The city’s new pool project could be built at Mountain View Commons or even on the Port Townsend Golf Course.
As planners with the city of Port Townsend scope out potential sites for its planned health and wellness center, the two ongoing recreational projects could intersect.
Currently the city is eyeing three potential destinations for the pool facility, officially titled the Port Townsend Healthier Together Community Health and Wellness Center, according to city parks director Carrie Hite.
“The sites we will look at are the current site at Mountain View Commons, a site located near the hospital, and a site that might include a footprint at the golf course,” Hite said via email correspondence with The Leader. “We will fold this discussion into the larger one about design, siting, financing, etc.”
Phase 1 involves reviewing existing information and current conditions, establishing focus groups, and starting the financial planning process, according to city documents. One of the key parts of Phase 1 is narrowing down where to put the recreational facility.
“We are having a continuous discussion about the planning for the golf course and the Mountain View Campus,” Hite said in the meeting. “At some point in time in the near future these two discussions are going to collide, and we’re going to have to make some discussions about that.”
The current Mountain View Pool facility — built in 1963 — has become a financial burden to the city, with the aging infrastructure of the property costing the city thousands of dollars to maintain, according to city documents.
The city has attempted multiple times in the past (in 2008, 2013, and 2016) to build a new pool facility, with each plan eventually failing. This time around, the city hopes to bring the project to completion
“This is another thing that we’ve tried before — maybe for a couple of decades — as part of groups that have fallen apart for various reasons, and we’re doing things differently,” said City Manager John Mauro. “Given the circumstances, the current zeitgeist, and the staffing capacity we have, we’re trying something different to get a different result.”
The pool planning is now in Phase 2, which will involve a visioning process with the community, open houses, surveys, further financial planning, architectural concept drafting, and other information-gathering pursuits, according to the city.
“If we as a community decide — or the council decides — that they want to put the pool at Mountain View Campus, then we need to have that conversation, so that will impact our planning for Mountain View Campus and the golf course,” Hite said. “At some point in the near future, we’ll be back at council with that discussion to be had.”
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