authorities say they want to start construction in the coming months and open the new space by the summer of 2022.
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