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Home My WebLink About2011-09-07 PACKET 12.A.REQUEST OF CITY COUNCIL ACTION COUNCIL AGENDA MEETING ITEM # DATE 9/7/2011 s PREPARED BY Parks and Recreation Zac Dockter ORIGINATING DEPARTMENT DEPARTMENT HEAD W W * * * * * * * * * * * W * * W W W W W W W W W W * W * W W W * * * * * * * * * * * * * * COUNCIL ACTION REQUEST Workshop: Community Aquatic Facility Options. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS ® MEMO /LETTER: Memo from Zac Dockter. ❑ RESOLUTION: ❑ ORDINANCE: ❑ ENGINEERING RECOMMENDATION: ❑ LEGAL RECOMMENDATION: ❑ OTHER: ADMINISTRATORS COMMENTS Y City Administrator Date * * * * * * * * * * * * W * W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W * W * * W * W W W * * * * * * * * COUNCIL ACTION TAKEN: ❑ APPROVED ❑ DENIED ❑ OTHER Documentl City of Cotta Grove Minnesota To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Zac Dockter. Parks and Recreation Director Cc: Ryan Schroeder, City Administrator Date: August 18, 2011 Subject: Aquatic Recreational Facility Options The council has requested additional information regarding the myriad of aquatic recreational facility options for the community. During the decision making process it is important to understand the impact of facility options in regards to capital investment, operational needs/funding, and usage projections. With support from the recent splash pad study, staff firmly believes that aquatic recreational opportunities in Cottage Grove are under - served and any new facility will be heavily utilized. However, water recreational facilities come with significant funding requirements and as such the community desires versus the financial commitment must be balanced. Throughout the report, the following facilities in peer communities will be referenced: Community Facility Name Bather Load (capacity) Eagan Cascade Bay 2,000 Apple Valley AV Family Aquatic Ctr 1,900 Hastings Hastings Family Aq Ctr 800 Cottage Grove Outdoor Municipal Pool 350 Cottage Grove Highland Park Splash Pad 250 Apple Valley Kelly Park Splash Pad 150 eea A SKIP xk p ` pPlnt z , i r SM1 pzlltlez �T h- 1j , caP�Irc: R fl cene Hone a � •m Tube Slme - Cou `i4 �ry Ea an —Cascade Ba Apple Valley Family Aquatic Center t � — Hastings Family Aquatic Center Apple Valley Kelly Park— Splash Pad t a Year Built Cottage Grove Highlands Park — S lash Pad Cotta a Grove Municipal Pool Capital Investment Capital investment in aquatic facilities is perhaps the easiest component to analyze. Below is a table depicting costs of each of the referenced facilities in terms of both actual costs during the year of construction as well as estimated costs in today's figures. Present day estimates were derived from Jim Maland with Bonestroo and Associates who also performed the Cottage Grove Splash Pad Study. Facility Year Built Actual Cost Estimated Cost Today Cascade Bay 1998 $7 Million $12.5 Million AVFAC 1999 $6 Million $12 Million HFAC 1998 $1.5 Million $6 Million CG Splash Pad 2012 $500,000 N/A AV Splash Pad 2007 $300,000 $350,000 Funding mechanisms differed amongst each community. In most cases, some level of bonding was used to offset the costs of the facilities combined with other sources of cash. Apple Valley however completely built their aquatic facility through a park referendum bond. For purposed of this report, it should be considered standard practice to assume that operational revenues would not be sufficient enough to cover any portion of the capital investment. Operational Analysis As thoroughly discussed in previous council reports, the maintenance and operational needs of aquatic facilities compared to splash pads are completely different. Splash pads have minimal maintenance with no additional staffing needs whereas an aquatic center would become its own business model with management, staffing, maintenance and marketing needs. Below is a table depicting five year averages of revenues versus expenditures of the referenced facilities. Facility Revenues Expenditures Annual Income (Loss) Cascade Bay $1,038,000 $1,033,700 $5,000 AVHAC $600,000 $611,000 ($11,000) HFAC $325,000 $420,000 ($95,000) CG Splash Pad $0 $12,000 ($12,000) Usage Projections Developing usage projections are certainly the most difficult analysis to perform in that it is truly just "guessing" by using a combination of accessible actual data and industry trends. Perhaps the most difficult part of this analysis is trying to understand what percentage of the users would use larger aquatic facilities but not necessarily a splash pad. The five -year average attendance of each facility is as follows: Facility 5- Yr A verage A ttendance Cascade Bay 120,000 AVFAC 55,000 HFAC 30,000 (* for reference, CG Municipal Pool has a 4,700 average) Analyzing splash pad usage becomes a much more difficult scenario in that the sites are not supervised and hence actual attendance is not measured. We believe that the Cottage Grove Splash Pad would be most similar in usage to Apple Valley based on splash pad design and community characteristics. Below is a response from the Apple Valley Parks and Recreation Director regarding splash pads and pools that I believe will help in analyzing potential use for a Cottage Grove splash pad. "Hi Zac; thanks for your interest in the Apple Valley splash pad located in Kelley park. We installed the splash pad in 2007 and have found to it to be one of the most popular park and recreation activities in our city. We expected that on a pleasantly warm summer day we would get a few hundred users. We have found that on most nice days we will have 1000 or more users over the course of the day. Because we do not staff the splash pad we do not have a report of exact user occasions. The staff has watched Kelley Park quite closely and we estimate our attendance figures based on observation, phone calls from the public and input from talking with users on site. We are drawing people from a ten to fifteen mile radius with many coming from outside of the Apple Valley city limits. The primary age of the children using the splash pad is from 2 to 10 years. We hear many positive comments from parents about the flexibility of the hours, 9am to 9pm and especially the fact that the splash pad is free. Many parents love to socialize while the children are playing on the pad. We are also operating the Apple Valley Family Aquatic Center which drew over 65,000 users last year and the Redwood pool which is an 'old fashion pool" but still draws several thousand users each summer. I would predict that your residents will be very pleased and happy with a new splash pad in Cottage G rove. Best of luck with your project. Randy Johnson Apple Valley Parks and Recreation Director" Using this information, I believe the city of Cottage Grove could conservatively estimate splash pad usage using the following factors utilizing average weather patterns in Minnesota: Season Sunny Days Partly Sunny /Cloudy Days Mostly Cloudy /Rainy Days Usage on Sunny Days Usage on Partly Sunny /Cloudy Days Total Usage/Year Estimate 120 days (May 20 — Sep 20) 40 days 55 days 25 days 300 users 100 users 17,500 A few things should be understood when considering these numbers: 1. Usage does not necessarily mean people using the splash pad itself. A significant percentage of the users may not actually step foot on the splash pad but would be experiencing this facility by bringing and watching children at the facility. Hence, staff continues to suggest that it is vitally important that supporting facilities such as the building, shade structures, playground and picnicking facilities are very important additions to the site. The splash pad should be considered an investment into the entire Highlands Park experience. Usage consists of individual users per day. The total usage should not be used to determine percentage of Cottage Grove's population that is impacted as many of the usages will be from those that use the facility multiple times throughout the year. I believe these numbers to be conservative with the information available. Apple Valley has two large aquatic facilities within 12 miles of its splash pad park as well as a smaller pool similar to Cottage Grove's. Cottage Grove certainly does not have that level of aquatic recreational opportunity in the same area meaning the interest in any new aquatic facility should be ample. I certainly believe a splash pad would realize an initial peak in usage the first few seasons simply because of the newness of the activity. However, the total park experience combined with the fact that it is free should provide consistent and long -term use of the park for generations. Splash pad usage should be considered fairly similar to playgrounds in that new children, parents, grandparents, aunts /uncles, babysitters and such come into the world every day who will see this as a new experience for multiple generations. As you'll see, we would not be projecting usage of a splash pad to meet or exceed that of an aquatic facility. It would be safe to estimate that a splash pad would only draw about 35 -40% of what an outdoor aquatic facility might in Cottage Grove. However, the capital and operating expenses of a splash pad are approximately 10% of an outdoor aquatic facility. Indoor Aquatic Facilities Although indoor aquatic facilities were not used in the comparables in this report, the industry has typically applied a factor of 1.5 to 2 towards both capital and operational expenditures. Indoor facilities are extremely expensive to build and maintain. A large portion of the additional expense comes in the form of HVAC system components needed to maintain air quality. Coexistence of Aquatic Facilities and Splash Pads Although there is certainly no way to accurately determine the relationship between splash pads and aquatic facilities within a community, there are several communities in this situation who may be able to provide some insight. Those communities are Apple Valley, St. Cloud, Robbinsdale and West Bend. Each community had varying degrees of aquatic facilities and pools, but all community's spoke highly of the splash pad features and did not express any feeling that the splash pads had a direct negative impact to the pools. A more appropriate summary of the owner comments would be that they believed the splash pads complimented the water parks in that the community provided varying levels of aquatic opportunities in regards to both experience and user costs. Aquatic Facility Option Impacts for Cottage Grove Given the myriad of choices available for aquatic recreational facilities in Cottage Grove, Appendix A is table depicting the financial impacts across the spectrum of those options. Please remember that these are simply estimates utilizing the information at hand. Should the council wish to further refine these estimates a more detailed study would be needed. Municipal Pool ADA Compliance Needs for 2012 Should the council desire to keep the pool open for another season, additional funding of approximately $3K to $5K would be needed in 2012 to make the pool compliant with current ADA Guidelines. A summary of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for swimming pools is as follows: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. On September 15, 2010, the ADA Guidelines finalized on July 23, 2004 (ADAAG 2004) were signed into law and now require compliance by all Title II (Public Entities) and Title III (Public Accommodations and Commercial Entities) by March 15, 2012. This includes recreation facilities, swimming pools, wading pools and spas. ADA regulations cover both public and private facilities including pools operated by public park and recreation districts, hotels and motels, fitness and recreational sports clubs, country clubs, high schools and universities, waterparks, hospitals and health care facilities. Regulations may also apply to private residential facilities, such as homeowners, apartment and condo associations, if these facilities are open to the general public. ADA guidelines provide specification of certain elements in the design of new and renovated facilities to ensure that individuals with disabilities are generally able to access swimming pools and spas and use a variety of features of the facility. The guidelines are the minimum level of accessibility required and are encouraged to be exceeded where possible to increase opportunities. i Faudilro HFAC Location Hastings Year Constructed 1995 Construction Cost $1.5 million Estimated Cost Today $6 million 5 -year Avg Attendance 30,000 Pool Capacity 800 Revenues $325,000 Expenditures $420,000 Bond Payment $130,000 Income (Loss) ($225,000) Notes Lake Elmo Beach Lake Elmo 1985/2001 $1 million Indoor Small - Medium Aquatic Ctr Not known $660,000 Not known Not known n/a #VALUE! Reconstruction of filtration system in 2001 for $500K. Operations part of larger county park operations AVFAC Apply Valley 1999/2009 $6 million $12 million 55,000 1,900 $600,000 $611,000 n /a- referendum ($11,000) Added lazy river in 2009 for $3M. Both construction costs were part of larger park referendums Cascade Bay Eagan 1998 $7 million $12.5 million 120,000 2,000 $1,038,000 $1,033,700 $160,000 ($155,700) Number have steadily decreased from a high of 170,000 in 2001 Municipal Pool Cottage Grove 1961 ? ?? $1 million 4,680 325 $15,800 $86,000 $0 ($70,200) SplashpadT,P,sed! Cottage Grove 2012 $S K $S0 K Not known 250 $0 $26,500 $0 ($26,500) Indoor Parks No information available at this time as it relates directly to the aquatic portion of a facility. However, Jim Maland with Bonestroo suggest a good estimator of 1.5 to 2 times the cost to construct and operate indoor aquatic facilities versus outdoor. Operational Subsidy per Use Cottage Grove Facility Options Construction Cost Bond Payment Operating Income(loss) Annual Facility Expense Cost /taxpayer Estimated Attendance W /Bond Payment W /Out Bond Pmt Indoor Large Aquatic Center $15 million $1,100,000 - $100,000 $1,200,000 $104 125,000 $10 $1 Indoor Small - Medium Aquatic Ctr $9 million $660,000 - $100,000 $760,000 $66 60,000 $13 $2 Outdoor Large Aquatic Center $12 million $880,000 - $25,000 $905,000 $79 100,000 $9 $0 Outdoor Small /Medium Aquatic Ctr $6 million $486,000 - $75,000 $561,000 $49 50,000 $11 $2 Existing Municipal Pool N/A $0 - $85,000 $85,000 $7 4,600 $18 $18 Highlands Park Splash Pad $500,000 $0 - $12,000 $12,000 $1 17,500 $1 $1