Victoria's Committee of the Whole has voted against spending $725-thousand on a new feasibility study for the Crystal Pool and fitness centre replacement, and instead are returning to the design that was originally proposed.
But the exact site is still up in the air for now. Staff will report back in 4 weeks, or on Feb 6th, about locations.
There are several locations that were being considered, but Mayor Lisa Helps says the preferred one is the parking lot adjacent to Royal Athletic Park in the at 900-block Caledonia Ave.
She adds if people are worried about a loss of parking, staff have also been looking at ways to potentially double parking capacity at the Save on Foods Memorial site, possibly with some kind of modular parking garage.
Helps says the good news is the project is back on track:
" The biggest decision coming out of council today unanimously is we are moving ahead, we are not doing any more studies, we will build a swimming pool."
There are still some hurdles, including securing funding from other levels of government:
" We've never had funding for the project, so there's been some misconception out there that we didn't have funding for the project. We didn't have funding for the project. There was some small amount set aside contingent on us getting other funding. So, the steps are choose the site, staff have already done the detailed design of the facility, then it will need to be sited on the new facility. But the next job after Feb. 6th is find funding, hold a referendum, build the pool."
Helps can't say when shovels will be in the ground, but calls the decision a huge relief.