St. Charles sports dome project shelved

In addition to soccer, the domed field was going to be used for other sports, such as baseball, indoor golf, lacrosse and endurance training.

He had worked with the late Fabio Belli, the Ward 8 councillor who passed away in April, to make the dome happen, he said. In fact, the only reason he was still trying to make it work was because Belli was so committed.

There was a long process of approvals and agreements to be worked out with the city and the Catholic school board, he said, including improvements to a nearby road and an increase in the amount of concrete required, all of which drove up costs.

They had acquired government funding to help make the dome feasible, Kitevski said. But another problem arose this year, he said, this time with the soil. He would have to remove much of the topsoil and replace it with aggregate, pushing costs even higher.

“The soil was the last straw,” Kitevski said.

While plans for St. Charles are at an end, he said he's working with another local group to make the dome happen in Sudbury anyway.