A safety plan crucial to Orillia building a recreation complex on a former industrial property has been bounced back to the city a third time.

That Ontario’s Environment Ministry has returned the revised risk assessment for more work is proof that the time has come to move the project from the polluted site, Coun. Don Evans argues.

Evans recommends council relocate the proposed building to a rural property on which Lakehead University’s permanent campus will stand.

Outdoor amenities like ball diamonds and other features could be added at a later date, said Evans, who has expressed repeated concern over the project’s $63-million budget.

“Let’s do what we can to come closer to affording this, and then just hold our fire, perhaps for long enough to explore our possibilities,” he said on Monday.

The ministry is demanding clarification or additional documentation in some areas of the document, and a review of calculations in others.

Still other issues have been deferred until an off-site risk assessment is completed.

The city is expected to respond to the ministry by June 6, at which time the province will have seven weeks to complete its review.

Consultants responsible for the revised risk assessment “were shocked by the number and extent of the questions” ministry officials still have with regards to the safety plan, staff said in a report to council.

Also surprising was the introduction of new issues that need to be addressed prior to the ministry granting approval.

Consultants had been meeting with ministry staff prior to the formal submission and “believed that all outstanding issues had been addressed,” staff said.

Staff in its report presents several options for council’s consideration: withdraw the risk assessment; have consultants meet with ministry staff to clarify outstanding questions and then develop a work plan and cost estimate for the requested revisions; allow consultants to revise the risk assessment based on the ministry’s comments; or move the project to the Horne Farm, future home of Lakehead University.

“It seems to me that there is much to be said for the possibility of getting to work on a recreation centre at the Horne Farm,” Evans said.

Council could also decide to abandon the MURF concept and direct staff to identify multiple locations where individual components of the project could be situated, staff said.

Council may want to consult with the community while evaluating its options, staff said.

In a meeting with ministry officials in mid-March, Mayor Ron Stevens and the project’s consultants heard that risk assessments are submitted an average of three times before gaining approval.

Some have been submitted as many as seven times, though the province has never rejected a risk assessment, staff added.

Due to the complex nature of the West Street site, “it would not be unreasonable to expect that it may take more than the average of three submissions to receive an acceptance of our submission,” staff said.

The province remains “cautiously optimistic” that the risk assessment could be completed within the remaining timeframe for the review, the report said.

Were all outstanding issues to be addressed, “they would be in a position” to grant approval, staff added.