Allowing the Big Splash leaseholder to meet its obligations simply by opening a restaurant on the site would be "an outrageous abuse of the process", the Save Big Splash group says.
Access Canberra said this week that if the Big Splash leaseholder opened an unlicensed family restaurant on the Macquarie site by November 1, it would be complying with the lease.
Save Big Splash spokesperson Amelia Tattam said Access Canberra had decided not to terminate the lease in April precisely because it was assured an aquatic facilty would be re-opened on the site by November 1.
Allowing a restaurant on the site might fit the lease but was a "mockery of the entire process", Ms Tattam said.
"The promise was to reopen the 50-metre pool, not serve meals beside a derelict water park," she said.
"The community has spent nearly three years waiting for the aquatic facility to reopen. We will not accept a token restaurant being used to sidestep that commitment and keep the lease alive.
"Access Canberra and the ACT Government must rule this out immediately. If the pool does not reopen by 1 November, they must enforce the lease and take decisive action. Anything less would be a betrayal of the Canberra community."
Access Canberra confirmed on Wednesday that if the "family restaurant" was operating on the Big Splash site by November 1, it would be considered compliant with the lease.
The owner of the site, Translink Management Group, aka Songnan (Morris) Huang and his private lenders, seem to be rolling the dice one more time to keep hold of the lease and the land.
The lease for the site in Macquarie does state they only have to provide an "unlicensed family restaurant" on the site to be complying with it.
The lease says:
"To use the premises only for one of the following purposes namely an aquatic and indoor sports and recreation centre and an unlicensed family restaurant.
"Uses other than those related to swimming and other aquatic activities may be subject to specific conditions determined by the [Planning and Land] Authority.
"That the lessee shall in the event of exercising the right to utilise part of the land for the purposes of an unlicensed family restaurant construct a hardstanding carparking facility on adjacent unleased Territory land to designs and specifications previously approved in writing by the Authority, and containing not less than one carparking space for each 9.1 square metres gross floor area of restaurant".
If the family restaurant is operating by 1 November 2026, the site will be considered compliant with the purpose clause as set out within the Crown lease.
The details of the latest lease date from 2006 when it was owned by Ron and Beryl Watkins.
Translink Management Group bought the lease in 2021 and it's understood the lease details remain the same.
Access Canberra said that the Big Splash owner "has indicated that it will not operate a public pool, but intends to comply with the lease by operating an unlicensed family restaurant at the site".
"Big Splash operates on privately owned, Crown-leased land. The Crown lease permits an aquatic facility, or an indoor sports facility, or an unlicensed family restaurant," Access Canberra said.
"Recent engagement between the Access Canberra and owners resulted in a proposal to establish an unlicensed family restaurant, including toilet facilities, at the site.
"If the family restaurant is operating by 1 November 2026, the site will be considered compliant with the purpose clause as set out within the Crown lease. Following this period, Access Canberra will continue to assess whether there are any compliance issues under the Planning Act 2023."
Josh Rynehart from Access Canberra said the focus throughout the matter had been "achieving compliance with lease obligations and legislative requirements".
"We know this outcome may be disappointing for community members who are eager to see the pool operating again, but if completed this action will meet the lease obligations." Mr Rynehart said..
"There are currently no active compliance orders in place."
Chief Minister Andrew Barr on ABC Radio on Wednesday said he understood the lease did not require the Big Splash owners to provide a swimming pool on the site.
"It requires them to undertake activities on the site and they're quite broad-ranging," he said.
Mr Barr said putting a restaurant at Big Splash may "simply be an interim action in order for something to be happening on the site".
"It is for sale, though, and what the government has said is we are not going to change the zoning and so it needs to stay as a community recreation facility and it is clear that the community would like a pool and slides," he said.
"I've heard some on the radio today say the pool is the preferred thing immediately. We understand that and there are other parties who are interested and were, I guess, circling the sale process but they required more information as to how much their investment would need to be in order to both buy the site and upgrade the facilities to get the pool open again."
Access Canberra, acting for the Territory Planning Authority, announced in April it would not be terminating the lease over the Big Splash site because the owners were working in good faith to reopen the facility as an aquatic centre by November 1.
While Access Canberra accepted that did not mean the water slides and the owner had plans to demolish them, it also accepted that the 50-metre swimming pool at Macquarie would be re-opened by November 1.
"Importantly, for the community, the operators have expressed their intention to continue operating the site as an aquatic facility, retaining the existing 50-metre pool and associated food amenities," Access Canberra said in April.
Planning Minister Chris Steel said this week the government now no longer believed the 50-metre pool would be re-opened by November 1 and had commissioned a "comprehensive options analysis for the future of the facility", which would take a year to complete.
Now, the Big Splash owners have dropped any pretence of reopening the swimming pool and instead opted to provide the unlicensed family restaurant, whatever that may look like.
It means Canberrans won't be getting the 50-metre pool re-opened this summer at Big Splash, but they may get ... a food truck.
Fiona Robinson, a former manager of Big Splash, said she doubted a full-blown restaurant could be approved and built in six weeks to meet the November 1 deadline.
"Short of a barbecue grill or food truck, what could possibly be built in six weeks to meet that requirement?" she said.
Ms Robinson said a "restaurant" at Big Splash was not the answer.
"Belconnen and Jamison have more than enough restaurants that are fully purposed. We don't need a joke pop-up Big Splash cafe," she said.
"It's time to terminate the lease, and for the government to then fund the Sarri family to take over Big Splash.
"Canberra wants its waterpark back.
"This government gave $10 million dollars for CISAC to be built, let's do the same now with the Sarri family, which will avoid all the constraints the government state they have."
The Sarri family are former operators of Big Splash and currenly operate other aquatic facilities in Canberra.
The privately-owned Canberra International Sports and Aquatic Centre in Belconnen received a $10 million grant from the then Liberal government to allow its establishment before it was opened some years later, in 2004.
