With roughly 1,000 new residential units approved in the 84098 ZIP code, the Snyderville Basin Recreation District is planning for additional recreation facilities.
Basin Rec Executive Director Robert Parrish said the district is partnering with Columbus Pacific on what’s known as the Cline Dahle property, to build an indoor aquatics facility on county-owned land near Jeremy Ranch Elementary School. In addition, he said the recreation district owns 100 acres in Silver Creek Village where indoor field space, fitness classes and workout areas could be built.
“The district has grown,” Parrish said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” March 16. “The field house is overused. I'm consistently and constantly hearing that people are complaining that they have to wait a half an hour to get on a treadmill. It’s well used, well loved, and it really is an anchor point for fitness and recreation in the district. But as the district's grown, we know that we have additional stuff coming to Kimball Junction, particularly with the Dakota Pacific development, the county is planning on putting some additional housing. In next few years, we're going to see an additional 1000 units.”
Parrish said residents weighed in on new facilities they’d like to see as part of the 2024 strategic plan survey. High on that list is a new aquatics center at Cline Dahle.
“We would not be building a competition swimming pool,” he said. “This is really going to be an indoor fun aquatics facility for people of all ages and families. We have an agreement with the school district, and we're looking at renewing that agreement at the end of this year, that that type of activity, whether it be intense lap swimming or other types of competition swimming, would stay at the school district at Ecker Hill. I believe they have plans to expand and add a few more lanes for that pool. So, it wouldn't make sense for us to duplicate that.”
Parrish said it’s still too early to know how large a bond the district might seek.
“What we're working with the designers is programming this space to where we can go for bond, for an anchor facility,” he said. “Basically, get the building constructed, and then using other fund sources over a couple years, or even during the project, to phase it to where we're not relying 100% on bond money to build everything that we do have a phased plan to build it out.”
Once conceptual designs are finished, Parrish said the district will host open houses and later hold hearings before the Summit County Council. Mid-August is the deadline for the council to approve the bond documents if the measure is to appear on the November ballot.
