By Linda Taaffe

The Los Altos City Council voted for more options, more studies and more time to decide what type of swimming pool center should be built at Rosita Park at a special meeting last week that many had hoped would bring an end to the pool saga.

The council unanimously directed city staff to evaluate three options: a two-swimming pool center with a wading area, a single pool with a wading area, and the original pool layout that neighbors challenged in court.

“We need to look at the benefits of a full-size pool versus a half-size,” Councilman John Moss said. “I’m not saying this has to be the (original layout) size, but let’s not limit ourselves.”

The Rosita Pool task force - a mix of swimmers, neighbors and city officials that convened last month to look at alternative pool layouts - recommended Sept. 26 that the council move forward with two pools 20 percent smaller, or 2,040 square feet less, than what the city can legally build at the site. A one-pool center was an alternative.

The smaller plan, according to the task force report, would still allow swimmers access to two different water temperatures, a key component to competitive swimming, according to pool proponents, while addressing the neighborhood’s concerns over the scope of the project.

Part of the group’s recommendation included moving the center away from the tennis courts near the Covington school property boundary at the end of Rosita Court to the site where the soon-to-be-demolished gymnasium is located.

The shift would preserve the tennis courts and provide a larger buffer area between the center and the school, according to the task force report.

Not every task force member agreed with the recommendation. Members Roy Presley and Erik Lutkin, representing Rosita neighbors, said they did not support the two-pool recommendation.

Members of the Rosita Task Force, the neighborhood group that sued the city, say the reduced two-pool complex is still too large for their neighborhood. A single, community pool similar to the one that was at Covington school is the largest facility that the neighborhood will accept, according to the coalition. Traffic and noise remain their key concerns.

The council was not convinced that smaller would necessarily mean quieter or better.

“I’m not opposed to or in favor of the (original pool layout),” Councilman Ron Packard said. “There is a possibility that a larger pool would mean less noise if we could curtail how many programs there are and monitor it more strictly.”

Councilman Curtis Cole called the smaller, two-pool option a potential “red herring.”

A smaller pool could mean fewer programs, which would generate less money. The city might have to subsidize some of the operational costs.

Under the original plan, Los Altos Masters offered to operate the pool center at a 100 percent cost recovery through programming.

Swimmers Promoting Los Altos Aquatics, Safety and Health (SPLASH) have agreed to provide the funding for construction. The city is to provide the land.

“Why would we give away public benefits without getting something for it?” Councilman King Lear said. “What do we get for unilateral reductions?”

Mayor David Casas convened the task force last month after a Superior Court ruled in favor of the city, allowing it to move forward with the two-pool complex initially proposed. The pool complex had been tied up in a legal battle since 2003 when neighbors sued the city over unresolved traffic and noise concerns identified in environmental studies related to the

project.