Walnut Parks and Rec Commission Proposes Building Pool at Walnut Ranch Park

The Walnut Parks and Recreation Commission plans to recommend that the City Council consider building a proposed aquatic center at Walnut Ranch Park instead of Three Oaks.

The commission Tuesday night voted 4-0 to approve the recommendations of the aquatics subcommittee, which includes requesting that the council study the feasibility of building an aquatics center west of the soccer fields at the park. Commissioner Karen Morales was absent.

Under the proposal, the city would look at selling nine acres in the Three Oaks residential development to help pay for the construction of the estimated $10 million aquatics center at Walnut Ranch. The city previously designated Three Oaks as a potential site.

Community Services Director Mary Rooney said the Walnut Ranch site would be ideal because the Three Oaks land would probably do better on the open market.

The city already owns and is operating the park, which is something that was part of the subcommittee's thought process, she said.

"If we already owned it that would be great," she said. "In starting to look at facilities already owned, the commissioners started to look at the ranch."

The city already has close to $3 million put away for the project received as part of the development agreement with Standard Pacific for Three Oaks.

Rooney said she knows the market value of the property but couldn't reveal how much that is at this time.

The sale of the Three Oaks property would "add significantly" to the money needed to build the aquatic center and get the city close to funding the bulk of it, she said.

Commissioner Tom Pederson, who served on the aquatics subcommittee, said the sports fields at Walnut Ranch would provide a buffer to homeowners.

"We are away from the homes," he said. "It is right off of Amar basically, west of the where the soccer fields are right now. That part actually extends quite a bit west."

Rooney said the city is acquiring more than 400 acres of natural open space where the Schabarum trail runs through as part of Three Oaks mitigation area. With that, the ranch could become "a beautiful entry way" into a larger park.

Parking also could be improved with the added space and no additional environmental impact study would be needed because the site is an existing park, she said. Construction would have to be done around nesting season, she added.  The area is home to the Least Bell's Vireo, a bird that is on the federal endangered species list.

"I think it's intriguing," she said. "People wouldn't have to access trails by going through the neighborhood. They can go through the park."

Members of the community have signed a petition asking the city of Walnut to build a pool in town. The petition has 115 signatures.

The city uses the pool at Walnut High, which it does not own, and has to schedule its classes and activities around the swim program at the high school, wrote Walnut resident Claudia Stines, the petition's author.  That pool was built in the mid 1970s when the city's population was around 8,000, and it reached its usage limit more than five years ago, she added.

"A community pool would enable the city to offer year-round swimming, expand swim lessons, schedule a variety of classes and programs to include water polo, competitive swimming and water safety,  meet the needs of our senior population, and offer adaptive swim instruction, to name a few," Stines wrote.

What do you think about the proposal to build an aquatics center at Walnut Ranch park? Do you agree that the city needs a pool?