Community Works Yard Updates

Visit our Get Involved page to learn more about this project

Nanaimo’s Public Works Yard is getting some much-needed changes.

Nanaimo’s Public Works Yard houses staff and services that are key to City operations. From the water coming out of your tap to the roads, sidewalks, trails and bike lanes that get you where you need to go, to acting as a back up Emergency Operations Centre and countless things in between, the Public Works Yard is fundamental to keeping the community running.

A facility this important to our community needs to work for our crews so they can efficiently and effectively serve the public. Currently, some of the buildings are roughly 60 years old and were built when our population was a fraction of what it is today. They no longer are fit for their purpose and don’t meet the operational needs of the staff that serve our community.

The solution? Rebuild two buildings that are in need of replacement the most - the Fleet and the Crew and Administration buildings.

A new name for a new era.

Another notable change will be the name of the Yard. Once the project is complete, the Yard will house not only Public Works staff but also staff from Parks Operations, Facility Operations, Supply Chain Management and IT. With all these departments serving the community under one roof, it is only fitting to rename it to the Community Works Yard.

As we plan for the project, there will be a lot of prep work in advance of the official ground-breaking. To stay in the know, follow this project for updates.

These buildings will be 'post-disaster' rated and created with safety and functionality at the forefront. That means they will be there and ready to keep servicing our community when we need it most.

As part of this update, Parks Operations and Facility crews will be relocating from the Parks Operations Yard on Prideaux Street, the Nanaimo Lakes Road Parks Satellite Yard, and the Bowen Park Social Centre. This will bring the majority of the City’s operational staff together to the updated buildings to collaboratively deliver the essential services our community requires.

To learn more about this project visit our Get Involved Nanaimo site. You can also review more technical information and Council reports below. Some of these reports and technical plans are based on older configurations of the plans to update the Yard, but they provide a history of this project and how it has developed over the last five years.

Background

Our current Public Works and Parks yards are well past their usable lifespan, and no longer suitable to serve our growing community. The original Public Works buildings were constructed in the 1960's and evolved as the population of the City reached 45,000 by 1980. The City of Nanaimo is now 100,000 people strong and growing quickly. Much of the additional space to accommodate the growing services required by the community was added using modular temporary facilities, not intended for permanent use and now long past their 'best before' date.

Public Works Yard 1960's:

Approximate Community Population 30,000
Approximate City Population 14,135

Public Works Yard 2024:

Approximate Community Population 107,000

The Public Works facilities have exceeded staff capacity and considerable efforts have been made to accommodate increasing needs by converting unsuitable spaces or adding additional trailer units to create room. The overall result is a facility that struggles or fails to meet existing operational needs, environmental regulations, building code, and accessibility or gender equity considerations.

With the population of Nanaimo expected to be in the range of 126,000-141,000 in 25 years, there will continue to be a substantial increase in the demand for services and the people that deliver those services will need adequate facilities to complete their jobs.

Contact Information

By email: EngineeringInfo@nanaimo.ca
By mail: City of Nanaimo, Engineering Department, 455 Wallace Street, Nanaimo BC, V9R 5J6
By phone: 250-754-4251, Ext 4230