Park Board staff repeat recommendation for smaller pool at new Vancouver Aquatic Centre

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In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized on Monday, Steve Jackson, the general manager of the Park Board, said the project team did not learn much new information from conducting the added exercise over the course of exactly one month.

Fundamentally, he says, the site constraints on the waterfront between the Burrard Street Bridge and Sunset Beach Park remain the key issue. For this reason, his staff are recommending that the new replacement project remain within the footprint of the existing aquatic centre.

Not enough space for a modern 50-metre pool

There have been suggestions to expand the aquatic centre’s footprint westward into a treed area in the park next to the existing facility, but he insists that this remains highly problematic.

“The minute we go outside of that project footprint, we have to have completely different conversations with the provincial government around land tenure, and the other piece we don’t know is how reliable the siting is beside the aquatic centre,” said Jackson, noting that the project team reexamined different ways of reorienting a 50-metre pool over the past few weeks.

“If we were to go west in the park space, you’re getting into grounds that have not been built on top of, and we don’t know whether there’s any archaeologically significant findings in that space, but also what sort of cost considerations would go into the geotechnical analysis,” he continued.

Existing condition of Vancouver Aquatic Centre:

Proposed future condition of the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre:

According to the report, in order to achieve a 50-metre pool, based on the latest international design standards, the actual tank would have to be a bare minimum of 52 metres in length, which would be enclosed by 60 metres by 28 metres of deck space.

At 52 metres, the pool would accommodate two bulkheads instead of one, allowing it to be subdivided into three different configurations with moveable floors. This would enable various programming options, such as swim lessons, Aquafit, or other non-length swimming activities.

For an optimal design, the 50-metre lap pool would be a 53-metre or 54-metre tank, enclosed by 65 metres by 29 metres of deck space. This takes into account the use of two bulkheads, flush gutters, starting blocks, clear deck space, and maintenance clearance.

These modern design parameters and features were not incorporated into the existing facility, built in 1974, which was constructed on a smaller footprint than would be required today.

However, when the Park Board and City put the project into a plebiscite question in the 2022 civic election due to the need to receive voters for permission to borrow up to $103 million to fund the project’s construction, a 50-metre pool was specified.

The 50-metre pool was again specified in early 2023 in the bidding process seeking an architectural firm as a design contractor.

When asked, Jackson says a 50-metre pool was ruled out “quite early” after they started working with the design contractor “because it simply wouldn’t fit.”

“Again, it’s site constraints, the biggest factor, and going outside of those site constraints, unknown costs and unknown timelines. One key piece we’re trying to battle here is trying to make a good financial decision on behalf of the City and Vancouver taxpayers, knowing that if we don’t move on this project now, we’re already calculating half a million to a million dollars of cost escalations with every passing month on this project,” Jackson told Daily Hive Urbanized.

Enough space to include a diving pool

Previously, the project carried a preliminary cost estimate of $140 million.

This has now increased by $30 million to $170 million, based on the recommended features of a 25-metre, eight-lane lap swimming pool, a leisure pool with a beach entry and lazy river, a deep diving pool with two towers enabling diving platforms of various heights up to 10 metres, a large hot pool, a small spectator seating area, and a fitness gym.

The original $140 million budget covers all of these features, except for the diving tank. After it was determined that a 50-metre would not fit, he says, a decision was made to reconfigure the 25-metre pool, leisure pool, and hot pool to reincorporate a new and improved diving pool and a warming tank, so that diving training and competitions can continue to be offered from this aquatic centre.

In order to cover this $30 million cost increase for ensuring the replacement and improvement of the diving tank, the Park Board would redirect $7.6 million from the West End Waterfront Phase 1 project and request Vancouver City Council to approve an additional $22.4 million.

Jackson explains that the Park Board doesn’t have an estimate for the cost of a 50-metre pool, as it would require further technical analysis beyond the $2.9 million already spent on design and planning work for the current 25-metre main tank recommendation. But it would likely cost more, and it could result in the removal of some of the currently recommended features.

“Just knowing that you’re now talking a bigger facility, potentially scrapping some components that are considered within the existing program that’s been presented to the board, a rough hypothesis would be that that would cost us more than we currently have budget for,” he said.

“But in terms of an order of magnitude, we don’t know because we just simply don’t know site conditions, and we haven’t had the ability to go through enough of a detailed design exercise to do a fair costing to put a number to that.”

Furthermore, doing an actual deep dive into the technical feasibility of a 50-metre pool at the site would not only add to the design and planning work costs, but also take longer and risk losing the $103 million in approved funding from voters. Under the plebiscite requirements, the Park Board and City are legally required to award the project’s major construction contract and start construction by the end of 2026. If this deadline is missed, it requires a new plebiscite vote, which would push the start of construction to 2027.

The Vancouver Aquatic Centre redevelopment project is also proceeding at this time due to its very poor condition, made apparent by the collapse of an exterior wall near the main entrance in 2022.

After the existing facility is demolished, the 2009-built aquatic centre at Hillcrest Centre will be the Park Board’s only 50-metre pool facility, which already sees very high use.

To date, an online petition that began just over a month ago has recorded over 14,000 signatures of support for a 50-metre pool.

At the Park Board’s public meeting in late February, the vast majority of the approximately 70 speakers — including many children, teenagers, and young adults involved in clubs and other groups that rely on the current facility — expressed strong support for a 50-metre pool.

This includes people in not only swim clubs but also clubs for masters, water polo, synchronized swimming, and underwater hockey. Some clubs have also been operating at the facility since it was built and warned that they could be forced to kick out many of their members or even fold due to the lack of suitable alternative facilities available in the region.

Jeannie Lo, president of Swim BC, previously told Daily Hive Urbanized that the Canadian Dolphin Swim Club, which she also leads, would have to cut about half of its programming. The club currently has around 350 members, with the vast majority being young people.

Organizational leaders and club members argued that the Park Board is minimizing the significance of their use of the facilities and the importance of lap swimming space for leisure and recreational activities.

Candidates for the ABC Vancouver and OneCity Vancouver parties have also pledged their support for a 50-metre pool ahead of the April 2025 City Council by-election.

Potential future 50-metre pool at Connaught Park

The controversy has sparked a significant outcry, but Jackson says while the clubs are “loud and clear” in their position, he remains uncertain about the views of the broader public, while also pointing out that 8,000 people are on the swim lesson waitlist.

Jackson affirmed that the recommended facility design will cater to the increasing population of the West End and the nearby Senakw development.

He acknowledged the need for more 50-metre pool facilities — just not at the location replacing Vancouver Aquatic Centre.

“We’re going to have to consider where a 50-metre pool fits in all feasibility studies as we explore future aquatic site renewals or potentially new aquatic sites,” he said.

Aside from Vancouver Aquatic Centre, the Park Board’s 2019-approved, city-wide VanSplash Aquatics Facilities Strategy identified Connaught Park in Kitsilano as a site for a “large scale pool” destination that is potentially a part of a new Kitsilano Rink and/or Kitsilano Community Centre renewal.

“There’s certainly space there [at Connaught Park] to accommodate a 50-metre pool,” said Jackson, noting, however, that this potential project is unlikely to be considered in the next 2027-2030 capital plan.

“I think that would be a prime location for us to look at a 50-metre pool once that site and that community centre in that area is up for renewal. We’re trying to figure out how we triage our facilities right now that are getting to end of life and making sure that we’re renewing these in a smart, well-thought-out order.”

Concurrently, the Park Board is also performing preliminary planning work for the future replacement project of the 137-metre Kitsilano Outdoor Pool so that it can be included in the 2027-2030 capital plan. He says this feasibility work will be done within the next 18 months.

A new Kitsilano Outdoor Pool is identified as a big priority for both the Park Board and City Council due to its poor condition and vulnerability to continued storm and flooding damage.

“I think we all have a hope that we will be able to land the Kits pool renewal in a similar siting so that it can continue to be that waterfront iconic landmark for Vancouverites and visitors from around the world,” said Jackson.

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