Park Board backs 50-metre pool for new Vancouver Aquatic Centre | Daily Hive

Park Board backs 50-metre pool for new Vancouver Aquatic Centre after outcry over proposed small replacement

February 2025 preliminary concept of the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre. (Acton Ostry Architects/MJMA Architecture and Design)

In a public meeting tonight, staff of the Vancouver Park Board have been directed by the elected commissioners to go back to the drawing board on the design of the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre.

After more than a year of design work with the project’s architectural firms, Park Board staff revealed last week a preliminary design and their recommendation to build an eight-lane, 25-metre lap pool as the main tank of the new replacement facility.

But this sparked an immediate public outcry, especially from swim clubs and other users of the existing facility, as they saw it as a major downgrade from the existing eight-lane, 50-metre lap pool and a betrayal of the Park Board’s years-long promise to include a 50-metre tank for this project.

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Park Board staff’s rejected proposed concept also incorporated a leisure pool with a beach entry and lazy river, a diving pool with platform towers, and a large hot pool, along with the controversial 25-metre pool — all into the exact same footprint of the existing facility with an eight-lane, 50-metre pool and a diving pool.

An online petition launched last week has amassed over 12,000 signatures as of tonight, and nearly all of the approximately 70 public speakers — including Canadian Olympians, plus a wide range of pool users of all ages — over two meeting nights urged commissioners to direct their staff to pivot the project toward a 50-metre lap pool.

In a 3-2 vote, Park Board commissioners approved an amendment by independent commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky to go back to the drawing board to proceed with a concept with an eight-lane, 50-metre pool, not an eight-lane, 25-metre pool. Bastyovanszky’s amendment was supported by ABC commissioners Angela Haer and Jas Virdi, while independent commissioner Scott Jensen and Green commissioner Tom Digby opposed.

Existing condition:

vancouver aquatic centre new concept february 2025

Existing Vancouver Aquatic Centre. (Google Maps)

Proposed condition:

February 2025 preliminary concept of the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre. (Acton Ostry Architects/MJMA Architecture and Design)

Bastyovanszky’s approved amendment also directed Park Board staff to explore defering the leisure pool to a future second-phase expansion, which would involve constructing an additional building wing on the west side of the existing footprint, extending into a treed area of Sunset Beach Park.

Furthermore, Park Board staff have been directed to report back within one month (by late March 2025) on the preliminary feasibility of this alternate concept. If they do not present a viable path, the project’s planning could quickly revert back to a 25-metre pool early this spring.

The project’s design firms are Acton Ostry Architects and MJMA Architecture and Design.

“The the original plan for that location, going back, was that it was always meant to be a 50-metre [pool]. But there was meant to be a second phase to the development of that location, which was meant to be the leisure component,” said Bastyovanszky.

“I’ve heard from people that were as young as eight talking about how they’re worried that their friends will be cut from the program if there’s not enough space in the pool.”

February 2025 preliminary concept of the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre. (Acton Ostry Architects/MJMA Architecture and Design)

Park Board staff asserted there are tight spatial and technical constraints with building beyond the footprint of the 1974-built facility due to the shoreline to the south, low elevation susceptible to rising sea levels, and the required buffer area next to Burrard Street Bridge.

For a westward expansion into Sunset Beach Park, Park Board staff stated that this option was not recommended due to various “key considerations,” such as the preservation of park space with mature trees and the high potential for Indigenous archaeological finds at this site. A larger footprint from the get-go would also require a rezoning application to the municipal government, which would add to the project’s timeline.

Moreover, Park Board staff expressed concern that the project could face higher construction costs and risk missing its legally mandated deadline to award major construction contracts and begin work by late 2026. In the 2022 civic election, Vancouver voters approved a ballot measure granting the City permission to borrow up to $103 million for the project’s construction financing.

Currently, the project’s latest cost estimate is $170 million, which is $30 million above the previous budget of $140 million. The aim is to have the Park Board cover $9 million from redirected funds from the cancelled West End Waterfront Plan, and request City Council to provide the remaining $21 million.

Planning for this project was expedited after a May 2022 incident when a part of the building exterior wall near the main entrance fell apart, along with seismic concerns.

“So sitting around the table are five of the least informed, least well-educated public pool analysts and professionals in the city, and here we are currently proposing to override what experts know. If staff had a reasonable 50-metre option, they would have proposed it to us,” said Digby.

“There’s no plan that accommodate all the needs of that community… We heard from 70 speakers who are committed, 50-metre swimmers who we admire and respect. We have not heard from a single other community other than the diving community that showed up, there are tens of thousands of people that have other uses for a swimming centre other than a 50-metre pool… This is a report that kills the renewal project because it sends it back. And we go through another cycle, and we come back this fall, and all of a sudden, it’s too late to get shovels in the ground for the end of 2026. That means that we have to ask a new referendum question in the ballot on 2026.”

February 2025 preliminary concept of the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre. (Acton Ostry Architects/MJMA Architecture and Design)

Digby voiced potential risks that delays to this project could impact future capital plan funding requests for other new aquatic facilities, including the new replacement Kitsilano Outdoor Pool, which could be a ballot question on the 2026 civic election.

However, public speakers also noted that the 2022 plebiscite specifically indicated that the investment for the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre would go toward a new 50-metre pool.

“The funding was for a 50-metre pool at Vancouver Aquatic Centre approved in the 2022 plebiscite, so the designers and Park Board would have been negligent if they didn’t already have a 50 metre pool plan,” said public speaker Kathy Wolverton, who is a former lifeguard, synchronized swimmer, water polo player, and swim instructor and coach.

Steve McMurdo, a criminal defence lawyer, suggested the project could face legal action as voters approved the borrowing question on the basis of a 50-metre pool. On this basis, a handful of other public speakers also suggested the 25-metre pool concept is undemocratic.

Swim clubs, along with other user groups such as water polo, synchronized swimming, and underwater hockey clubs, stated that a significantly smaller pool would not meet their needs, leaving them displaced. They emphasized that no alternative exists due to the extreme shortage of 50-metre pools and that they would be forced to substantially reduce their program sizes, including many youth programs.

Metro Vancouver currently has very few 50-metre pools but numerous 25-metre pools and an increasing number of new leisure pools. The nearest alternatives, Hillcrest Centre and UBC Aquatic Centre, are already extremely busy, with highly limited additional rental opportunities for groups.

It was also noted that a 50-metre pool designed to World Aquatics standards, with seating for at least 500 spectators, is necessary to host swim competitions. However, the proposed concept not only reduced the pool size by half but also cut the seating capacity in half compared to what currently exists and the minimum of what is needed.

Interior of the existing Vancouver Aquatic Centre. (Shutterstock)

“There’s a significant lack of vision and understanding for how swim programs can grow to fit the needs of the growing community and provide guaranteed revenue for its facilities,” said Brian Johns, a former competitive swimmer who competed for Canada in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Olympics.

“There’s also a lack of acknowledgement of how limiting the size of the facility will have a disastrous effect on the accessibility of developmentally appropriate lane space for the tens of thousands of lessons summers, thousands more competitive summers, thousands more adult-oriented program summers, and thousands that have been denied access to these programs due to the lack of lane space all across Vancouver.”

Johns also shared that some of Canada’s best swimmers — including Olympic medalists Summer McIntosh and Josh Liendo — no longer train in their home country due in part to the lack of available suitable swimming space.

Public speakers also drew comparisons, noting that half-sized hockey rinks and soccer fields would never be considered viable for competition and advanced training.

“[If] you remove the 50-metre pool, a lot of that established community that’s been around for decades ends up being fragmented, and they end up competing with one another over limited space,” continued Bastyovanszky.

“Vancouver has created a lot of world-class athletes in the pool and in the dive tank, and this is an opportunity for the city to show it’s going to continue to contribute at a world level of the development of these world-class athletes. That’s really important to me.”

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