THUNDER BAY -- The president of the company trying to overturn a city council decision allowing indoor soccer at a waterfront industrial site also owns the company setting up a soccer facility at Confederation College.
Robert Zanette is listed in Ontario government records as the head of the numbered company that's filed an application to the Ontario Municipal Board.
The grounds for the appeal include concerns about site contamination on the Maureen Street property where a sawmill used to operate, and failure to comply with the Provincial Policy Statement on land-use planning.
David Robertson, formerly involved in the operation of the Sports Dome on the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grounds, is also listed as an officer of the numbered company.
Zanette's RZ Realty Services has a three-year deal with the college for use of the former fitness centre commonly known as "the bubble" and recently renamed the Goal Sports Centre.
The Lakehead Express Soccer Club plans to run its youth soccer program in the facility.
The appeal to the OMB has left officials of the Thunder Bay men's and women's soccer programs as well as the Thunder Bay Chill scrambling to find alternate locations to play this winter.
Soccer Northwest spokesperson Michael Veneziale has said they may have to resort to using local school gymnasiums. According to Veneziale, he's been told the Goal Sports Centre is now fully booked by other users for the winter.
Tbnewswatch.com has been unable to reach either Zanette or Robertson for comment.
City councillor Paul Pugh, whose ward the Maureen Street building is located in, calls the OMB application "a huge disappointment, because that would have been the obvious solution" to the lack of adequate indoor soccer facilities in the community over the short term.
Pugh said that in his opinion the appeal is "a great disservice to the community," noting that a large number of children and youth are affected by it.
