Corey and Joe Kimpson are hoping the city and region won't shoot down their idea of resurrecting their long-time paintball business on Kossuth Road.
"As a result of the pandemic, our lease wasn't renewed at Bingemans," said Corey, who is one half of the sibling duo that owns Flag Raiders Paintball Games out of Cambridge. "We found that out in early 2021 and at that time we set about figuring out, what now? You can imagine it isn't the easiest of things to do at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic and a stay-at-home order."
Their earnings last year were impacted because of a shorter season and reduced numbers, she said. Plus, Corey said, they lost money when they had to shut down an indoor facility due to the pandemic, too.
"We haven't generated any revenue since mid-November last year," she said, adding that means a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars. "We've gone through all of our reserves and have taken advantage of any funding options that were available by the federal and the provincial governments."
But the two didn't lose hope even after their stay at Bingemans ended, Corey said, instead, they trained their eyes back on the 60-acres of agricultural land in the north end of the city that the two own and have previously run the business out of. A city online resource shows the land is zoned as agricultural and open space.
However, all is not clear as day, she said.
"When we initially bought the property, we were advised to proceed using temporary-use bylaws, which gave us the required zoning for periods of three years," Corey said, talking about why they had to leave the land in 2008. "Every three years, we would have to apply for zoning. Obviously, that wasn't something we wanted to do because, not only is it costly but it's really stressful. When it came time for the third renewal, there was different leadership at the City of Cambridge who interpreted things differently than they had been doing before. There were also new neighbours to the property who felt differently about our use."
She said she and Joe recognize the area has developed over the years and some planning documents have changed, too. But, she added, they're still hoping to find the flexibility within the rules to make it work on this familiar location, which is bordered on three sides by very dense trees and a manmade berm on the west side.
The planning and zoning requirements, Corey said, vary from municipality to municipality.
"That's one of the things we're hoping the city and the region can perhaps look at some of the policy and interpret it in a favourable way," she said, adding land could be zoned commercial, recreational, or accessory to agricultural for them to be able to use it. "Our planner has done an analysis of the property and the region's and city's policies and feels we do meet those criteria. It is up to the city and region how they interpret that information."
The agricultural land, Corey said, isn't negatively impacted if it is used as a paintball gaming arena.
"Everything is done on grade, so at the end of the day we can pick up and leave and that land can still be available," she said. "If it ever were needed — if someone needed these eight acres to feed the world — it could be made available.
"What we're doing has actually been beneficial in some ways to the environment because as people move around, they pick up seeds on their pant legs and move it over and it helps pollination," Corey added, pointing to the many bees buzzing from flower to flower, crossing paths with butterflies that rested on blooms. "Paintballs are biodegradable and environmentally friendly and non-toxic. A paintball has a gelatin shell, filled with a vegetable oil based paint. It dissipates fairly quickly and there's no harm."
Corey said the family owned business that's been around since 1893 doesn't just bring paintball to the table; it's a whole community experience.
"The unique thing about Flag Raiders is that we run it as a family business, so we put our all into what we do," she said. "We treat everybody that comes here as a valued guest and offer a safe and exciting and fully immersive experience."
Typically, Corey said, up to 200 people can come out to play paintball on a nice non-COVID Saturday.
"They usually come in play paintball and then often venture off to a local eatery," she said, adding, "We did an economic impact analysis with Waterloo Region Tourism and looked at our three signature events: two provincial tournament series, as well as one of our scenario big games. Their software indicated that the economic spin off from those three events is $508,000 for the region."
And that revenue could be lost if the sibling duo don't receive approval from the city and region before mid-August to give the go-ahead to two league events schedule for September and October.
"They were scheduled last year prior to us knowing we'd have to move," Corey said. "We'll bring in hundreds of people with that event. Just recently, another event happened on the other side of London and 487 players were screened in, plus their families.
"I can appreciate things are moving slowly because of the pandemic, but we're out of time," she said. "We really need to get the push. If we were given the go-ahead, we could be operational here within a matter of weeks."
Flag Raiders is well-known in the paintball industry and people travel from all over for the experience, Corey said.
"We set the trends other fields follow," said Joe, explaining what is the Flag Raiders experience.
The game itself, he said, is easy to learn, yet difficult to master.
"It's a game that involves teamwork, camaraderie, even some strategy, but it's really quite a unique experience," Joe said. "You don't have to be a super athlete to play paintball. Anybody can play it. We've often had three or four generations of families playing for a birthday party for weddings and for couples to bond and connect."
Coun. Donna Reid, whose ward the property falls within, said all she has heard from the region is that they're "working on it."
"I sincerely hope we're going to be successful because there's a lot of support for them, not only from me as their ward councillor but certainly (from) people in the community," she said. "I don't have a problem with it. There's always i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed before you do anything. The last I heard from the region was that they were working on it. I'm not sure what that means but I hope it means that it's going to be successful."
Lynsey Slupeiks, manager, corporate communications for the Region of Waterloo, emailed a response from staff, indicating that regional staff is aware Flag Raiders would like to establish a recreational use at the property.
"These lands are designated prime agricultural and located outside of the urban area boundary and countryside line," she wrote. "The primary land uses permitted are agricultural, agricultural related and uses that are secondary to an existing agricultural use."
City of Cambridge supervisor of communications, Allison Jones, also emailed a response from the city, "We welcome the opportunity to continue to work with Flag Raiders to explore options for their operation to potentially return to our area."
Corey and Joe did not indicate any plans of making a delegation or presentation to either city or regional council.
