Shadowbend Pool and Park Renovations

Shadowbend Pool and Park is one of the oldest in The Woodlands- 25 years old. At the Board’s June 20^th meeting, our park design consultant, White Oak Studio, provided an overview of the conceptual design plans for refurbishing this park and its pool. Before taking any action, the further Board requested input from the Cochran’s Crossing Village Association.

Prior to these meetings, an online survey obtained input from almost 400 residents. The resident feedback was:

·         Well maintained, safe and secure facilities are the most important needs (99%).

·         Almost all residents want a wide variety of facilities available (91%) with play facilities (85%).

·         Most people want the park to offer opportunities for interaction with nature (82%) and to look and feel open (79%) and welcoming (75%).

·         Slightly fewer find it important to have peace and quiet (68%) and to have lots of activity available (65%).

·         Improvements that were most preferred included:

·         Repair the pool building (the building is a synthetic stucco façade with a great deal of water and structural wood damage)

·         Add water play features such as spray play to the pool

·         Add shade to the pool area

·         Upgrade the restrooms

·         Add path lighting

·         Upgrade / expand playgrounds

One of the big surprises regarding the Shadowbend pool facilities, in comparison to the new Sawmill Pool for example, was the very poor condition of the building and the need to bring the pool and its equipment up to current Health and Building Codes. This work is estimated to cost about $427,000 before we could even think about other improvements to the pool or the park itself. Additional costs were estimated at $523,000 to upgrade the pool amenities to be on par with what our newer parks have today and another $435,000 for improvements to the park itself. 

The Board considered all of these factors and resident input in deciding on the scope of the project at its June 26^th meeting. The Board, including myself, approved (with one Director opposing) a preliminary budget of $1,385,500.  The one opposing Director wanted to hold the cost at $1 million but had no suggestions as to what reductions in scope should be made to achieve this lower budget. I thought the lower budget was unreasonable given we will need to spend almost half of this $1 million to bring the pool up to code before any improvements could even be made. I do believe we need to watch any “scope creep” and hold the budget to what we have approved. 

During the meeting, a lot of the discussion revolved around this very large budget amount in comparison to an initial budget of $500,000.  When Sawmill Park was recently redone, the cost of that pool was about $980,000. It also had a placeholder budget of $500,000.  If one subtracts the significant Shadowbend pool building and equipment repair costs of $427,000 from its budget, the two projects appear to be very comparable, around $1 million. The Board will have an opportunity to revisit this matter as the project goes through the design and bid process. The future checkpoints are:

·         November 2013- Board reviews/approves Shadowbend Park Renovation Bids

·         January 2014- Renovation Starts

·         May 10, 2014 (or earlier)- Renovation Complete

The longer term issue is that using a $500,000 budget placeholder for these sorts of improvements is not realistic and we need to get “real.” We need to reconsider what we need to set aside over the next 20 years to refurbish our major parks and the other 12 pools when their time comes. This will be a major consideration during our July budget meetings—what is needed in our capital project sinking fund to pay for the $170 million in assets and amenities we will need to replace or refurbish over the next 20 years?