City of Vancouver staff has floated the idea of having a private developer build a new aquatic centre at the northern foot of the Granville Street Bridge on land that the city wants to sell.
A new aquatic centre would replace the 40-year-old, bunker-like building near Sunset Beach.
Neither city council nor park board has discussed the concept of the city allowing a developer to build a new aquatic centre in exchange for rezoning approval, increased density and development approval for a residential tower.
But that did not stop the idea from being raised in a 132-page document drafted to help the city sell a 12-parcel site that would have 53,380 square feet of usable space and is assessed at $36,135,568.
“We were asked to sell this property and consider all potential amenities that this sale could bring in as well as cash,” said Bill Aujla, who is the city’s general manager for real estate and facilities management.
He stressed that the document makes clear that the land would be sold “as is, where is” and that any approval of such a project would have to have public consultation, rezoning and the approval of park board and city council.
Specifically, the document notes that the developer could build the new aquatic facility, likely under a condominium tower, and then transfer the land back to the city “for the nominal consideration of $10.”
The residential portion of the building would be a separate “airspace parcel.”
Critics say the city should have first sought public consultation on the potential initiative.
Instead, the city revealed the potential plan in a document that is only available to be obtained at city hall and is not available online.
Business in Vancouver obtained a copy of the document from the Vancouver Cedar Party, which first spotted the potential move of the aquatic centre, and has put a digitized copy online here.
“The city’s process to get this information is onerous for the regular citizen,” said Vancouver Cedar Party council candidate Nicholas Chernen, whose brother Glen Chernen is running for mayor.
“They’ve made information available but it is not easily available.”
Aujla said that the document was only made available in-person because city staff wanted to get names of everyone who checked it out. That way, he said, everyone could be alerted if any additional information came to light or the document needed amendments.
NPA councillor George Affleck said he was not impressed and not surprised.
“It’s Vision Vancouver so transparency isn’t priority No. 1 for them,” Affleck said after BIV informed him of the pitch that the city was making to try to sell the land on the east side of the Granville Bridge where a traffic loop now routes traffic.
The site is directly across the street from where Westbank is developing a twisty tower designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and Vancouver’s DIALOG Design.
“I’m never comfortable about the city selling its assets because property is what gives us our strong credit rating,” Affleck said. “New Yaletown and Downtown South is park deficient so we’re wasting a huge opportunity to create parkland and meet the criteria that is in the Yaletown plan.”
Vision Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs similarly had not heard that the city was pitching the site as a possible future site for a new aquatic centre until BIV informed him.
“I know there has been concern and an interest about updating or replacing the aquatic centre for some time,” he said. “It is getting to be old at 40 years now.”
NPA park board commissioner John Coupar told BIV that he is not concerned that the city is floating the idea because the document makes clear that rezoning, city approvals and extensive consultation would be required before any such development gets the go-ahead.
