Proposal to build Crystal Pool housing is dead, mayor says

Victoria would have to hold a referendum or counter-petition in order to build affordable housing over underground parking in Central Park next to a new Crystal Pool, city staff say. Mayor Lisa Helps said the requirement essentially kills the idea.

Instead of building a new surface parking lot — if and when the city builds a replacement for Crystal Pool — council, at Helps’ suggestion last month, asked staff to investigate the idea of putting in underground parking topped with as many as six floors of affordable housing and community space.

But in a report to councillors, city assistant city solicitor Carrie Moffatt says a 1906 bylaw dedicating Central Park “for park purposes and for the recreation and enjoyment of the public” would stand in the way.

While building a new surface parking lot for use by patrons of the new Crystal Pool would be consistent with the bylaw, affordable housing is not, she says. “Affordable-housing units are a residential use that fall outside the meaning of ‘park’ and recreation/enjoyment for the public,” meaning the area would have to be removed from park use, the report says.

The removal would have to be approved through a referendum or a counter-petition where a measure can be blocked if a certain percentage of voters petition against it.

“I don’t think that going to referendum to take space out of a park is a good idea,” Helps said. “I would rather not see green space taken away for parking.”

City staff estimate total parking demand for the new pool in the range of 135 to 140 spaces.

Helps said she’s interested in a motion Coun. Geoff Young plans to bring forward to have staff explore using Royal Athletic Park’s parking lot for both the pool and the ball field, with the possibility of putting social housing over underground parking there.

Both Young and Helps said there would still be some parking at the new Crystal for people who are elderly or those with disabilities.

“The parking lot that we already own outright at Royal Athletic Park has 200 surface spots. So that could be double the number of spaces, quadruple, if you also go down, and obviously a bigger footprint for potentially more housing and community space,” Helps said.

Young said if the design of the new pool were flipped 180 degrees — moving its entrance to the southeast corner of Central Park — the parking at Royal Athletic would be only half a short block away.

“What you’d end up with is a small number of spaces next to the pool, obviously some for handicapped and probably some for casual users, and the remaining parkers would be in the existing Royal Athletic parking lot,” Young said.

Young said the Royal Athletic parking lot is ripe for future development.

“So what some of us have thought of is trying to produce some low-cost housing which won’t require a lot of its own parking in conjunction with development of probably underground parking for the [recreation] facilities,” Young said.

Senior government funding isn’t lining up with the Crystal Pool replacement schedule, but Mayor Lisa Helps says scheduling concerns at this point are only hiccups and the project is still on track.

“I feel relatively confident that we’re doing all the work we need to do to secure project funding for this year or next year,” Helps said.

In a quarterly update going to council this week, staff warn of potentially serious cost escalations on the $69.4-million project if provincial and federal government funding is not secured by end of February.

“The current projections estimate this incremental cost to be in the range of $300,000 to $500,000 per month,” the staff report says.

In addition, $6 million in gastax funding confirmed for the project is contingent on other funding being in place by March 31.

And the report says the timing of the new federal government Investing in Canada grant program launched last month will make meeting those deadlines tight.

“The timing of the social-infrastructure program, which applies to this project, is now anticipated to open for applications in late 2018 or early 2019, with decisions expected in the first half of 2019. The potential for funding confirmation occurring in mid-2019 does represent a later time frame than anticipated in the project schedule,” says the report.

It notes that since the last project update, the province has said the social-infrastructure grant process will likely begin this year with decisions anticipated “in the first half of 2019.”

Helps says every indication the city has received from both senior governments is that everything is on track.

“We need to have the funding confirmed by the end of February 2019. So if all is good by then, then there will be no cost increase or delays. I think at the worst, we could anticipate potentially a one-month slippage,” Helps said.

Helps said city staff have a responsibility to take a conservative approach when outlining project risks. As funding is yet to be confirmed, it is identified as a risk.

“We’ve been working with the federal and provincial government for the last two years seeking advice and keeping them up to date on the project, and all signals that we’ve received are that this is a highly fundable project,” Helps said.

“It meets all of the outcomes from accessibility to GHG [greenhouse gas] reductions, and it really is a matter of timing.”

Helps said senior governments don’t want to see $6 million in gas-tax funding lost any more than the city does.

“I don’t think any government would want to see anyone lose project funding,” Helps said.