Vancouver City Council approves First Nations-led Langara Family YMCA redevelopment with housing, but no replacement pool

New YMCA community centre with pool opens next to Burquitlam SkyTrain (PHOTOS)

Plans to build a YMCA recreational facility in Surrey City Centre cancelled

Vancouver's new $155 million Jewish Community Centre is moving forward

Construction finally begins on Vancouver's new community centre in Marpole

26-storey rental housing tower proposed for Langara-49th Avenue SkyTrain station

While the project was ultimately approved, Vancouver City Council was critical of YMCA’s decision not to replace its community and recreational facilities. The existing 44,000 sq. ft. Langara Family YMCA contains a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a fitness gym, and multi-purpose rooms.

Instead, as approved, the new 32,000 sq. ft. YMCA integrated into the mixed-use development will provide a community health hub with YMCA services for chronic disease, youth mental health, newcomers, and employment — a departure from the facility’s longtime focuses of general fitness, recreation, and leisure.

This new two-storey YMCA facility will have three multi-purpose rooms, three meeting rooms, a fitness gym, and a 7,700 sq. ft. childcare facility for up to 49 kids. Furthermore, this facility occupies the lower floors of an eight-storey building with 88 social housing units in the upper levels.

Cancelled 2018 concept with a new aquatic centre:

Approved 2024 concept without an aquatic centre:

“A very tough decision for YMCA”

“We really appreciate the disappointment,” said Heidi Worthington, president and CEO of YMCA of Greater Vancouver, when asked by City Council during the public hearing about the organization’s decision to not provide new replacement and expanded recreation facilities with an aquatic centre, as originally planned.

“It was a very tough decision for the YMCA when we were balancing what are the services that we think the community needs versus what we can afford. We made the choice that we did, to broaden the community services that we’re providing to better support the social and economic services, in addition to recreation fitness.”

When further pressed, Worthington said the growing costs of building and operating aquatic centres have been “sobering,” especially since the pandemic.

She also noted that the existing pool at Langara Family YMCA has not been open over the past two years due to the high operating and maintenance costs of the old facility.

The approved rezoning application is in stark contrast to YMCA’s original mixed-use redevelopment proposal for the site in 2018, which boasted significantly improved and expanded recreational uses, spanning over 60,000 sq. ft. within the first two levels of an 11-storey building.

This previous original 2018 concept provided a six-lane, 25-metre lap swimming pool, a warm water pool for leisure and teaching, and a hot pool, along with a 12,300 sq. ft. fitness gym, a gymnasium, an indoor walking track, multi-purpose rooms, a family centre, and a 9,000 sq. ft. childcare facility for up to 75 kids. The upper levels of the previously contemplated new 11-storey building would have contained 71 affordable rental housing units owned by YMCA. Additionally, in partnership with a developer, a 20-storey tower with 157 strata market ownership condominium homes would also be built to help fund the new YMCA facilities.

Cancelled 2018 concept with a new aquatic centre:

Approved 2024 concept without an aquatic centre:

The Langara Family YMCA site is deemed by the City’s Cambie Corridor Plan to be a “unique site,” which provides special considerations for larger properties where higher densities and additional public benefits can be contemplated. For this YMCA site, the area plan stipulated the introduction of new amenities and housing — including the specific mention of condominiums and rental housing — to support the renewal of the longtime YMCA facility.

For new and improved amenities, the Cambie Corridor Plan also prescribed the consideration of “building a partnership between City and YMCA to gain access for public use of the new YMCA aquatic facility.”

There are some recent examples of such partnerships in Metro Vancouver. In 2023, YMCA opened the new Bettie Allard YMCA facility integrated into a high-density, mixed-use residential development by Concert Properties next to SkyTrain Burquitlam Station. The $101-million Bettie Allard YMCA is a 50-50 ownership partnership with the City of Coquitlam, with the municipal government providing $57 million (mainly from development fees) and YMCA providing $38 million.

As well, YMCA is responsible for the operating and maintenance costs of the entire three-storey, 55,000 sq. ft. Bettie Allard facility, which features an aquatic centre, gymnasium, walking track, fitness gym and studios, family centre, and other community spaces.

However, a similar partnership with the City of Surrey fell apart in 2020 due to the construction costs growing to $75 million. The City of Surrey had previously partnered with YMCA to build the new Surrey City Centre YMCA — a 60,000 sq. ft. facility with an aquatic centre, a fitness centre, a gymnasium, multi-purpose rooms, and a family development centre.

Growing shortage of swimming pools

When asked during the public hearing, Worthington said there were partnership discussions with the Vancouver Park Board, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. She also suggested that it was believed at one point that “there were other aquatic facilities in the area that were better suited to meet those needs than investing in the Langara location.”

In 2017, Daily Hive Urbanized also reported YMCA’s decision to cancel its partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) to build a new aquatic centre at Onni Group’s nearby Cambie Gardens (Pearson Dogwood) neighbourhood development. The intention up until then was to share resources and infrastructure to create a larger pool with more amenities, serving the dual purpose of replacing VCH’s small Stan Stronge Pool, which is a therapy pool that requires a doctor’s referral for access. This led to the 2018-created concept of redeveloping Langara Family YMCA with a new aquatic centre.

Overall, the Cambie Corridor Plan also emphasizes the need for expanded and improved community and recreational facilities to support the area plan’s densification policies that will substantially grow the area’s population over the coming decades. Moreover, it should be noted that a growing number of new developments in the pipeline within the Cambie Corridor Plan — including the newly approved Langara Family YMCA redevelopment — go far above and beyond what was originally envisioned in the area plan, without the corresponding amenities.

Currently, the nearest swimming pool facility is the 2009-built Hillcrest Centre, which already sees very significant use.

Construction is underway on the Park Board’s $91 million new Marpole Community Centre at Oak Park on Oak Street, which is expected to reach completion and open in 2026. It originally included an attached 10,500 sq. ft. outdoor aquatic centre — featuring a 4,500 sq. ft., five-lane lap swimming pool, a 2,120 sq. ft. leisure pool, and a hot pool — but it was removed from the current project, and instead deferred as a future phase if additional funding is made available.

For years, the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver has been planning the construction of a brand new and expanded community, cultural, and recreation facility at its location just west of the future Oakridge Park mall. This would be a new eight-storey, 245,000 sq. ft. building, including an underground aquatic centre — a replacement and expansion of their existing pool facilities — with a lap swimming pool, a therapy pool, and a wellness centre. The project’s cost was last stated in 2020 at $155 million, based on a completion in 2024 or 2025, but construction has yet to begin.

Moreover, the state of Vancouver’s publicly accessible pool facilities is increasingly under the microscope due to the age and condition of existing facilities, and growing demand made highly apparent by crowded pools, especially from growing population as a result of increased residential densification.

In particular, there has been greater attention on the need to renew Kitsilano Outdoor Pool and Vancouver Aquatic Centre, which saw controversy this month when Park Board staff presented a new facility concept with an eight-lane, 25-metre pool for its main tank instead of the long-promised eight-lane, 50-metre pool, replacing what currently exists. On Tuesday night, following a public outcry, Park Board commissioners pushed back and directed their staff to go back to the drawing board to include the 50-metre pool, as originally planned.

As for the Langara Family YMCA rezoning application, during Tuesday’s public hearing, City Council approved the project in a 7-0 vote, with ABC city councillor Peter Meiszner abstaining (still technically considered as a vote in support) over the issue of YMCA not providing a new replacement aquatic centre.

“It does achieve laudable reconciliation goals and adds housing to a site where there isn’t currently housing in a transit-oriented area, and that’s that’s fantastic,” said Meiszner during the public hearing.

“On the other hand, it is hard for me to square the loss of the pool and the impact that’s going to have on the community. This has been in place, this pool, this gymnasium, since 1978, 47 years. We have a severe lack of aquatic facilities in this area of the city, and the ones that we have are at capacity… I just can’t accept the loss of the pool in the fitness facility for the members of this community, and I just don’t feel like I have enough information as to the history and as to why this couldn’t have been achieved.”

Below-market rental housing requirement removed for reconciliation

The project is led by Musqueam Capital Corporation, which is the wholly-owned company that oversees Musqueam First Nation’s for-profit ventures and real estate holdings. During the deliberations, First Nation leaders highlighted this is the first time that they are the lead applicant in a proposal submitted to the City of Vancouver. YMCA owns the land.

In addition to the aforementioned 88 units in the eight-storey YMCA building, there will be 269 strata market ownership condominium homes in the 37-storey tower and 308 secured purpose-built market rental homes in the 33-storey tower. The application noted that the Musqueam First Nation will own the 33-storey rental housing tower.

Typically, under the municipal government’s policies, the City requires at least 20% of the rental housing uses to be set aside at below-market rental rates.

However, City staff state they did not pursue this 20% below-market rental housing requirement due to the need for “Economic Reconciliation to help address significant housing needs on reserve and create sustainable revenue streams for the Musqueam First Nation.”

Altogether, the three new buildings will contain a combined total of 665 homes.

The project also offers minor retail/restaurant space of about 2,300 sq. ft. within the base of the 33-storey tower.

“I think that we really need to work together with our non-profits and other organizations to try and meet the needs of the loss of these amenities as our city is growing, but we are in a transit-oriented area that is really laid out clearly in this one. This is a priority that’s being really pressed on us by the provincial government as well,” said ABC city councillor Mike Klassen.

“[The nearby] Canada Line was built with really not a strong plan for density, and now this station will be put to good use by the people and residents of this development when it’s completed.”

The Langara Family YMCA rezoning application was reviewed and approved relatively swiftly, with the application submitted in early September 2024.

Designed by Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects, the project will generate a total building floor area of 580,000 sq. ft., establishing a floor area ratio (FAR) density of a floor area that is 6.66 times larger than the size of the lot. In contrast, the cancelled 2018 concept had 308,000 sq. ft. and a density of 3.5 FAR.

Three underground levels will provide 500 vehicle parking stalls and 1,200 secured bike parking spaces.

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