Kits Pool Swimmers Update - Feasibility Study Underway
3 March 2025
Hello Kits Pool Swimmers,
We are excited to update you all on several fronts, and we expect more updates to follow in the near future.
The importance of Kits Pool to the City and the community is being recognized and acted upon. HCMA (https://hcma.ca/) has been appointed as the architect for the renewal of Kits Pool. A feasibility study is underway and representatives from the Kits Pool Swimmers steering committee attended a session with the feasibility study team on February 10th.
In addition, the Kits Pool Swimmers steering committee has engaged with the Park Board and City Council on a continuing basis to emphasize the strong community support and engagement behind Kits Pool – with a keen interest in its future.
Here is a summary of our interactions:
1) Recognizing that Kits Pool Swimmers was founded with the initial mandate to extend the Kits Pool season, the rapid decline of the infrastructure has necessitated a shift in the mandate toward playing a significant role in delivering an inspired renewal of Kits Pool.
2) There is a solid commitment from local Government to renew the pool. However, it is clear to us that that renewal will only go so far and that to realize an inspired vision for Kits Pool, there will be a requirement to raise money to go beyond the Government budget ceiling. The recent announcement on the unfortunate idea of shrinking the Vancouver Aquatic Centre pool from 50 to 25 metres is evidence that the Kits Pool community must be engaged in an organized fashion.*
3) The timeline to plan and fund the new Kits Pool is short, which is positive. The feasibility study is anticipated to run through to this fall when a report will be delivered. Work is being done on the current infrastructure to extend its life and allow the pool to operate until construction on the new pool begins, which we anticipate taking place within the next 3-5 years.
4) The crucial elements of the Kits Pool experience have been communicated to City Council, Park Board and those running the feasibility study. Featured among those include the concept that Kits Pool provides an unparalleled experience, from its length - 137.5 metres - to its location. For instance, a 50 m pool at Kits beach would not deliver the experience that makes Kits Pool iconic and engenders such passionate support from the community - and this must be powerfully emphasized.
5) It has been stressed that a newly imagined Kits Pool, staying true to those critical elements of the experience can be a showcase for architectural and technological innovations that would allow for a year-round season and become the signature shot of the City of Vancouver as the Sydney Opera House is for Sydney, Australia. We will be providing an update soon regarding a technological innovation in the works that is being designed with the goal of reducing operating costs and providing revenues for operations of the Kits Pool of our future.
137.5 is the theme we are embracing for this campaign. It signifies the fact that the Kits Pool Swimmers community is committed to improving on the existing Kits Pool experience, and that begins with not giving up an inch of it.
Regarding raising support and funding to realize a greater vision then would be delivered through the City alone, it will be important to act expediently. As a group we are considering forming a nonprofit society to engage more substantively in that part of the process.
We will provide updates on this in the near future, please reach out with any questions at info@kitspoolswimmers.org and please share this communication, emphasizing the importance of signing up at www.kitspoolswimmers.org for this important phase that will define the future of Kits Pool for generations – thank you,
Kits Pool Swimmers Steering Committee
* https://globalnews.ca/news/11027649/sports-groups-slam-pool-design-new-vancouver-aquatic-centre/