A fight over the future of one of Vancouver\u2019s most iconic recreation facilities is heating up.<\/p>\n
A community group says newly uncovered documents raise serious questions about how key decisions were made on the upcoming redevelopment of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.<\/p>\n
Jon Girard, the director of the Protect Our Vancouver Aquatic Centre Society, swam at the aquatic centre for close to a decade. He says internal documents obtained through a legal agreement suggest senior city staff may have interfered with the project, steering the design toward a smaller pool.<\/p>\n
According to the documents, consultants were originally studying several design options, including ones that would keep a competition-sized pool. Critics also argue the shift contradicts what many voters believed they were approving during Vancouver\u2019s 2022 civic election plebiscite.<\/p>\n
The aquatic centre is slated for a $175 million retrofit near the end of this year. This would see the 50-metre pool downsized to 25 metres, a possibility that has sparked outrage from the swimming community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the only facility in the city of Vancouver that\u2019s a dedicated 50-metre pool,\u201d Girard said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[City staff have] identified that this new pool they are building will not meet the needs of the community in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, the City of Vancouver said the project is moving ahead with the 25-metre pool design because it was previously approved by the Vancouver Park Board, citing physical construction constraints at a meeting in February of last year.<\/p>\n
Girard has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for legal costs and is planning to ask the B.C. Supreme Court to review the planning process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf needed, we\u2019ll also be looking into and filing injunctive relief, as well, to prevent the build from going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fundraiser is less than $4,000 shy of its $55,000 goal.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Scott Jensen is tabling a motion at Monday\u2019s Park Board meeting to invite Vancouver\u2019s auditor general to do a performance audit of the city\u2019s recommendations for the aquatic centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fight over the future of one of Vancouver\u2019s most iconic recreation facilities is heating up. A community…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-523452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}