Vancouver’s aging community and rec centres in dire need of updates, report finds

Have you noticed many community centres in Vancouver are looking a little old?  A new report to the Vancouver Park Board is calling for a massive renewal project.

Most of the 24 community centres in the city were built between 1945 and 1980 and the report found many are showing their age.

In fact when it comes to their condition, half of them rate “poor” or “very poor” according to the Park Board, and without interim repair, could require a massive replacement within the next 10 years.

The report found many have urgent infrastructure needs such as seismic upgrades, and many need to be modernized to ensure they are environmentally friendly.

The Board has been looking at the community centres as part of its Community Centre Renewal Plan since 2001, and the new report is intended to replace that strategy with updates and new recommendations. That was supposed to be before the board in 2021, but was delayed due to the pandemic, according to the Park Board General Manager.

Along with the new report, staff are tasked with drawing up an estimated cost, which the board will then consider, before moving ahead.

Overall, the strategy aims to meet the growing populations, and ensure equitable access to community centres, as well as increase the percentage of active residents by 25 per cent over 2014 levels.

Park Board Commissioner Tricia Barker says she wanted to more of a focus on the safety issues.

“To find out that two our oldest community centres, Dunbar and Kerrisdale, would be 30 years away from getting big upgrades and because they were found to be not seismically up to date, that was a great concern for me and Commissioner John Coupar at the meeting last night, thinking that we need to maybe change the focus in how we are looking at these buildings,” Barker said Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, the Kensington Community Centre and the Renfrew Community Centre were ranked first and second, respectively. They were placed higher on the list as they have pools.

While many will be looking forward to a revamp of their outdated swimming pool or decades-old gym, when exactly that will happen has yet to be seen.

In addition, those who live in the West Point Grey neighbourhood, or the Dunbar area, will not see improvements anytime soon as those centres are ranked lowest on the priority list.

Barker says that overall, the reason a lot of the projects haven’t already been seismically updated is money.

“We haven’t been investing enough money into our community centres, we’ve only built one in the last ten years,” Barker said, adding the City of Vancouver could be asked to help support the financial plans.

She says community centres will be needed as to server the vital role as emergency centres in the future, and they need to be safe places for people to go.

Also of note, the report found the need for increasing supply of pickleball courts, aquatic centres, and spray parks, and is not promising similar attention to golf, lacrosse, or paddle courts.

While the strategy is long-term, there are already some projects in the planning stages. Those include new community centres at Oakridge, East Fraser Lands, and Northeast False Creek to meet growing populations and development.

As well as four centres which are currently slated for renovations: Marpole, Britannia, the West End, and RayCam. Those projects were already approved under the Capital Plan for 2019-2022 at a cost of $125 million, there is no estimated cost for the future projects.

On Monday night, the majority of commissioners voted to approve the report, and send it back to staff for next steps.