Los Altos

City timeline targets February 2004 for the opening of Los Altos' new swim center at Rosita Park

By Linda Taaffe

Town Crier Staff Report

preliminary timeline from Los Altos City Hall projects construction of the swim center planned for Rosita Park to be completed by February 2004. This is the first time that the city has talked in detail about specifics of the project.

Tentative key dates for the Rosita pool complex: March 26: Council reviews environmental report. Oct. 7: Design completed Jan. 22, 2003: Construction drawings finalized. March 4, 2003: Bidding process opened. Feb. 1, 2004: Pool completed.

Staff cautioned that the timeline is contingent upon the Los Altos City Council's direction on key issues at various steps in the process and could change.

The council could either give the project the go-ahead or temporarily halt the planned three-pool complex depending on the results of an initial environmental study and business plan scheduled for review March 26. Part of EIP Associate's environmental study includes an evaluation of the possible traffic, lighting, noise and parking impacts that a three-pool complex could generate. Los Altos Masters, the non-profit group under consideration to operate the complex, outlined its operational perspective in the business plan. Los Altos Masters partnered with the city for 14 years in the operation of Covington Pool before it closed last year to make way for school renovations.

The proposed plan for the Los Altos Community Aquatic Center includes a 25-meter-by-25-yard competition-sized pool, a recreational pool, a wading pool and a locker room on a 32,000-square-foot site adjacent to the former St. William's Parish Hall and Covington School.

The review and business plan will be made public Feb. 20.

If there are no delays, city staff hopes to complete the project's design elements by the end of this year and to finalize construction drawings by start of 2003, according to the timeline.

The city is scheduled to open the bidding process by March 2003 and open the pool by February 2004. Construction could take up to 300 days to complete.