A space for youth to gather in Lynn Valley was needed decades ago, and it’s still needed today.
That was the sentiment expressed at District of North Vancouver council on Monday.
At the meeting, council directed staff to include a youth centre in a planned upgrade of the Karen Magnussen Community Recreation Centre, and to look for short-term options to meet the needs of young people in the area.
Coun. Catherine Pope was the sole dissenting vote on the matter, arguing that the process was moving too slowly and that a temporary solution should be sought on a more immediate basis.
The lack of a youth centre was brought to council by Coun. Jordan Back last October, after the district received a strongly worded letter from the Lynn Valley Community Association.
The letter said the district had failed two generations of youth, and that a sum of around $175,000 set aside for a gathering space had sat largely stagnant since 2001. After directing staff to look into the matter further, council heard on Monday that there’s currently $268,000 available for the project.
'Can we just get on with it?'
Mayor Mike Little wanted to dispel the idea that previous councils had done nothing to find a space for youth in Lynn Valley for nearly three decades.
“I used to live in 1300 block of Frederick. The neighbours there opposed the placement of a youth building in the middle of the parking lot,” he said. “That was going to be an ATCO trailer in the parking lot of the Lynn Valley Community Centre.”
Instead funds were raised for a youth room in Cardinal Hall, which was filled with furniture, a TV and a Playstation 2 (Little worked for Electronic Arts at the time). But the site was unsupervised and many of the items were taken, he said.
“So yes, we did provide youth centre space in Lynn Valley in 2000, it was vandalized, put into misuse, and it was shut down,” Little said. “So they don’t all work, and things have changed.”
He added that after-hours services at the newly built Argyle Secondary takes care of youth in the north of the neighbourhood relatively well. For others, Little suggested that a covered space could go in place of Seylynn Hall, to shelter skateboarders in winter and go to other uses in the drier months.
But in Pope’s opinion, a youth centre should have been built in Lynn Valley decades ago.
“Generations of children and youth have grown up in Lynn Valley without a youth centre,” she said. “So can we just get on with it? Use the $260,000 to buy stuff for a youth centre, and just find a space.”
Pope suggested the district use West Van as an example, where a room at the community centre has been set up for kids Grade 6 to 8, and another room in Ambleside for youth Grade 9 to 12.
“For now, I’d like to get something on the table that instructs staff to find a space as soon as possible,” she said.
As a result of Monday’s vote, staff will engage with Lynn Valley youth agencies to discuss how to meet the needs of youth in the short term.
As for inclusion in the expanded Karen Magnussen facility, further development timelines and costing for the work have not yet been brought to council.
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