Notice received:
Rally outside Vancouver City Hall
in support of neighbourhood and outdoor pools
June 10, 2019 (Monday)
5:15 to 6 pm
Despite over 5000 combined signatures collected by the Templeton and Lord Byng Community to keep the Neighbourhood Pools open, VanSplash in their November, 2017, the final draft strategy, Park Board staff recommended “Moving away from a predominantly neighbourhood scale pool system and deliver a greater diversity of swimming experiences at larger community and destination scale facilities.”
https://vancouver.ca/images/web/draft-vansplash-final-strategy-report.pdf – p56
Templeton and Lord Byng residents would like to see more neighbourhood scale pools being built, upgraded and renovated. The ability to walk or bike to a local pool supports the City’s Climate Emergency Plan to move away from motorized transportation thus reducing carbon emissions.
Residents from the Templeton and Lord Byng communities support the Park Board Commissioner’s amendments
- to develop an upgrade and renovation plan, extending operational life-span for neighbourhood pools not undergoing renewal as part of this strategy, to increase sustainability and operational efficiency including consideration of implementing green technologies
- to support a balanced delivery model that includes neighbourhood scale pools as well as larger community and destination scale facilities to deliver a greater diversity of aquatic experiences.
They will be holding a rally outside of City Hall Monday, June 10th, 2019, from 5:15 – 6:00 in support of this recommendation and broader community support is welcomed.
Mount Pleasant outdoor pool
Supporters of a new outdoor replacement pool in Mount Pleasant will also join them. [The rally is also in support of outdoor pools, including the long overdue promise to replace Mount Pleasant Outdoor swimming pool.]
Due to community push back of the proposed closures of community pools, an advisory group was established to provide insights and advice to Park Board staff. Based in part on the advisory group’s input, Park Board staff will revise the VanSplash strategy and bring it to the Board in the fall of 2019 for decision. The final decision-makers are the Park Board Commissioners. The VanSplash Advisory Group is meeting June 10th and 12th to decide on their recommendations to the Park Board.
Your opinion is welcome and encouraged. The VanSplash staff will update the strategy to present to the Park Board Commissioners by fall, 2019. Please send in your comments before this time.
VanSplash Advisory Committee; vansplash@vancouver.ca
Park Board Commissioners – PBcommissioners@vancouver.ca
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References:
“2 Vancouver pools saved after passionate fight” CBC News · Posted: Dec 04, 2017
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/pool-lord-byng-templeton-remain-open-parks-board-1.4432819
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This is from the Mount Pleasant Community Centre from 2017. Source: https://www.mountpleasantcc.ca/mpcca-pool.htm
Excerpts:
The VanSplash Report is on the Agenda for the Park Board’s December 11, 2017 meeting:
http://parkboardmeetings.vancouver.ca/2017/20171211/index.htm
There is NO replacement outdoor pool in Mount Pleasant Park (Ontario & 16th Ave) for the one demolished in 2009, despite the recommendation in the 2010 Master Plan that a replacement pool would be built “when funds become available”:
Click to access MountPleasantParkUpgrade.pdf
Click to access Minutes01Nov2010.pdf
The only recommended outdoor pool is to “co-located” with either the existing indoor pool at Killarney, or the future new community centre at Marpole. While many residents of Marpole would welcome a replacement for the outdoor pool that closed in 1996, there is no guarantee that it would accommodate swimmers of all ages, unlike the small outdoor one at Hillcrest which is suitable only for young children.
The report, by the same consultants for the 2001 report recommending closing outdoor pools, also recommends building destination pools at Britannia (already in the planning stages) and Connaught Park next to Kitsilano Community Centre, at a cost of $60 to $80 million for each. In contrast, the figure given for an outdoor pool at Killarney or Marpole is $6 to $9 million, and there is no outdoor pool included at Britannia or Connaught. The Park Board will consider the futures of Lord Byng and Templeton pools once the two destination pools are built, which could lead to their closure.
One reason given in the report for NOT swimming is that there is no pool close to where people live or work, yet the recommendation to shrink the number of pools in favour of destination pools makes this situation worse.
Shouldn’t the Park Board promote life-long access to all of the residents of Vancouver?
CityHallWatch: Tools to engage in Vancouver city decisions 
The rally is also in support of outdoor pools, including the long overdue promise to replace Mount Pleasant Outdoor swimming pool.
Please add a sidebar to your post to this effect.
Thanks!
Margery Duda
On Mon, 10 Jun 2019 at 20:08, CityHallWatch: Tools to engage in Vancouver city decisions wrote:
> urbanizta posted: “Notice received: Despite over 5000 combined signatures > collected by the Templeton and Lord Byng Community to keep the > Neighbourhood Pools open, VanSplash in their November, 2017, the final > draft strategy, Park Board staff recommended “Moving away from a” >
Thank you, Margery. There is a sentence already in there about Mount Pleasant outdoor pool, but if you would like to add more info, please do share it here!