Well over 120 people joined in person and online to give their input on what they would want from a new recreation center in Longmont.
Director of Recreation and Culture Jeff Friesner explained to the group Wednesday night at the Longmont Senior Center that the city was using lessons learned from the 2019 election to approach the new ask for a recreation center.
Longmont will likely go to voters this November to ask for tax dollars to invest in a new library branch, performing arts center and some sort of recreation package, though details have not yet been finalized.
Friesner noted that in 2019 — when an ask for a new pool and ice center lost with less than 40% of the vote — it took over four years to get onto the ballot, in the end many people didn’t like what was proposed and that people wanted to know where the facility would be located.
“The city and our supporters could have done a better job about educating the public about what that facility was,” Friesner said.
Longmont has identified Dry Creek Park, near the crossroads of Clover Basin Drive and Grandview Meadows Drive, as the site for the new recreation center.
The city has hired a consulting company, Perkins and Will, to identify community needs and expectations and build a conceptual blueprint and operations plan for the potential recreation center. Chris Kastelic, a principal with Perkins and Will, led much of the discussion on Wednesday.
Participants, many longtime Longmont residents who used city recreation facilities weekly or daily, were surveyed in real time about their desires for the new facility.
“Ultimately I think recreation facilities are wonderful not just because of what they do but because they’re kind of serendipity machines,” Kastelic said. “We love it when people use buildings in unanticipated ways. You become the curators of these buildings.”
Many of the respondents reported participating in swimming, pickleball, fitness and classes at city facilities, among others. When it came to aquatic amenities, participants rated recreational and lap swimming as the most important.
Several concerns were raised as well, from traffic and funding to losing open space. Others asked that more diverse voices than just the ones in the room Wednesday night be heard, while others asked what was being done to invest in northern Longmont.
As for the most important priority to the participants, a deep water pool was one that popped up several times. Others asked for more outreach and to build this new recreation center soon.
The firm will use the input from Wednesday to help develop program options and a preliminary design for the recreation center, with plans to host another open house in late may and issue a final report in late June. Residents can go to longmontcolorado.gov/rec for updates on the project, upcoming events and more.
