Victoria’s Crystal Pool and Fitness Centre will be closed from Nov. 20 until Jan. 1.
According to the city of Victoria, the closure is due to extended annual maintenance.
During the closure, Crystal Pool memberships will be accepted at all regional recreation centres including Saanich, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, Westshore, Panorama, SeaParc and the downtown YMCA.
This year, Victoria council decided to revive the Crystal Pool replacement project and allocated $1.78 million to fund consulting services for project management and feasibility studies.
The 52-year-old facility, which is responsible for 40 per cent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, is at the point where replacement is a wiser option than repair, according to city staff reports. Maintenance of the facility costs the city about $2 million a year.
The city has talked about replacing the Crystal Pool for years; the last plan in February 2020 featured a return to an earlier design for a 50-metre pool and fitness centre.
Over the past four years, the city has spent about $2 million on pre-construction planning and design, with little to show for it.
A referendum on the project is expected to be held in 2024 and will include a binding question on the public’s willingness to borrow to build a new recreation centre, and a non-binding question about the centre’s location and amenities.
The referendum on the Crystal Pool is inevitable, as the city is required to seek public guidance for capital projects that break the $50-million threshold. Some estimates have suggested a new facility could cost $100 million.
