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Pool proposal to go public

A proposal to build a community swimming pool, with a climbing wall and a dance/Pilates studio at the corner of Broadway and East MacArthur Street, will be publicly unveiled at a town hall meeting at Ramekins on Tuesday, Jan. 31.

The proposal is being presented by CUSP (Citizens United for a Sonoma Pool), an unofficial group of community members that includes City Council members Ken Brown and Tom Rouse.

At the meeting, a schematic drawing prepared by Sonoma architect Sidney Hoover will reveal the proposed design, that will include an 80-foot-long, international standard climbing wall along with a regulation, 25-meter, nine-lane swimming pool, and a 30-foot by 36-foot therapy pool.

There will also be a pool support building with lockers, toilets, showers and retail space and a three-studio structure to house ballet, aerobics and/or Pilates classes.

Parking for about 70 vehicles has been designed into the project, which would be located on the 1.9-acre Sonoma Truck and Auto lot owned by the estate of the late Bob Bohna. The vehicle sales are ending this month and the property is currently on the market with an asking price of $2.35 million, but so far there has only been preliminary contact between CUSP and the Bohna estate about a possible purchase.

The estimated cost of the complete facility is $5.75 million at present, although CUSP spokesman Sam Coturri was quick to caution it is “way too early” to announce final figures.

First, said Coturri, CUSP is looking for community leaders and “major contributors” who can bring enough capital to the project to cover the fixed costs. Coturri said CUSP envisions a nonprofit entity running the facility, with revenue generated in part by public users of the pool and other recreational activities at the site.

“The design is really, really exciting,” said Coturri. “And the climbing facility is going to be state-of-the-art, beyond my comprehension.”

The climbing compound would be enclosed inside a 5,400-square-foot metal building with an adjustable climbing wall, several free-standing artificial boulders, a workout area and other amenities. It would be built and managed by Andrew McDermott, a local investor and head of Mission Value Partners. McDermott also funded the climbing wall at Presentation School.

The lot is zoned mixed use, meaning that, “health and fitness activities would be allowed” at the site with a use permit, said Sonoma Planning Director David Goodison. Issues the city would have to address, Goodison added, would be traffic and parking, as well as an evaluation of the buildings currently on the site for any historical or other protected value. The two structures are both more than 50 years old.

Goodison added that a strip of city property adjoins the parcel at the back, along the course of Nathanson Creek.

Architect Hoover suggested this week that the swimming pool site – currently dubbed the “Sonoma Athletic Center,” could be connected by a bridge to the city land, thus providing a sheltered little streamside park.

The design of on-site structures, according to Hoover’s schematic drawings, would resemble the metal barn-like buildings at Cornerstone Gardens on Arnold Drive.

The project would be green-Leed certified, with solar power for electricity and water heating.

Missing in the plan is a family or children’s wading pool, a feature that was included in a previous pool plan proposed by the CommonBond Foundation in 2007 for a site at Sonoma Valley High School.

The CUSP proposal assumes that the Broadway pool would be utilized by Sonoma Valley High School swimmers, although school district participation in the project could be limited by restrictions requiring any pool investment with district funds be confined to district-owned property. The Sonoma Valley Unified School District currently has some $1.5 million in a capital fund that could be used for constructing a pool, but only on district land.

More information will be available at the Jan. 31 town hall meeting, which will run from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Ramekins Culinary School and Events Center, 450, W. Spain St. The public is invited.