Council votes to begin process of demolishing old YMCA building

Hyggen even put forward a motion to postpone a decision because he wanted to explore a third option, to sell the building or the land, but it was defeated 6-3.

“If we come to the final conclusion that there’s no other way out, that we do need to demolish it, I’m totally fine with that but I think as councillors we need to do our due diligence, and I just don’t think it was done. I’m respecting the decision of council, but I still don’t think we did our due diligence.”

During the meeting, the Civic Common Master Plan was referenced repeatedly as the reason why selling wasn’t a good option because it would be inconsistent with the plan which called for green space in the area.

The former YMCA Stafford Drive location is situated on an area called the Civic Common.

The Civic Common area is the four-square-block section that includes land occupied by City Hall south to the Civic Ice Centre as well as the Civic Field, the Yates Theatre, the LSCO complex and the Old Courthouse.

The reason this is coming up now is the 99-year land lease agreement between the City and the YMCA determined that if the YMCA terminated the lease the ownership of the building, then lands would revert back to the City and on April 23 the YMCA terminated the lease.

Facility Services assessed the building’s condition and suitability for repurposing and provided the two recommendations based on cost and long-term use of the site.

Hyggen says while there were a few hundred people that were referenced as being really engaged in the drafting of the Civic Common Master Plan, they’ve got 100,000 people in the community.

“There’s a lot more out there, and a lot of them couldn’t make these events. I think that we may have come to the demolition option, but there’s the private sector that could’ve done something magnificent with that space and where the taxpayer would be relieved from the cost. We need to look at all options prior, and I don’t think we did our diligence.”

City Manager Bramwell Strain gave the presentation and afterwards admitted that demolition was the preferred option by city staff given the acceptance of the Civic Common Master Plan.

“This is the natural progression and not only that, but the condition of the building is not in great shape,” he continued. “There’s a lot of remediation that needs to happen, and to have a derelict building is not the best thing, so we want to get that cleaned up as soon as possible.”

Now that council has approved the demolition of the building, they’ll be going out for proposals to tear the building down.

“That process will start tomorrow morning. That should happen within the next month, and from there it will be dependent on who wins the bid, and how quickly they can mobilize,” Strain stated.

Mayor Chris Spearman says even though the vote was decisive, it was still something all of council had to think hard about.

“You’re destroying a building that’s been up for close to 60 years. Is there any other purpose for that building? We did look at the costs of having to renovate that building versus demolishing it, and it seems like the best option is to demolish the building.”

Ultimately, the deciding factor for Spearman came back to Civic Common Master Plan.

The plan, which involved extensive stakeholder and public engagement, outlines a vision for creating a welcoming public space that encourages social interaction.

“We want that area to be a special space in the City. We want to be accumulating and preserving the land in that area. We have very little land left in the downtown of Lethbridge that’s owned by the City of Lethbridge that could be developed into a public space, and that’s what we want to do.”

by Aaron Mahoney

Council votes to begin process of demolishing old YMCA building

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