Newmarket is planning to go full steam ahead on the Mulock Park project and complete it in two years in the face of ballooning costs.
Council received a status update about the project Feb. 13. The massive infrastructure initiative has seen construction price increases raise the price tag by $8 million, with the total project cost for all elements now at $65.5 million.
But Mulock project management leader Bill White said staff worked hard at finding efficiencies to reduce the increase, which the town has pinned on a 30 per cent rise in the construction price index over the pandemic.
“We need to recognize these are market impacts we’re dealing with here that are beyond the town’s control.
“We recognize this vision articulated in the master plan was very much a community vision,” he further said. “It is a generational investment … It’s something that I hope my grandchildren play in.”
The park construction itself, which will have elements including trails and artist spaces, has had its price go up from an initially estimated $40 million to $48 million but staff said they found $4 million in savings to blunt the true cost of inflation. Another $14.3 million has now been confirmed to repair and reuse the central Mulock house, where the Art Gallery of Ontario will have a site. Off-site parking construction will come with a $3.2 million price tag.
This all comes with the town facing a potential 7.67 per cent tax increase this year. But treasurer Mike Mayes said any adjustments to the Mulock budget would not impact the tax rate, with it getting funded from reserves and development charges.
“There’s a lot of regulations and restrictions,” Mayes said about development charges, which are placed on new developments to pay for future growth. “If we don’t spend the money that we are collecting for these projects, we just can’t spend it.”
Still, the park has garnered some detractors concerned by its high cost.
Councillor Grace Simon said she remains supportive of the project and wants it completed but asked about the potential of phasing the planned two-year construction of 2023-2025 to be longer.
“The park is a major project. It’s a wonderful, generational project,” Simon said. “I’m just trying to ask questions for residents and for us that live here because it’s substantial. It’s costing us a lot of money. The tax increases are massive and we need to come up with solutions.”
But director of infrastructure Peter Noehammer said they do not see savings in a longer timeline, with some potential difficulties in having to close parts of the park to construct features if they are added later.
Mayor John Taylor emphasized that the park is not getting funded by the tax rate, and the cost increases will not impact the tax rate.
“This is something that I have zero doubt people will look back on in 20 years, 40 years and cherish immensely,” Taylor said. “The kind of dollars we could save, let’s say we maybe don’t do one little piece of it, I would argue will end up costing us more in the long run.”
