Torpoint's sports centre and swimming pool was given the go-ahead on Wednesday, when Cornwall County planning department agreed to grant outline planning permission for the £1.3m project.
Cornwall's planning officer Fernando Barber said that outline permission had been granted subject to compliance with certain conditions.
A total of 21 letters of objection to the project were received, with townspeople objecting on the grounds of noise and proximity to nearby housing and raising questions about the safety of the proposed access on to Trevol Road.
An application for a sports lottery grant is being submitted later this month and the results should be known in March. If the application is successful, Caradon District Council will then provide around £30,000 of the cost and Cornwall County Council some £100,000.
Work on the complex, to be built in the grounds of Torpoint Community School, is to be carried out in two phases. The first of these, the building of the sports hall, is expected to begin in April or May of next year and to be completed by January 2001, with the 20 metre swimming pool due to be finished some two years later.
'It's been a long time coming,' said Torpoint Community School headteacher Roy Bright. 'We can now go forward. I am reasonably optimistic about the lottery grant. The siting of the new facility will make it accessible to the community and it will not be an eyesore.'