A new report from the City of Vancouver has found more than half of the community centres in the city are either in “poor” or “very poor” condition.
A plan approved at the Vancouver Park Board meeting Monday night will see the city attempt to repair just 11 of its 24 facilities within the next 20 years; meaning some listed in “poor” condition won’t be prioritized for decades.
But even that seems to be an optimistic goal.
Within the report, city staff acknowledges that “it is unlikely that funding will exist to renew all of these facilities in that timeframe”.
The needed repairs vary in nature, but among them are important seismic upgrades.
“I’m seeing that, let’s say an earthquake hit,” said Commissioner Tricia Barker. “There’s a whole side of the city who we don’t have a community centre that’s at a seismic level, that we would need”.
That part of the city is the west side, which is not even represented in the top four facilities that city staff are planning to prioritize.
Kensington Community Centre was identified as most in need of work, followed closely by Renfrew, Hastings and Strathcona.
The Vancouver Aquatic Centre, which had its facade partially collapse last month, is not a part of this plan as pools are categorized differently.
The staff report also noted that roughly two-thirds of Vancouver’s community centres were built prior to 1990 and the average age of community centres in the city is 47.
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The dire nature of the report and the inability of staff to answer commissioners’ questions, such as whether seismic upgrades had been completed at any community centres recently, led to unusually tense exchanges between members of the board and staff at Monday’s meeting.
“So just in summary,” said commissioner Gwen Giesbrecht. “Although there is a robust program for capital maintenance it’s not actually being done as quick or (in) such a timely way it should be done to keep the buildings from being in poor or very poor conditions”.
Nonetheless, the board approved the staff’s report and community centre renewal plan in a five-to-two vote, with commissioners Barker and John Coupar voting against.
An amendment was also added to have the park board ask city council and the province for more flexibility around funding in order to expedite the work.
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