By Megan Ma
Preliminary pool plans for Rosita Park met with unanimous, enthusiastic approval from Los Altos City Council members last week. Members heralded the latest design as family friendly and widely appealing.
Details about lighting glare and sound walls must still be refined, but the March 27 meeting marked a collegial milestone in a project plagued by often hostile debate from residents living near the pool site.
“This is a good design. There have been sacrifices on all sides. … We appreciate the patience and support of the neighborhood,” said Councilman David Casas.
Council members commended the ad-hoc design team led by professional pool architect Steve Bowers and pool specialist Dennis Berkshire for drafting a pool design - featuring a 25-yard-by-25-meter pool with seven competitive lanes, and a children’s activity pool.
“The pool has come a long way to meeting the diverse needs of the community,” said Councilwoman Val Carpenter.
The design team, headed by the non-profit Los Altos Community Pool Foundation, obeyed city council requests to expand significantly the shallow water area of the main pool.
“We’re ecstatic. Now we’re in the design development phase to flesh out the designs. Then we’ll get a better handle on costs. Now it’s all dependent on fundraising,” said Dick Thomas, chairman of the foundation, formerly known as SPLASH (Swimmers Promoting Los Altos Aquatics, Safety and Health).
Foundation members held an “open house” public meeting March 25 at the site, behind Covington Elementary School, using yellow tape to mark the project’s dimensions.
The proposed pool site will be located at the north end of Rosita Avenue adjacent to the Covington school site and baseball field. The entire pool facility, designed to accommodate as many as 240 in the water, 450 total, is approximately 26,500 square feet. It will be accessed from the existing parking lot. Locker rooms, a picnic and barbecue area, and a small snack-bar are also included in the plans.
The next step is for the city to hire a consultant to draft the master plan, which will take approximately six months, said Public Works Director Jim Porter.
Approval of the preliminary design will allow the foundation - which recently passed the $1 million fundraising mark - to ramp up its donations, said John Day, the group’s executive director. The group has agreed to raise up to $4.8 million for pool facilities, with the city contributing $1.2 million for the site’s parking and street improvements.
A tentative estimate for groundbreaking is spring 2008, with completion projected for the end of that year.
Counil members agreed with neighbors that walls around the pool site must be erected in such a way as to minimize sound reverberation. Pool lights must emit less glare, as well. A green-tech option for solar heating the pool has elicited support from council members. They conceded that while such options are “technically feasible,” they should, more importantly, be affordable.
