What do you do with a problem like the Crystal Pool? Turn it into an opportunity. Don鈥檛 simply renovate or rebuild the pool, but look for innovative ways to make the downtown recreation centre something more than it is.
Victoria city councillors are pondering what to do about the Crystal Pool and Fitness Centre as it nears the end of its useful life. City staff and consultants, who have been studying options for the pool for a year, drew up three recommendations: renovate for $40 million, renovate and expand for $56 million, or build a new pool and fitness centre for $68.4 million.
Last week, councillors debated the issue for three hours, then kicked it back to the staff to see if more information could be gathered.
鈥淚f you come back and say: 鈥榃e鈥檝e done all the work we can. This is our best guess and there鈥檚 not a dime that鈥檚 changed from today,鈥� that is OK,鈥� Mayor Lisa Helps told staff on Thursday.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want corners cut. I don鈥檛 want fake numbers. We鈥檝e asked you to take a look at it. It doesn鈥檛 mean change your answer because you don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e going to like it.鈥�
That鈥檚 a prudent move. With that kind of money at stake, it might pay to explore all the options, and to look outside conventional thinking for this valuable piece of property.
Innovative doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean experimental or avant-garde 鈥� it would be cruel and unusual punishment to inflict another Blue Bridge-type project on Victoria鈥檚 taxpayers. But within the constraints of tried-and-true construction methods and sound engineering, the facility could be much more than a recreation complex.
As Helps has said previously, doing nothing is not an option. Indoor pools deteriorate more quickly than other structures, thanks to all the humidity and the mechanical equipment involved. At some point, without intervention, the pool will go from being an asset to being a liability.
So it鈥檚 a problem, but perhaps there鈥檚 potential to consider more than one problem at a time. The region is acutely short of affordable housing 鈥� could a new complex be built that would include social housing? Two problems, one solution. Funding could be sought through federal and provincial housing programs.
If such housing were built, it should be turned over to an agency with a good track record in that field, rather than having the city run it. The city has plenty to do without taking on landlord duties.
Perhaps a partnership could be formed with a developer, who would pay for a new pool complex in return for the opportunity to build and market condos. Given the tight housing market, there would likely be plenty of people eager to live in that neighbourhood. That presents the possibility of a new pool that would add modestly, or not at all, to the tax burden.
We lean toward including social housing, but either way, adding more residential space would help boost the vitality and viability of the downtown core.
Those might not be feasible ideas for legal, financial or technical reasons, but the concepts of a multi-purpose facility and partnerships should be thoroughly explored. Work on the Crystal Pool will inevitably be required, so we might as well try to get maximum value out of the construction dollars involved.
