Title
Recommendation to Approve the City Aquatic Center Design Concept with a 30-Meter Pool and Activity Pool and Provide Direction to Staff on Additional Design Features such as Lobby, Diving Well and Springboards, Community Room, Building Storage, and Electrification.
The action contemplated is not a “project” under Section 15378 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines and is therefore exempt from CEQA. If and when City Council decides to allocate funding for the detailed design and construction of the City Aquatic Center, review under CEQA will be required. (Recreation and Parks Department 10051400)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jennifer Ott, City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The future City Aquatic Center (Center) is located on the west end of Jean Sweeney Open Space Park near the intersection of Wilma Chan Way and Atlantic Avenue. (Exhibit 1) The Center will be operated and managed by the Alameda Recreation and Parks Department (ARPD). Through an extensive community input process and in-depth technical analysis, staff explored two design options within the $30 million available budget including 1) a 30-meter pool plus an activity pool and 2) a 50-meter pool. Staff is recommending the 30-meter pool and activity pool option because this layout was consistently favored by a strong majority of the community, and it maximizes the amount of pool space for more programmatic opportunities that serve the broadest community use which also provides higher cost recovery to reduce the future financial impact on the General Fund. Staff is also seeking City Council direction on whether to include additional design features such as full building electrification, an enclosed building lobby, community room and storage areas as well as a diving well and springboards. While these features are not within the available allocated budget, staff has identified additional potential funding sources.
BACKGROUND
On October 18, 2022, City Council approved the Center to be constructed on the west side of Sweeney Park. At the same meeting, City Council also approved funding up to 50% of the Center costs, including design and construction, using the General Fund Unassigned Residual Fund Balance and funding the balance of project costs with a financing mechanism to be determined.
On February 21, 2023, City Council approved funding the Center in the amount up to $30 million with $15 million from the Unassigned Residual General Fund balance and financing the remainder from a Certificate of Participation. This approval included the provision that when staff returned with a final financing plan, information on the cost of funding a 30-meter pool and alternatives for funding the 50-meter pool were to be included.
On July 18, 2023, City Council authorized the City Manager to execute an agreement with Griffin Structures, Inc. for the project management of the Center.
On September 19, 2023, City Council approved the sale of bonds in an amount not-to-exceed $16 million to finance the construction of the Center. The final bond sale produced $15 million for the construction of the Center. A detailed cost analysis comparing 30-meter, and 50-meter pools was provided in the staff report.
On May 7, 2024, City Council approved the Phase I Design/Build Agreement for the Design and Permitting of the City Aquatic Center to Blach Construction (Blach).
On July 16, 2024, City Council approved an Agreement with ELS Architects, Inc. to complete the Center schematic design services and community engagement through December 31, 2024, in an amount not-to-exceed $503,687.50.
Community Engagement
The community engagement process consisted of a joint City Council and Recreation and Parks Commission meeting, four community workshops, six aquatics stakeholder meetings, and three online surveys. The workshops had an average attendance of 45 people. The meeting dates were broadly advertised and shared through email blasts reaching over 30,000 individuals, the City website, ARPD’s website, banners throughout the City, and social media channels. More detailed information is included below.
• Special Joint Session City Council and Recreation and Parks Commission May 13, 2024
• Community Workshop #1 May 18, 2024 - Survey #1 (1,400 responses)
• Community Site Visits - Mastick Senior Center, and four ARPD afterschool care sites.
• Community Workshop #2 June 8, 2024 - Survey #2 (2,000 responses)
• Community Workshop #3 August 3, 2024 - Survey #3 (1,790 responses)
All workshop presentations and survey results are available at <https://www.alamedaca.gov/Departments/Recreation-Parks/Alameda-Aquatic-Center>
ARPD staff presented the Center design recommendation to the Recreation and Parks Commission on September 12, 2024. Staff also presented the Center design to the Public Utilities Board on September 16, 2024 to discuss potential for full building electrification funding. Staff will verbally report out to City Council on these public discussions.
DISCUSSION
Existing Facilities in Alameda
ARPD operates programs at two Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) facilities, Emma Hood Swim Center (EHSC) and Encinal Swim Center (ESC), through a joint use agreement. AUSD programs have priority during their high school sports seasons. ARPD has approximately 60 hours per week available for community programs during the AUSD sports season at EHS. Upon the construction completion of the EHSC, ARPD anticipates similar availability for community programming.
The chart below identifies the number of swim lanes available for the majority of ARPD programs and the number of lanes available for lap swim and community aquatic programs, such as swim teams, masters swimming, and water polo. EHSC construction is expected to be completed in summer 2025. The renovated facility will include a 30-meter pool with 12 lanes, most of which are at a depth of 12-feet and a training pool with 4 lanes. The depth of the main pools at both AUSD facilities is the reason why few to no lanes are not appropriate for most ARPD community programs, as shown below.
|
AUSD Facilities (once EHSC is completed) |
Number of Lanes available for ARPD programs, lessons, camps, water aerobics |
Number of Lanes available for lap swim, swim teams master swimming, and water polo |
|
EHSC Main Pool |
0 |
12 |
|
EHSC Training Pool |
4 |
4 |
|
ESC Main Pool |
1.5 |
8 |
|
ESC Training Pool |
Small, shallow pool with no specific lanes |
0 |
The Center is an opportunity for ARPD to operate a wide variety of aquatic programming for youth, families, seniors, and community teams, throughout the entire day, seven days a week, year-round. With the current AUSD pools, ARPD has limited access due to the high school team schedules, which have priority use. The pools are available all day, every day throughout the summer season but for the remainder of the year, the available time is limited for public use. For example, for six months each year, the pools are not available for ARPD programming, such as swim lessons, until at least 6:30pm on weekdays. ARPD programs will have priority at the Center with significant availability to expand programming and additional options for swim lessons, lap swim and other classes and camps for the community.
Other aquatic programs in Alameda that are not operated by the City include Alameda Swimming Pool Association, which is membership based and operates pools located in Lincoln Park and Franklin Park, as well as private pools at Aquatech, Alameda Fitness & Spa at Alameda Landing, and Harbor Bay Club on Bay Farm Island.
Alameda does not have a 50-meter pool within City limits. Exhibit 2 shows surrounding communities with 50-meter pools and the distance to them from Alameda as well as information on the frequency of use for practice and competitions. The municipal pools show limited use for practices and one to two long course meets, requiring 50-meter lengths, each year. The collegiate pools have more regular use with one to three annual long course meets.
ARPD Programs
ARPD provides a variety of programs at each swim facility based on the depth of water. The programs offered at ESC and the future EHSC include swim team rentals, water polo team rentals, classes, camps, and swim lessons with additional programming in the shallower training pools including youth swim lessons, group lessons, water aerobics classes, aqua tots, aqua therapy, camps and events. Programs at each facility are maximized mid-June through mid-August.
The new Center will allow ARPD to provide year-round programs and expand aquatic programs including afternoon and evening swim lessons, evening lap swim, senior swimming, family open swim, scuba lessons, kayak classes, accessible therapeutics and pool rentals for birthday parties. This expansion of more time options for existing programs and new programs cannot be accommodated at existing aquatic facilities. The Center will more than double the number of hours available to the community for programs.
Community Input
ARPD and the design team organized a series of community workshops to discuss opportunities and constraints of the one 50-meter pool versus the 30-meter and activity pool layouts as well as identify what design elements should be included in the new Center. Detailed information for all community workshops, including presentations, meeting summaries, survey questions and results of all community input, is available at <https://www.alamedaca.gov/Departments/Recreation-Parks/Alameda-Aquatic-Center>. Staff also met with the Alameda community aquatic teams and coordinated with them to email each of the community surveys to their members.
Community Workshop #1 provided the community with four layout options to resolve two major decisions. 1) Where should the entrance be located? 2) Construct a 30-meter pool and activity pool, or build a 50-meter pool without the activity pool? There was a robust conversation debating the merits of both options and in person voting. The 30-meter and activity pool option received 83% and the 50-meter pool option received 17% of the in person votes. The citywide survey received over 1,400 responses with 75% voting for the 30-meter pool and activity pool option and 25% choosing the 50-meter option. In addition, there was strong preference for the entrance to be located near the parking lot on the east side of the project site. In this first round, a strong majority of residents chose the 30-meter and activity pool option.
Community Workshop #2 communicated the results of the first workshop and survey. This again resulted in a robust conversation about the merits of both 30-meter and 50-meter pool options. The second workshop focused on discussions of specific facility features such as, the layout of locker rooms, entry plaza, swim lane widths, landscape/shade, windscreen, snack bar, and pool layouts.
The second citywide survey received 2,001 responses. Over 1,300 indicated ample bike storage was needed in the entry plaza, 1,640 voted for gender specific locker rooms, 1,430 stated they would rent the community room for birthdays, and 682 selected the activity pool with 3 lanes + zero beach entry + bubblers. More detailed information is available on the project website page.
Community Workshop #3 presented two refined design options for the 30-meter pool with an activity pool and the 50-meter pool. Input was solicited on what programmatic design elements that should be reduced to keep the project within budget due to increased soil stabilization costs, estimated to be $1 million. The program items discussed are described in the table below.
ARPD issued the third Citywide survey seeking additional feedback on the preference of a 30-meter pool and activity pool or 50-meter pool and to rank program items by priority that require additional funds. The survey received 1,790 responses, which includes voting from the in person workshop. The chart below is a summary of how participants ranked program items and the design concepts.
|
Program Items |
Survey Votes |
Percentage |
|
30m Pool and Activity Pool |
1,363 |
76% |
|
50m Pool |
388 |
22% |
|
Diving Well and Springboards |
586 |
33% |
|
Multipurpose Room |
387 |
22% |
|
Electrification |
376 |
21% |
|
Lobby |
138 |
8% |
|
Building Storage |
109 |
6% |
It is important to recognize that while there was excellent participation in these surveys, they are a small percentage of the total population and are not statistically significant surveys.
Parking
To minimize the amount of land needed for parking and limit the overall impact to Jean Sweeney Open Space Park, ARPD is coordinating with Blue Rise Ventures, which manages Marina Village Business Park, for a joint use of its parking lot that is directly adjacent to and accessible by the aquatic center parking lot
Electrification
The City is focused on building carbon neutral facilities supporting the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (CARP). The electrification of the Center will reduce carbon emissions and lower the overall operating costs. The estimated building cost for electrification is approximately $1,500,000. ARPD is working with Alameda Municipal Power (AMP) to explore potential funding sources available to reduce the upfront cost. ARPD presented the Center project to the Public Utilities Board on September 16, 2024. The electrification costs are not included in the staff recommendation and would require City Council approval for additional funding. The building height will be increased by 6 feet on the north side of the facility if electrification is included as part of the project. (Exhibit 3)
Center Concept Design Development
The design team and staff reviewed all potential and current aquatic programs to establish criteria needed to support the Center such as the size of locker rooms, bathrooms, lobby, office space, staff break area, mechanical room, parking spaces, community room, and storage. A preliminary test fit was conducted to verify that the Jean Sweeney Park site could support all design elements for either a 30-meter and activity pool solution or a 50-meter single pool solution.
The design team combined the feedback from community survey data and workshops to continue refining concept designs. The designers also incorporated critical site condition information from the geotechnical soils report and a ground water hydrology report. The reports identified the site was subject to liquefaction to a depth of 20 feet and a ground water table that fluctuates between 2 feet and 8 feet below the surface. These conditions require engineering solutions estimated to cost approximately $1,000,000 in order to ensure the pools do not move during an earthquake, which would render them unusable. This cost reduces the total project funds available for the facility and its components.
Using the remaining budget as a project cost goal, the designers focused the design to maximize the amount of water space available, based on the community feedback. The designers identified specific facility elements that could be value engineered to keep the project in budget. These include:
• Replace Multipurpose Room with a shaded pavilion - $500,000 savings
• Remove Diving Well and springboards - $100,000 savings
• Replace Lobby with a breezeway - $200,000 savings
• Replace Building Storage with fenced storage - $200,000 savings
Both design concepts, shown in Exhibit 4, include:
• Total parking for 200 vehicles, 100 onsite and 100 overflow spaces from the adjacent business park
• 3 Electric vehicles charging stations
• Bike parking/storage for 100 bikes at the entrance plaza
• Windscreen fencing
• Perimeter security fence
• Enclosed mechanical room
• Locker rooms for both genders
• 2 Gender neutral restrooms with showers
• Manager’s office
• Staff break room
• Snack bar
• Spectator seating
• Soil and ground water engineering solutions
• Breezeway entrance
• Shaded pavilion
• Fenced storage
Neither concept includes an enclosed lobby area, diving well and springboards, enclosed multipurpose room, enclosed building storage facility or full facility electrification. These are further discussed below and staff is seeking City Council input on these elements.
Concept A - 30-meter Competition Pool and 3-Lane Activity Pool (staff recommendation)
This pool configuration supports the following programming, adult swim lessons, private/semi-private lessons, group lessons, swim school, aqua camps, water polo, introduction to swim team and triathlon, lap swim, water walking, special events, aqua fitness, therapeutic lessons for people with disabilities, senior classes, family open swim, baby and me, toddler playtime, splish splash storytime, scuba lessons, evening lap swim, and kayak classes.
The design includes a 30-meter by 25-yard competition pool with 12 lanes and an activity pool with a zero-beach style entry and 3 lap lanes. The depth of the competition pool ranges from 3’-6” at the entrance steps increasing rapidly to a maximum depth of 7’-0. The activity pool includes a zero-beach style entrance with lap lanes at a depth of 3’-6”.
Concept B - 50-meter Competition Pool
This pool configuration supports long course, 50-meter practice and competitions as well as the same programming listed above with the exception of therapeutic lessons for people with disabilities and programs for toddlers and babies due to the required depth of a 50-meter pool.
The design includes a 50-meter by 25-yard competition pool with 17 lanes or 8 lanes long course. The depth of the competition pool ranges from 3’-6” at the entrance steps increasing to 4’-6” from one end to a maximum depth of 7’-0 for 30-meters.
Concept Project Budget Comparison
|
|
Concept A 30m Pool + Activity Pool |
Concept B 50m Pool |
|
Base Project Cost |
$30,000,000 |
$30,600,000 |
|
Construction Contingency |
$1,500,000 |
$1,600,000 |
|
Total Project Cost |
$31,500,000 |
$32,200,000 |
|
Additional Project Components (same cost for both options) |
|
Electrification |
$1,500,000 |
$1,500,000 |
|
Dive Well |
$100,000 |
$100,000 |
|
Lobby |
$200,000 |
$200,000 |
|
Multipurpose Room |
$500,000 |
$500,000 |
|
Building Storage |
$200,000 |
$200,000 |
|
Total Project Cost with Additional Components |
$34,000,000 |
$34,700,000 |
Staff is seeking direction from City Council on whether any, or all, of these additional project components should be included in the design. Potential funding sources for these additional components, above the already allocated $30 million include:
• An additional $1.1 million available from the bond proceeds due to it being placed in an interest earning secured Guaranteed Investment Contract;
• Residual General Fund Balance; and
• Potential funding sources from AMP for full electrification.
Aquatic Center Cost Recovery Model
ARPD contracted with Bae Area Economics, Inc. to develop operating models for each design concept. The operational models for each option included all expenses, bond debt service, replacement fund and projected revenues (Exhibit 5). All models evaluated existing ARPD programs and developed expanded programing opportunities to maximize overall cost recovery. The operating models below represent the facility operating at optimal capacity. ARPD recognizes it will take approximately 3-5 years to achieve the programming targets represented in the chart below. Additional funds will be required from the General Fund the first few years as programs are being implemented.
|
|
Concept A 30-Meter Pool + Activity Pool |
Concept B 50-Meter Pool |
|
Total Operating Expenses |
$2,258,722 |
$1,558,248 |
|
Total Operating Revenue |
$2,710,664 |
$1,689,006 |
|
Net Operating Surplus (Deficit) |
$451,942 |
$130,758 |
|
|
|
|
|
Bond Debt Service |
$895,000 |
$895,000 |
|
Sinking Fund* |
$500,000 |
$500,000 |
|
Annual General Fund Burden |
(-$943,058) |
(-$1,264,242) |
|
Cost Recovery Percentage |
74% |
57% |
*The sinking fund is designed to annually set-aside money for future capital maintenance of the Center.
Staff recommends Concept A with a 30-meter pool and activity pool based on:
• Significant community input supporting this option with overall 75% of votes for Option A and 25% of votes for Option B after multiple surveys and community meetings.
• A higher cost recovery of approximately 74% which results in less expense to the General Fund once the programs are fully developed.
• The ability to provide a broader range of programming for the community due to more shallow water necessary for programming for young children and therapeutic activities.
• Slightly lower total project cost to build.
If approved, the project will start Schematic Design in September and be completed in November 2024. ARPD will return to City Council with the refined design, cost estimate, and funding plan in December 2024. Construction is expected to begin in October 2025 and project completion in June 2027.
ALTERNATIVES
• Approve the staff recommendation for Concept A to build a 30-meter pool and activity pool. City Council allocated $30 million for the Center design and construction. Provide direction to staff on whether to include any or all additional design features such as full electrification, enclosed lobby, community room and building storage as well as a diving well and springboards.
• Direct staff to build Concept B, a 50-meter pool. Provide direction to staff whether to include additional design features such as full electrification, enclosed lobby, community room and building storage as well as a diving well and springboards
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Funds are available for Capital Improvement Project No. C55400 New City Aquatic Center totaling $30 million, inclusive of $15 million use of Residual General Fund balance and $15 million of bond proceeds.
Potential additional funding sources for the additional design features include:
• Bond proceeds were placed in an interest earning secured Guaranteed Investment Contract that will generate an additional $1.1 million
• Residual General Fund Balance
• Potential funding sources from AMP for full building electrification
ARPD will return to City Council in December 2024 to present a comprehensive funding plan once the Schematic Design.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action is consistent with the Alameda Municipal Code Section 2-61.8 related to Design-Build. The 2023-2026 Strategic Plan identifies Project CS10 to Design and construct the City Aquatic Center under the strategic priority Enhance Community Safety and Services. This action is subject to the Levine Act.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The action contemplated is not a “project” under Section 15378 of CEQA Guidelines and is therefore exempt from CEQA. If and when City Council decides to allocate funding for the detailed design and construction of the City Aquatic Center, review under CEQA will be required.
CLIMATE IMPACT
All buildings associated with the Center will meet a minimum LEED Silver certification pursuant to the City’s building ordinance. With additional funding, there are options that will be explored such as full electrification of the systems with solar or wind energy generation or raising the LEED certification to Gold or Platinum that would reduce the climate impacts of this facility.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation to approve the City Aquatic Center Design Concept with a 30-meter pool and activity pool and provide direction to staff on additional design features such as lobby, diving well and springboards, community room, building storage, and electrification.
Respectfully submitted,
Justin Long, Director of Recreation and Parks
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Margaret O’Brien, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. Project Site at Jean Sweeney Open Space Park
2. 50-meter pool Locations and Use
3. Aquatic Center Design Concepts
4. Aquatic Center Roof Sections
5. Aquatic Center Cost Recovery Model