The fire that tore through the shuttered Ambleside Youth Centre last March was arson, investigators revealed this week.
The blaze remains under investigation but police have identified suspects, confirmed West Vancouver Police Department spokesman Const. Kevin Goodmurphy.
“We have yet to determine what the next course of action is going to be,” he said, explaining the department may pursue criminal charges or restorative justice.
The blaze engulfed the shuttered building at 1018 Pound Rd. late in the evening of March 30. The building’s open floor space allowed the fire to spread quickly, shooting through the roof of the youth centre before fire crews knocked down the flames and set up a barrier to protect the adjacent West Vancouver SPCA.
Nearly six months after the building was torched, West Vancouver council voted unanimously to pursue both a permanent and temporary replacement for the centre, which offered outreach programs, drop-in space and a youth program for 22 years.
“The demise of the youth centre is presenting us with an opportunity to really find something that’s more permanent, more appropriate,” said Mayor Mary-Ann Booth. “I would like to see it move as quickly as possible because we’ve already lost nine months.”
Council voted unanimously Sept. 16 to have staff come before council by March 2020 with a detailed business plan for a new youth hub. Following a motion from Coun. Craig Cameron, council also asked staff to return at the earliest opportunity with a proposal for an interim youth space.
Possible locations for a permanent youth hub include Inglewood Secondary or a portable modular building at the Pound Road site, according to district staff.
Give that it could take two years to design, approve and build a new centre, Cameron suggested a double-wide trailer could serve West Vancouver’s youth in the meantime.
Many teens traipse the beach or wander through Park Royal without thinking there’s anywhere to go in the community, he said.
While the youth centre frequently welcomed 130 young people on Friday and Saturday nights, attempts to relocate services at the West Vancouver Community Centre youth lounge have been largely fruitless, according to a district staff report, which noted there has been no increase in youth lounge attendance for teens in grades 8 through 12.
“Many of the youth who attended AYC don’t feel the same level of comfort, safety and autonomy in the space at the Youth Lounge,” according to a staff report.
Before it burned to the ground, plans to reopen the Ambleside centre were scuttled after the repair bill was estimated at between $1.3 and $1.85 million, according to district staff.
The cost of a new youth centre is not included in West Vancouver’s five-year plan. However, there are “extraordinary partnership potentials,” staff noted.
That position was echoed by Coun. Bill Soprovich, who suggested some of West Vancouver’s corporate citizens could help with funding.
Soprovich also suggested staff consider a shuttle service for the centre.
“We do it for seniors, we do it for everybody else. There’s no reason why we can’t do a shuttle service for youth,” he said.
Any business plan should include the cost of long-term maintenance, Coun. Nora Gambioli said, noting that lack of asset maintenance “has been our downfall over the last 100 years.”
The Pound Road building began its life as a hut equipped with anti-aircraft guns, “to defend the harbour entrance below the Lions Gate Bridge,” according to historian Eve Lazarus, who detailed the site’s history on her blog, Every Place Has a Story.
Following the Second World War, the building was re-purposed for the West Vancouver Rod & Gun Club in the 1950s.
