Students have voted to have a section of their Scarborough school transformed into a world-class aquatic centre fit for the 2015 Pan Am Games.
After a three-day referendum, students at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus voted 62 per cent in favour of a levy to fund part of a new $170 million Pan Am aquatic centre.
The students' contribution to the facility will be $30 million over 25 years. When it is completed, the centre will have two Olympic-sized pools and four gymnasiums.
U of T Principal Franco Vaccarino said the school's current athletic centre is substandard and that students have been asking for a new pool since the 70s.
Toronto Mayor David Miller said in a news release Sunday that he is "incredibly pleased" with the way the vote turned out.
"The students and the community in Scarborough have been vastly underserved in athletic facilities for too long and that is going to chang," he said.
"This centre single-handedly doubles the number of 50-metre pools in Toronto and is consistent with the city's long-term pool strategy."
The centre will serve as a training and competition facility for the city's aquatic athletes.
Miller said the new facility will likely speed up a plan to build a light-rail public transit system in the Scarborough-Malvern community.
Ian Troop, CEO of Toronto 2015, said he's looking forward to the centre's construction.
"We are very encouraged the vote went the way it did and we are looking forward to moving forward with UofT and the city of Toronto to create a wonderful facility that will serve the Pan Ams well. (It) will be a great legacy for the community," he said.
Despite the overwhelming vote, some students say they're not happy about having to pay for a centre that they will likely won't be built before they've graduated.
"Tuition is just too much," said Andrew Bernard, an engineering student at UofT. "I think students are paying way too much."
