Council to Consider Sports Park Plan

An aquatics facility with at least one pool is part of the design for a 100-acre sports park proposed for land in east Ventura.

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the park designs at its meeting tonight.

The plan the council will consider includes space for an aquatics facility, but does not say exactly what it would contain.

The specifics would be decided after a study is completed in June on how the proposed sports park would affect the surrounding neighborhood.

The plan tentatively calls for two pools, a pool for athletic swim teams that would possibly be Olympic-sized, and a recreational pool with water slides.

Cost of the complex would be about $2.5 million. The city has about $4 million set aside to build an aquatic facility.

Pools for athletic competitions typically do not generate enough money to pay for their own maintenance, so cities use the two-pool arrangement, said Randy Mendioroz, a pool designer and consultant to the city.

Money made from a recreational pool can offset maintenance costs for both pools, although usually not enough to pay the entire cost of cleaning, heating and maintaining a pool complex.

Annual maintenance costs for the entire complex, including buildings, would be about $450,000, city officials said.