Vancouver Aquatic Centre rebuild will not have a 50-metre lap pool

Vancouver park board boss Steve Jackson says the Vancouver Aquatic Centre rebuild will not include a 50-metre pool.

On Tuesday, Jackson said a report going to the Vancouver park board next Monday will confirm an earlier parks board staff report that the centre’s existing 50-metre pool will have to be replaced with one half the size.

“We had our consultants look at the footprint and whether there was any way to orient a 50-metre pool that would fit,” he said. “Current standards need to have space around the pool for your starting blocks, gutters, space for people to move, space for maintenance equipment to access and clean. You need more space than is in the footprint today. A simple rinse and repeat is not a viable option.”

Last month, the park board reversed its promise to build a 50-metre pool within the new aquatic centre, saying it would be too expensive and could simply not be done. The park board referred the item back to staff for a more detailed decision.

In 2022, Vancouver voters backed a plan to borrow $103 million to rebuild the 51-year-old facility at Sunset Beach. The following year, Vancouver council included the redevelopment in its 2023-2026 capital plan and agreed to spend $140 million in total on the facility.

The price has now risen to $170 million, Jackson said.

He said work on the new facility, which will include a much larger hot tub and a lazy river, was expected to start late next year.

Jackson said that swim groups at the aquatic centre would be offered space at Hillcrest Community Centre, which will increase use of its 50-metre hybrid pool from 100 hours a month to 500 hours a month.

Jackson said the city was looking for a site to build a new 50-metre pool, possibly in Connaught Park in Kitsilano, which could be included in the city’s 2027-2030 capital plan.

He said the city was expecting to open the Kitsilano outdoor pool this summer and had longer term plans to replace that facility.

dcarrigg@postmedia.com