The Vancouver Park Board has voted to proceed with a replacement for the Vancouver Aquatic Centre that includes a smaller, 25-metre lap pool.
The aging, five-decade-old facility is currently home to a 50-metre pool, and the prospect of replacing it with a smaller tank prompted an outpouring of anger from community and sports groups.
A staff report to the board recommended proceeding with the smaller lap pool, explaining that building the bigger pool to modern safety and construction standards was not possible on the current site.
Proceeding with that option would add significant time and cost to the project, and put currently allocated funding at risk.
While the new aquatic centre will have a smaller lap pool, it will also include a hot pool, and leisure/lesson pool.
The park board has said with the surging population in the downtown core there is a growing demand for those facilities compared to the larger lap pool, which is primarily used by athletic groups.
The report suggested that about 80 per cent of the lost 50-metre swim availability could be made up by adjusting the layout of the Hillcrest Pool in Mount Pleasant.
Monday night’s vote also included an amendment committing the city to delivering a new 50-metre pool somewhere else in the city in the next decade.