This occasional series explores Bellingham’s indoor recreation needs and how other cities have funded and built successful public centers. Today: Two public facilities in Surrey, British Columbia and Richmond, B.C.
Just across the Northern border from Bellingham is a mecca of indoor recreation.
At 10 a.m. on a summer weekday, people of all ages flock to the Minoru Centre for Active Living in Richmond, British Columbia, finding plenty of space to swim, work out and make friends. Almost no one is sharing lanes at the vast indoor pool of Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre in Surrey, B.C. Together, these cities south of Vancouver boast multiple aquatic or ice centers and dozens of community centers.
They serve as examples of a dream Bellingham residents want brought to reality: more indoor options for a community that endures a soggy six months of the year. The one city-run aquatic center, the limited additional indoor recreation facilities and the lack of a community center have spurred three Bellingham groups into action.
They only need to look north for inspiration.
A recreation needs assessment conducted by the city in spring 2022 found that 67% of respondents said they travel both north and south of Bellingham to access indoor facilities.
A CDN reporting team also traveled to explore state-of-the-art indoor recreation centers in British Columbia. While comparing funding mechanisms can be tricky given the international border and differing tax systems, these facilities show what’s possible when it comes to city-run indoor recreation facilities.
[The former Olympic Oval in Richmond turned into a well-loved and well-used community center. ]
Minoru Centre for Active Living
Richmond, B.C.
Facilities: Leisure pool, two 25-meter pools, two hot tubs, polar plunge pools, steam room and saunas, climbing wall, diving board, fitness center, senior center
Cost to construct: $83 million CAD (roughly $59 million USD)
Monthly visitors: About 80,000 a month
Fees: $7.85 CAD ($5.60 USD) for an adult single swim, $49 CAD ($35 USD) for an adult monthly continuous pass, $564 CAD ($402 USD) for a yearly pass
The Minoru Centre for Active Living at 7191 Granville Ave. is one of the newest facilities in Richmond, opening in 2021. It combines an aquatic and recreation center with a senior center.
Plans to build the space began more than a decade ago, to replace an aging aquatic center and senior center where the Minoru Centre currently stands.
Elizabeth Ayers, general manager of community services at the City of Richmond, said the city council approved the plan due to the growing population and an identified need for more community centers in the area. The city decided to combine the senior center and the aquatic center due to seniors being “heavy users” of swimming pools.
The project cost $83 million CAD (about $59 million in today’s USD) and was funded from the city’s capital building project fund, built up through 1% of the tax base going to the fund every year.
Ayers said this fund allows the city to avoid going to the tax base on an infrequent basis with a big tax ask. It’s built up over the years so the city can keep up with the need for growth.
“In essence, it’s a rainy-day fund … that has taken a lot of burden off the community,” Communications Manager Clay Adams said.
Ayers said there were between 10–15 stakeholder groups involved in the design of the facility, and the city conducted extensive public engagement. One example of how that engagement changed plans was the addition of pool slides.
“Every time we went out to engagement [sessions], children were drawing slides in their picture or they were modeling them in clay. And we were like, we better put some slides in this facility because clearly kids associate slides and pools,” Ayers said. “We did and there’s two and they love them.”
Kirsten Close, the manager of aquatics and community wellness for the City of Richmond, said the rec center/senior center setup allows for intergenerational connection.
“We’ve got toddlers in a space with seniors,” she said. “Oftentimes families go over to the senior center and have lunch in the cafeteria there, which is great for social connections and community belonging and just overall well-being, and that active aging piece for our senior’s population.”
Ayers said to build a facility like the Minoru Centre, a city needs council support and vision, as well as a “commitment to the health and well-being of the community.”
Close said there are countless long-term benefits from centers like Minoru — “quality of life, longevity, community belonging.”
Ayers said Richmond benefited from listening to the community to build a facility “that reflects their needs and their wants and desires.”
“It absolutely has to have community involvement in the design and the development of it, and then they will come and they will breathe life into it,” Ayers said.
And of course, cities also need money to build good recreation centers.
“Pools are really expensive to operate,” Ayers said. “I empathize with the community and the size of Bellingham because pools need volume from a financial perspective.”
Ayers said in an email that while she can’t speak to Bellingham’s needs or processes, she would recommend a “multiplex facility concept” that combines a community center and recreational facility to enable a “diversity of programming” and encompass a broader age group. Particularly, she said to consider flexibility in the space as community needs may change over time.
Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre
Surrey, B.C.
Facilities: 50-metre Olympic size competition pool, leisure pool, diving facilities, hot tubs, waterslide, steam room, sauna, fitness center
Cost to construct: $35 million CAD ($25 million USD)
Monthly visitors: About 50,000 a month, based on January to May 2024 usage numbers
Fees: $7.50 CAD ($5.35 USD) for a single visit to any Recreation Surrey facility, $76 CAD ($54.21 USD) for a monthly Recreation Surrey pass, $555 ($396 USD) for a yearly Recreation Surrey pass
A common trip across the border for avid swimmers, Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre’s Olympic-sized swimming pool draws visitors from all over the Lower Mainland and Whatcom County.
“Day one, we were full,” said Tricia Williams, community service coordinator at the Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre, which opened in 2016. The aquatic center is located at 16855 24 Ave. in Surrey.
Jeff Holland, the City of Surrey’s manager of community and recreation services, said that in the early 2010s the mayor at the time put together a program called Build Surrey, a large capital investment across departments.
“The city committed to building two swimming pools within basically a three-year time period,” he said.
Holland said the public engagement process included meetings with several community groups. They reached 500 people in the engagement process, he said.
“What came out of all of it all was that the city should have a facility that meets provincial and national-level sport needs,” Holland said. “But it’s geared very largely towards the broader public good. It’s not a sport-specific facility.”
Grandview replaced a much smaller pool and a tiny hot tub, Holland said.
“[The old pool] was packed, we were running about 24 swim instructors during swim lessons,” he said. “There was really no room for the general public during swimming lessons.”
Williams said they get many swimmers from Bellingham at the facilities. Williams said the pool is popular with seniors — great for their socialization and physical and mental health. Aquafit programs are full, as well.
“Taxpayers don’t mind paying for something like this when they’re going to be the ones using it,” pool service worker Dustin Mucha said. “Keeping kids out of trouble, you’re spawning some decent jobs, on and on and on.”
Holland said a successful recreation center is made by a connection that’s established between the residents that attend and the staff, including lifeguards that are committed to being good mentors to young people.
When asked what he might have changed in the facility, Holland said he would add more universal changing room stalls with showers and add an additional one to two meters of deck space for use during competitions and events. He said installing a large hot tub was a great choice — it’s well used by the community.
He said community will is needed to build a facility like Grandview Heights, and the city was met with very little pushback in the process.
“Community will was there because they saw it as needed,” Holland said. “It’s just a matter of getting the community willing to do it.”
Coming soon: A look into two successful recreation centers in Snohomish County.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
