After decades in a recreation dry zone, West London residents will get a chance this fall to help fine-tune their long-awaited multi-use play centre.

The centre will be a showpiece public building in an expected highrise community along Southdale Rd., and will lead to good news for east end residents eventually as well, the city says.

The city has bought a site on the south side of Southdale Rd. between Bostwick and Wonderland roads for the centre, which will include a twin ice pad, two gymnasiums and an indoor pool.

“It’s a long time coming. It’s a really important site. It’s going to house a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose facility,” said Bill Coxhead, director of parks and recreation.

In the works since at least 2003, the centre could open in about three years, Coxhead said.

It was difficult to find a site that could be serviced within a reasonable amount of time, Coxhead said.

“It’s a great site. It’s a great location. It’s affordable. The developer (York Developments) through their gift (of a large part of the site) makes it really affordable.”

The city has begun looking at partners, such as the YMCA, to help operate the centre’s programs.

But there would always be a community centre component, where people can drop in for fun, Coxhead said.

“We always like to say there’s more than one way to play.”

The main elements of the centre are established, but the public will be asked to help in the “discretionary end of the facility,” Coxhead said.

For example, the city has yet to determine the design or type of the pool, he said.

The purchase of the site will eventually lead to good news for east end Londoners, Coxhead said.

Eventually, the addition of ice pads in the west will lead to the decommissioning of Glen Cairn and Silverwood arenas in the east, Farquharson in south London and the building of new pads in the east, Coxhead said.

West Londoners have complained for years about being forced to use Kinsmen recreation centre near Wharncliffe Rd. and Riverside Dr. as a home rink, which is closer to downtown than the west end of the city.

“There is a pent-up demand for pools,” in the city, Coxhead added.

randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca

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THE CENTRE