Various residents who spoke out against the park board’s pool plan say they are disheartened by last week’s announcement about the creation of an advisory committee to revisit the contentious proposal.
On April 5, the Vancouver Park Board announced it would strike an external advisory committee to “assist in developing a revised version of VanSplash.”
VanSplash is the proposed long-term plan for the city’s pools, beaches and other aquatic amenities.
Last December, park board staff presented the plan to commissioners, laying out the future of Vancouver’s indoor and outdoor pools, wading pools, spray parks and beaches, and other aquatic attractions. It included a variety of elements: a destination natural outdoor pool along the Fraser River; a harbour deck in a prominent location; a new, larger pool at Britannia; a new destination pool with a sport-training focus at Connaught Park; an outdoor pool in South Vancouver, with Marpole and Killarney community centres as possible locations; as well as upgrading or replacing changing rooms, concession stands and food services at beaches.
In an earlier draft, Lord Byng and Templeton pools were slated for demolition to be replaced by the new, larger destination pools at Connaught Park and Britannia Community Centre. Users of the two smaller pools rallied to save them, and later recommendations kept the pools open pending a review of the impacts of the new pools and consultation with pool users and the community.
Elements of the proposal did not go over well with some residents. Back in December, commissioners heard from close to 50 residents over two meetings before voting to defer discussion and debate of the proposal until January. At the January meeting, commissioners voted 4-3 to refer the plan back to staff for further consideration of the role of neighbourhood pools in the community and the qualitative experience of pool users.
Many of those who spoke out at the meetings are now expressing disappointment, calling the move to establish an advisory committee an “out of the blue change.”
“It upsets me to see the whole process further put off with an obvious delay,” said Jason McGarry, who led the charge against the possible closure of Templeton Pool. “We were hoping for money commitments to preserve, upgrade and renovate Templeton and Byng pools.”
At the meeting in January when the board voted to refer the plan back to staff for further consideration, NPA commissioner Sarah Kirby-Yung had proposed a number of amendments that would have marked considerable changes to the proposal. The amendments were not approved but were also referred to staff for further consideration. Kirby-Yung’s amendments included a recommendation to build a new outdoor pool at Mount Pleasant Park.
“The Mount Pleasant community has waited far too long for the replacement of the outdoor swimming pool that was already approved in 2010,” Margery Duda, who is with the Vancouver Society for Promotion of Outdoor Pools, said in an email. “This overdue project that will benefit the entire city should move ahead immediately with funding in the upcoming capital plan while additional outdoor pool locations are considered. It was not a part of the VanSplash consultation. Consultation on this project was already completed.”
Duda said it’s possible for park board commissioners to approve the Mount Pleasant pool, as well as upgrades to Templeton and Lord Byng pools, while concurrently striking the advisory committee.
The Mount Pleasant outdoor pool was approved in 2010 and is in the park’s master plan. The Mount Pleasant Community Centre Association has raised more than $110,000 for the project.
“I really think this advisory committee should have been approved by the commissioners at a public meeting,” said association president Anita Romaniuk, who is also a former park board commissioner. “Staff should not be embarking on a new process without a public decision by commissioners.
“Commissioners have the power to alter the decision if they see fit, or at least provide direction,” she added.
“The commissioners referred the report back to staff for further consideration and the new task force is part of that further consideration, so that’s staff that chose to do that," said board chair Stuart Mackinnon.
“We sent it back to them for further consideration. They believe from what they heard from the public and from what the commissioners had to say that further study was necessary.”
Rebecca Lockhart, who is part of the neighbourhood group concerned about the lack of awareness and consultation around the plan to build a destination pool at Kitsilano’s Connaught Park, said she was told by staff that a revised VanSplash report was on the way.
“We were told in March of 2018 by park board staff that we could expect a revised report and a timeline for public engagement in our community about the pool,” she said. “What we want most is local consultation with the surrounding neighbourhood and the most impacted communities. A city-wide advisory committee could approve the destination pool and we could end up having no say in this at all.”
In last week’s announcement, the park board said it will issue an open call for members of the public to apply to join the committee in the coming months, and an external facilitator, who has not been involved in the process to date, will help the board identify priorities and refine the plan.
Staff will report back to commissioners on the revised plan in 2019.
