At least eight new community centres and swimming pool facilities have been eyed by mayor Ken Sim for inclusion in the City of Vancouver’s upcoming 2027-2030 capital plan for new construction and facility and infrastructural investments.
Sim announced he will be putting forward a member motion for Vancouver City Council’s consideration next week to provide City staff with key directions and inputs on what to include when drafting the capital plan, which is set to be finalized by the outgoing makeup of City Council later this spring or early summer.
This comes just ahead of the October 2026 civic election. However, each four-year capital plan is decided at the end of each City Council’s term in office, with a large portion of its funding coming from borrowing.
This timing each cycle also enables the municipal government to potentially include plebiscite questions in the civic election ballot to fulfill its requirement of seeking voter permission to pursue construction financing through debt.
Sim first indicated a renewed emphasis on giving Vancouver’s aging community and recreation facilities further attention in the upcoming capital plan during his address last week to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, allocating $400 million alone to renew five aging community centres.
Most of the 24 existing community centres under the Vancouver Park Board’s jurisdiction were built between 1945 and 1980, and a report by the City’s independent Auditor General last year found that 72 per cent of the City’s community and recreation centres are in poor condition.
Today, he provided the details outlined in his motion, including the replacement or large-scale reconstruction of five existing facilities — specifically Dunbar Community Centre, Kerrisdale Community Centre, Hastings Community Centre, Roundhouse Community Centre, and Kensington Community Centre.
“These community centres were identified by staff as the highest need facilities that were in very poor or poor condition,” said Sim during a press conference today.
ABC city councillor Lisa Dominato added, “This capital plan marks the first phase of a long term effort to renew community centres across Vancouver, places that families and neighbours rely on for recreation, learning and social connection. Over the next decade, our goal is to ensure that Vancouver’s aging community centres are renewed.”
Additionally, the capital plan would advance the stalled redevelopment of the Britannia civic hub, including its aging community centre and pool. Britannia’s ice rink repairs and upgrades were completed earlier this year, and last week the Park Board endorsed its own capital plan motion for City Council’s consideration, which included a component to potentially explore a partnership with the Vancouver Canucks, who are in dire need of a dedicated practice facility.
Sim noted today that his capital plan motion will also look at “new ways to deliver these projects faster and more effectively through partnerships.”
As well, Sim’s motion recommits to the importance of replacing the highly vulnerable Kitsilano Outdoor Pool, which has incurred significant storm damage in recent years, with the completed repairs during the previous summer seasons intended to be a temporary solution. Planning is well underway on the new outdoor pool’s design concept, with this project expected to be incorporated into the capital plan, with voters possibly asked to support debt financing in a plebiscite question on this year’s civic election ballot.
Sim says his proposal amounts to “the single largest investment in community centre renewal in Vancouver’s history.”
Typically, each four-year capital plan cycle might tackle one new community centre, he says. But his proposal delivers five.
A brand-new project announced by Sim today is the construction of a new 25-metre swimming pool at Sunset Park in South Vancouver, where there is also an existing community centre.
Fall 2025 construction progress on Marpole Community Centre. (ReLoad Sustainable Design)
Fall 2025 construction progress on Marpole Community Centre. (ReLoad Sustainable Design)
Fall 2025 construction progress on Marpole Community Centre. (ReLoad Sustainable Design)
The new capital plan would also begin the exploration process of constructing a new 50-metre, Olympic-sized, competition pool somewhere in the city, given that the approved Vancouver Aquatic Centre redevelopment project will downgrade the lap pool size from 50 metres to 25 metres. ABC previously suggested such a large aquatic centre could be built somewhere in South Vancouver.
Sim also outlined a new turf field for Beaconsfield Park, a new spray park for Burrard View Park, washroom upgrades for Kitsilano Beach and Second Beach, a renewal of the pond at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, and public space improvements in Gastown.
For the first time, Sim announced the potential creation of a new Vietnamese Cultural Centre, with the intention of having some funding in the capital plan support the feasibility planning work. This adds to the City’s ongoing efforts with supporting the future new Filipino Cultural Centre.
There would also be an exploration of a new or co-located Collingwood branch of the Vancouver Public Library, after a previous concept in partnership with a private developer, integrated into a mixed-use residential tower near SkyTrain’s Joyce-Collingwood Station, fell apart.
As well, a long-term strategy would be created to address roads and sidewalks built on unstable peat substrate.
“To get there, we have to get back to basics and back to community. I’ve asked my team to bring forward a motion to establish strategic priorities and consolidate direction to address these inadequacies. And I want to be very clear, this is just one part of a much broader capital plan that addresses everything from bridges to pipes and beyond,” said the mayor.
During the 2022 civic election, voters approved all three plebiscite questions on the backside of the ballot form, providing the municipal government with the permission to borrow $495 million towards funding the $3.5-billion, 2023-2026 capital plan approved by the previous makeup of City Council in Summer 2022. This includes $103 million in borrowed money for the $175-million Vancouver Aquatic Centre redevelopment, which is expected to begin demolition/construction work at the end of 2026 due to the time-limited legal requirements when seeking voter permission to borrow money to support capital plans.
Following the announcement, city councillor Pete Fry, who is running for mayor under the Green party, questioned whether the ABC party’s $400-million estimated figure for renewing five aging community centres is sufficient, given the heightened cost of construction since the pandemic.
Fry also questioned the full cost of the mayor’s capital plan goals and how they would be financed. He acknowledged the Park Board’s approved member motion asking City Council to consider a package totalling over $1.4 billion in projects for Vancouver’s parks and recreation system for the finalized capital plan.
“The challenge with borrowing, of course, is that it has to be serviced by our operational budget,” said Fry.
Mayor Sim is also promising a zero per cent property tax increase for 2027, following the same freeze in 2026. This is a direct response to criticism that property taxes have increased substantially over the past decade, especially early on in the current term.
The municipal government is currently in an overall weaker financial position as it previously could depend on market residential developments — especially strata condominiums — to generate significant development cost levies (DCLs) and community amenity contributions (CACs) as major revenue sources to support the capital plan. Right now, the City has fewer revenue sources to draw on, and it has also recently implemented policies that delay and temporarily reduce payments, while providing new flexibilities to developers regarding development fee payments — as measures to help keep new housing projects viable.
“We’re in a different territory now,” said Fry, referring to the very sluggish market for condominiums and the pivot by developers to secured purpose-built rental housing and other non-residential uses, which do not generate the same degree of revenue for the City.
Vancouver will gain two new community centres later in 2026, from the opening of the new replacement and expanded 42,000 sq. ft. Marpole Community Centre and the brand-new, developer-funded, 100,000 sq. ft. Oakridge Civic Centre integrated into the Oakridge Park mall complex, which will entail a community centre, seniors centre, Vancouver Public Library’s second largest branch, performance and event spaces, a gymnasium, a fitness gym, and a childcare facility.
Both facilities will be Vancouver’s first new community centres in a decade and a half, ever since the completion of Mount Pleasant Community Centre and Hillcrest Centre.
Oakridge Civic Centre; construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)
Oakridge Civic Centre; construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)
Oakridge Civic Centre; construction progress on Oakridge Park, as of Jan. 4, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)