Walnut Creek Looks to Upgrade or Replace its Famed Pools

For decades, Walnut Creek's swim centers have provided a place for kids and families to play, internationally ranked athletes to train, and everyone else to work out. 

However, the pools at the city's two swim centers, the Clarke Memorial Swim Center at Heather Farm Park and the Larkey Swim Center at Larkey Park, are at least 40 years old and outdated.

Both pools need significant upgrades--or to be replaced entirely--to meet today's standards--at a cost of up to $21 million. The city also needs to figure out a way to make these facilities economically sustainable.

The City Council will discuss the future of Walnut Creek's aquatics facilities Tuesday evening.

The City commissioned the Sports Management Group of Berkeley to look at the two swim centers and to recommend ways they could be improved--and how to make them financially sustainable. With input from community groups and a steering committee, the consulting company completed Walnut Creek's Aquatic Needs Report.

For the  Clarke Swim Center, the report recommends:

• Replacing all three existing pools with a 50-meter-by-25-yard pool, a 35-meter-by 25-yard pool with a movable bulkhead, and a six-lane instructional pool.
• Adding a new family recreational pool and modernizing and expanding the bathhouse and mechanical systems to support the new and bigger pools.

For the Larkey Swim Center, the report recommends:

• Renovating the existing pool
• Replacing the baby pool
• Adding a large and interactive new sprayground. 
• Limiting its operations to the spring and summer.

The council has two plans to choose from. One option, at $16.4 million, would just replace Clarke's pools and upgrade the bathhouses but not involve any improvements at Larkey Swim Center. 

Finding ways to pay for the improvements will be a challenge, so will making the pool facilities more financially sustainable.

Currently, it costs more to operate the pools than they bring in. In fiscal year 2008-09, the pools brought in $738,000 but cost $1.5 million to operate. The city provided $767,000 to subsidize the facilities, or 49 percent of the aquatics programs' expenses. 

The city can draw up to $4 million from its capital investment program. But to fund the rest of the cost, the city might have to consider a public-private partnership or asking voters to approve a bond measure or parcel tax. 

If the council accepts the recommendations, staff will begin to explore preliminary design alternatives and plans for funding the project. That process will take about a year. 

The meeting will take place on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7 pm at City Hall, located at 1666 N. Main Street.