The City of Victoria will press ahead with plans to build a new $69.4-million Crystal Pool in the southwest corner of Central Park beside the existing facility.
But tied to the decision, city council also agreed to explore options for making the parking lot at nearby Royal Athletic Park available for social housing, along with facilities such as a community centre, a pocket park and child care over underground parking.
The city will also contact Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre operator RG Properties, which has the lease on the parking lot, to see if it has any interest in exploring the city’s pool development options.
The decisions were reached after three hours of discussion Thursday. The North Park Neighbourhood Association wrote to council saying its preferred site for the new pool is not in Central Park but on the arena parking lot adjacent to the Victoria Curling Club across Quadra Street.
“There are no easy paths forward and there are limited infrastructure dollars in the country and multiple projects across the province and multiple projects that the city needs to work on,” Mayor Lisa Helps said after the meeting.
“I think what came really loud and clear from the neighbourhood is the desire for more amenities than just the swimming pool when we’re going to be making this investment in the neighbourhood.”
The city has been meeting growing pushback on its pool- replacement plans from North Park residents, who feel not enough consideration was given to Central Park itself during the pool-replacement process.
The neighbourhood association said the arena site would also allow for services the councillors are now proposing for the Royal Athletic parking lot.
Coun. Ben Isitt said linking a proposal to build a new facility at the Royal Athletic Park parking lot was akin to “putting all this lipstick on a pig to try to make a major capital project in Central Park palatable.”
Isitt said the city “made a fundamental error” when, rather than having a site-selection process, it assumed Central Park was the best location for the new pool simply because the existing pool is there.
It now might make more sense, he said, to wait for a downturn in the economy before moving ahead with the pool replacement project.
But two years into planning, with $2 million spent and January deadlines for senior government funding applications looming, council didn’t have a lot of wiggle room, especially if the city has any hope getting in on the first round of federal and provincial infrastructure grants — grants that would help avoid major borrowing.
Staff warned that exploring options outside of Central Park could delay the project by eight to 10 months and cost an extra $200,000 for further design work.
The city has secured $6 million in gas tax and $1 million from Canadian Tire Jump-start Charities for the pool project, and has $10 million available in reserves. But gas tax funding is contingent on other funding being in place by March 31.
Without senior government funding, the city would have to get approval from the electorate to borrow money.
City director of parks Thomas Soulliere said the province has indicated it wants to distribute its initial $134 million in grants as widely as possible across the province.
“We anticipate there being high demand,” Soulliere said, and the city might not get as much money as it needs.
Coun. Geoff Young said it’s “quite likely” the city would not be able to undertake the project at all.
“It’s an ambitious project that’s very expensive and I am very awake to the fact it simply may not happen,” Young said.
“If we do not get substantial grant funding and have to go to the people, we will be facing both those people who don’t want us to spend more money on anything because they’re concerned about their taxes, but also a whole bunch of people who think we should be putting the money into a library or community centres or all of the land we’re going to be buying for affordable housing.”
Costs of keeping the existing Crystal Pool operational for the next 10 years have been pegged at between $10 million and $13 million over and above operating costs of about $1.5 million a year.
