Community advocates in Lynn Valley are wondering why a youth centre hasn’t been built, after discussions started and funds were set aside more than two decades ago.
At an Oct. 7 meeting, District of North Vancouver council voted unanimously for staff to report back on the history of discussions and financial commitments for a youth centre in the area.
The current conversations at municipal chambers were sparked by a strongly worded letter sent to council by the Lynn Valley Community Association.
“The District of North Vancouver has failed [two] generations of youth in Lynn Valley,” it begins.
Much of the letter focuses on a sum of $175,000 that was set aside in 2001, which was not enough to go ahead with the project at the time. By July 2017, the balance was $250,000.
“If we had invested the original $175,000 in a balanced mutual fund, it would be worth over $529,000 today. I realize that we would not have invested in a balanced mutual fund as the time frame was not expected to be this long, but my point is on the opportunity that has been lost for taking so long to even get this project started,” the letter reads.
The association points out that Lynn Valley is a designated town centre with a growing population, yet there is a lack of investment for youth.
“We now need mayor and council to support and prioritize this long-overdue project.”
Coun. Jordan Back said the purpose of his motion is to bring the discussion back after promises were made years ago.
“And as we look to some future developments, as we look to refurbish the Karen Magnussen rec centre and facilities like this, to potentially take another look at a youth centre as part of that,” he said.
Coun. Catherine Pope expressed concerns about what happened to the money set aside.
“I don’t understand how we can have this money sitting in the pot and it was never activated,” she said.
Currently there’s $268,000 set aside in a reserve fund, according to staff.
A history of challenges to find home for Lynn Valley youth centre, mayor says
Mayor Mike Little said he has some history with the plan for a youth centre in Lynn Valley.
First the 1300 block of Frederick Road was proposed, but the community came out opposed to that, citing theft incidents and late night parties, “which arguably is a reason for a youth center,” Little said.
Then a room on the west side of Cardinal Hall was used for a while, with some couches, a TV and even some video games put in, as Little worked for Electronic Arts at the time.
“Then after a year, nobody was using it. It wasn’t receiving programming,” he said. “And it just wasn’t a popular place to go and hang out, and it wasn’t in great repair.”
Then the public library was proposed as a potential location, with a youth librarian to help engage young people, but that was opposed by the community association, Little said.
“It has a challenged past of finding consensus,” he said.
Since then, Little said he’s seen the success of the Parkgate model, which has an adjacent skateboard park and gym.
“The youth centre actually functions relatively well because we can use those extra areas,” he said. “Then the idea was that we would earmark the space between the lacrosse box and the Karen Magnussen facility, and the next time we updated the facility we’d look at building a youth centre that could take advantage of that – maybe put some skateboard infrastructure into the space as well.”
Given this history, Little said he was “challenged” by the tone of the letter from the community association. The letter doesn’t reference the $42-million, brand-new École Argyle Secondary, he added, which has youth lounge areas with couches, food service and WIFI.
“It’s ignoring something that actually is extremely popular with the youth in the neighbourhood, because you go by the school and it’s busy into the evening because the spaces are so great,” he said.
While $268,000 won’t be enough to create something like that, “there’s no question further south in Lynn Valley, as we do an upgrade to Karen Magnussen, that we need to incorporate youth-appropriate spaces into there,” Little said.
