A bill for an ordinance approving and accepting the park building plan for the Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center Natatorium Addition pursuant to the provisions of Sections 39-210 and 39-211 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code. Approves the park building plan for the Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center Natatorium Addition in Council District 11. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 5-4-21.
The project itself really addresses a huge gap in our services in Northeast Denver and the lack of an aquatics facility in this area. This was actually a project funded by the Elevate Denver Bond in 2017, and it had great public support, as we did urban planning and outreach, and we were thrilled that it made it to the final list. And we embarked on the design and outreach process in 2019. You can see the timetable there of the public meetings. We did two public meetings as well as a youth focus group meeting. And then because of COVID and quarantine, we actually ended up doing a final video instead of a final public meeting, which we wouldn't otherwise have done, but really great participation throughout, great feedback from the community and really what the community let us know that they wanted. Most were activities for all ages and interests, lap lanes as well as areas for lessons and classes in the pool. And at the bottom you can see the most important thing was make it fun. They wanted unique things that were not found elsewhere in other pools within our system. They wanted it to be unique and really reflect the community. So that is what we heard through our outreach process. The site itself. Here's an aerial view. You can see the pond in the background, the recreation center to the left and the gymnasium here in the center, the school over to the right, and then the location of the new pool. Surprisingly, it looks like it was designed to fit right there because it actually was when the recreation center was initially designed and built, a pool was intended to be part of it. Due to budget reasons, it wasn't able to be done at that time, but it was designed for the pool to be done in the future. And we are now, thankfully at that point where we can finish the vision that was set up at at the beginning many, many years ago. Oops. Sorry. Not the right thing. The pull itself and you can see here there's a an aerial view showing the layout of the new pool location, really trying to to capture all of the desires and and wants of the community. There is. See if I can strike this. Sorry. So the existing rec center, the gymnasium, the pool addition itself is about 16,200 square feet. The maximum height of the new building is about 41 and a half feet tall. And the amenities really include a four lane lap pool, a leisure pool with a zero depth entry and aquatic play features for all ages and stages. Really, really took a lot of time thinking about how we can program this pool for swimming lessons, lifeguard training, aqua aerobics, water walking, and, of course, lap swimming. So really wanting this to be a robust natatorium to provide all of the services and amenities and programing that go along with with a facility of this type. So here are some interior views, renderings of what the space will look like in the left image. You can see that we have the the leisure pool in the foreground and then the water slides themselves, the stairs going up to this area where while you're waiting to do one of two different water slides, we have a big bay window with views out to the mountains so that while kids are waiting their turn, they can look out and see the beautiful Colorado landscape really wanting to kind of celebrate and provide that opportunity. Because while you're up there waiting, why not have something great to look at? This other image on the right you can see is from underneath those slides, looking back towards the rec center and you can see the leisure pool in the foreground and the black hole in the background. And some of the aquatic play features over to the left. That will be fun and splashy and hopefully very exciting. From the exterior perspective, one of the main features, the signature features of this facility is this water slide that will go out of the building around a couple of times and back in and is the most unique water slide that we will have in our system. So very excited to be able to bring this to northeast Denver where I know it will be much loved. You can see that window that I referred to here are again, really making a feature out of that and wanting to take advantage of the height to capture those views and just provide a moment for, you know, the children using this to really be able to take in the full front range and the view that is so stunning from out here. And then the vision or I'm sorry, the image on the right shows what this will look like in the evening at night with these transparent windows down below and this translucent panels up above that will have this nice light glow and really wanted to create a landmark and an icon that the community can be proud of and happy to see when they drive by. So the timeline, as you can see, we as part of this process, we notify all the relevant registered neighborhood organizations within a certain radius of the site. So that was done in late April. The LUDIE Committee occurred on May 4th, Mayor Council on May 11th. We are now at May 17th, the first reading and public hearing. There will be a final reading next week on May 24th, and that will be the extent of the council process. And just to summarize, we are formally requesting approval of the Park Building Plan for the indoor pool addition at Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center at Town Center Park. And we look forward to any public comments, questions and any other information we can provide about this very exciting project that we are thrilled to be about to start construction on. All right. Thank you very much, Michael. And we're going to go ahead and ask you if you would take down the screen sharing there and we'll go ahead and reconvene here. Thank you. Tonight, counsel has not received any written testimony on Council Bill 517, and we have one individual signed up to speak this evening. Jesse Perez is our speaker. And so we'll go ahead and. Get Jesse here into the queue. All right. We're going to go ahead and start out with our public speakers, and we'll start with you, Jesse. Yes. Good evening, members of council. Can I be hurt? Yes, I'd be hurt. Mm. Go ahead. My name is Jesse. Mission Personal Representative for Black Star Action Movie for Self Defense Positive Action Crewmember for Social Change is as well the Unity Party of Colorado and for a long black mold. We are in favor of this rezoning tonight for this water park. Um, I think this would be an added addition, a great addition to the Northeast Denver area. Give the kids something to do. Oh, uh. Oh. We're pretty sure you guys are going to go. We were a favorite. It was only tonight. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Jesse. That concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on Council Bill 517. Give me a minute here. All right. Seeing no questions of counsel. The public hearing is closed. Comments by members of Council on Council Bill 517. Not seen any hands raised, though. Go ahead. Censuses in Council District 11, in the district that I present, and this has been decades in the making. Very easily over 20 years we've been waiting in the far northeast for an indoor pool with all the bells and whistles and fun and splashy is an awesome way to describe it , Michael, because this is something that we're very excited about and it brings a lot around fun and family fun, especially for our young people as well, but also our older adults because there were amenities that we included as well for older adults. And this really for the first time, we're going to be able to have comprehensive swimming lessons for members of the community as well. And so I respectfully ask my colleagues to vote in favor of this tonight and not seen any other hands raised for other comments. Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Bill 517. We. Whack. I. Peter Barca. I. Quick. All right. Flynn. I earned it. I. I. Cashman. I. Kenny, I. Sandoval. I. Sawyer. I. Or as I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, close the voting and announced the results. 12 hours 12 I Council Bill 20 1-0517 has been ordered published. Thank you, Michael. We appreciate you being here this evening.