Overland Park advances recreation plan that mentions a new neighborhood pool
After about an hour and a half of debate, Overland Park will move forward with a recreation master plan that includes a proposal for a new neighborhood pool north of Interstate 435, despite some officials’ concerns that the city isn’t in a position to promise such an amenity.
The city’s plan, Playbook OP, lays out how the city hopes to maintain all of its current recreation facilities — such as the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead, Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, and Stonegate Pool— to best serve its anticipated growing population.
The plan calls for maintenance and upkeep, increased trails and connectivity, and additional aquatics facilities — a topic that led most of the debate among City Council members during a meeting on Monday, mostly over concerns about how costly and contentious pools are.
The City Council’s approval on Monday night did not finalize the master plan. Staff will need to make some edits, and it will still need to come back to the City Council for further discussion at a later date.
“We said yes to everything and no to nothing,” Mayor Curt Skoog said. “And so I’m hopeful that next meeting we are thinking long-term.”
Cost and commitment concerns
The new plan for a neighborhood pool in north Overland Park shifts from city decisions in recent years that closed down some aging neighborhood facilities to focus more on building bigger, regional pools.
Skoog said he worried about the city making a bigger promise to its residents than what it could maintain by including additional pools in the master plan. When the city first discussed the Playbook OP plan in February, Skoog suggested that the city separate out aquatics from the rest of the plan to have a more in-depth discussion about that specific commitment.
“The pools are a completely different kind of conversation than a park,” he said. “I think that it is financially responsible for us to understand that and not make false hopes about delivering pools when we don’t have a full understanding of the financial commitment.”
Framework OP identifies nearly $385 million in planning costs to build and enhance the city’s park system. On average, the city spends about $110 million on capital projects over a 10-year period and has a near $29 million budget for maintenance and operations.
“Pools are unique,” Skoog said. “A pool is going to cost $15 million to build and a half-million (dollars) to operate each pool for two months. That is a 40-year commitment we are making and I think it’s worth us talking about attendance, costs, and long term issues that come with owning pools and operating pools.”
‘This is our ambition’
Ward 6 Councilmember Josh Beck supported Skoog’s proposal to have a separate conversation about aquatics from the rest of the recreation plan.
“It is hard for me to wrap my head around us approving something with such an obvious deficit,” he said. “I don’t want to make a hollow promise to the community, but I also don’t want to endorse cost cuts I’m unaware of … This feels like this warrants more discussion.”
Others pushed back on Skoog’s proposal, with several claiming that the plan doesn’t commit the city to any particular project. Instead, it outlines the city’s goals for the future.
“Our current adopted parks and recreation plan calls for a large aquatics facility in south Overland Park … it was an ambitious idea that was never built,” Ward 2 City Councilmember Drew Mitrisin said. “I don’t see (us) having any problems saying this is our ambition.”
“We have the prerogative to approve a project … We reserve that right. This is not committing us to fund every piece of that $385 million plan.”
Ward 1 Councilmember Logan Heley agreed and added that it would be up to residents to approve a sales tax for additional revenue sources and to vote for councilmembers that support the project.
Fellow Ward 1 Councilmember Holly Grummert said that the city will have a chance to take a deeper dive into pool concerns when the plan comes back after city staff makes revisions.
“Pools are emotional so I appreciate everyone taking the time to think about this,” she said. “So what we’re asking today is to move this conversation to another conversation. We are going to keep talking about Playbook OP and our priorities and I think that’s important to think about.”
“We are not going to be spending money until it’s time to make decisions about spending money.”
