Iowa City moving forward with updating recreation facilities, including City Park Pool

IOWA CITY — Iowa City will move forward with reimagining its recreation facilities and programs, including the renovation of City Park Pool with a design process anticipated to begin late next year.

The Iowa City Council on Tuesday approved the 557-page Recreation Facilities and Programs Master Plan, which is a programming and facilities road map for the next 10 years. The plan, along with an executive summary, is available on the city’s website.

The approval is not a binding decision, and there are still details to work out as projects move forward, said Juli Seydell Johnson, the city’s Parks and Recreation director. Each project will go through a budgeting, design and approval process.

“There’s a long ways to go, but this does set that direction,” City Manager Geoff Fruin said.

The council’s 4-2 approval signals support for fully renovating City Park Pool. Councilors John Thomas and Pauline Taylor were the two votes against the plan and favored deferring the vote to work out additional details after hearing concerns from residents. Mayor Bruce Teague was not present during Tuesday’s meeting.

Approval also allows the city to continue with renovations at Mercer Park, adjusting and expanding recreation programs, and evaluating the future of Robert A. Lee pool in the coming years.

The plan, which was developed over the last 14 months, re-imagines recreation in Iowa City while also evaluating current conditions, life span and programming. The recommendations also include improvements to Scanlon Gymnasium and athletic fields.

The discussion surrounding the city’s aquatic facilities has received the most attention and pushback. Residents have raised concerns about how the 73-year-old City Park Pool will be renovated and the lack of details. They’ve also pushed back against closing the pool at the downtown Robert A. Lee Recreation Center.

The closing of the pool at Robert A. Lee Recreation Center was not something the council voted on during the Tuesday meeting. The current recommendation is to move forward with planning for City Park Pool and revisiting the future of the Robert A. Lee pool after that, likely in 2026 or later.

“What I see when I read the entirety of this plan is a vision to make sure every kid in our community can swim, a vision to enhance our facilities, a vision to make our facilities more accessible for people who maybe right now … feel like they're not welcome,” Council member Laura Bergus said.

City Park Pool status

The city’s consultant, BerryDunn, concluded the City Park Pool needs to be renovated. A “Band-Aid” approach is “only going to hold this age of a pool together for so long,” Dannielle Wilson, a recreation consultant with BerryDunn, previously explained.

“The recommendation of the report is that no matter what the future design looks like for City Park Pool that the concrete has reached its life span,” Seydell Johnson said. “ … If you want a pool shell that’s going to last for the next 30, 40, 50 years, it’s probably time to invest in a new concrete pool shell.”

The pool loses 30,000 gallons of water per day, which is about three and a half inches, Seydell Johnson said. The standard amount of water loss per day for a pool is about one inch, she said.

Residents push back

Around a dozen residents spoke at Tuesday’s council meeting, urging the council to reject the aquatics portion of the master plan and work out details before passing it. More residents have emailed the city council and spoken at past meetings.

“We love Iowa City pools,” Carin Crain of Iowa City said. Crain added how residents can be the city’s “best allies,” but they need to feel listened to.

Iowa City resident Amy Kretkowski, who spoke Tuesday and at previous council meetings, told The Gazette there is a problem with trust and residents don’t feel heard by the Parks and Recreation Department and City Council.

Kretkowski shared with council members a petition with more than 900 names of people who support keeping the current design, footprint and character of City Park Pool. She said many of the individuals she spoke with were shocked to learn about the master plan and renovation.

Residents also brought up a memo from the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.

During its Oct. 13 meeting, the Historic Preservation Commission recommended the city council “explores minimal invasive ways to preserve and add accessibility to the exiting pool basin before the city demolishes it and adds demolition waste.”

Design process

Residents have pushed back against a design concept for the new City Park Pool was made public earlier this year. But Seydell Johnson said that is not a final design.

There will be opportunities for public input as a design is created and before a final plan is approved, Seydell Johnson said. Details — such as the number of lap lanes, length of lap lanes and pool layout — have yet to be figured out.

The design concept shows possibilities, including lap lanes, plunge pool, zero depth entry, current channel and cabana zone. Also, solar panels, single user toilets, upgraded bath house and other features to improve safety and accessibility are shown.

Kretkowski said residents will “keep the pressure on” as the city continues discussing City Park Pool.

Mayor Pro Tem Megan Alter said the input shared can be applied once the design process starts.

“The world looks very different now than it did when City Park pool (was built), which for the best of intentions and has served the city so well,” Alter said. “Our city is not the same. We need to think about how do we serve our city now and for the future.”

The public input and design process is expected to begin in late 2023 and continue in 2024. Construction is anticipated to start in 2025.

Comments: (319) 339-3155; izabela.zaluska@thegazette.com