After years of interruptions, plans to install a multi-pool aquatic complex at Liberty Station’s NTC Park in Point Loma have been revitalized following a feasibility study by the city of San Diego.
Stephen Rodi, chairman of the Peninsula Aquatic Complex Council and president of Point Loma High School’s aquatic boosters program, said the project is experiencing the most momentum it has had in years.
“There is such a huge need for pools in San Diego proper,” Rodi said. “La Jolla High School is the only school in the cluster that has their own pool. Every other school in the cluster has to use a rec center. High Tech High is right there in Liberty Station and their aquatics program has to go all the way down to Coronado to use their pool.”
Talk of a community swimming pool dates to a 2001 redevelopment plan following the closure in 1997 of the Naval Training Center that once occupied the Liberty Station site.
The development plan, prepared by the city and McMillin NTC, reads, “It is anticipated that candidates for the active use area include a community swimming pool or aquatic center and a lighted multi-use sports field and/or areas for court sports or general play such as might be found on open-space lawn areas.”
Lisa Johnson, president and chief executive of the NTC Foundation, a nonprofit that oversees renovation of the historic buildings and other projects at Liberty Station’s Arts District, said the McMillin plan is her bible for development.
“That is a plan that I refer to consistently as an owner of some of these buildings at Liberty Station,” Johnson said. “The plan is really comprehensive.”
A request for proposals to develop the pool and the now-abandoned Building 619 at NTC Park was issued in mid-2014. The YMCA was the only respondent, but indications were it could not engage in a lease or concessions beyond 10 years, and the project stalled.
“[The U.S. Department of the Interior has] really strict guidelines on what is acceptable and what is not, and those restrictions, on top of the fact that the city did not have a plan on how to operate it, were the biggest stumbling blocks,” Rodi said. “It just got delayed and delayed and the funding went away. It never got off the ground.”
The Peninsula Aquatic Complex Council, a community advocacy group, formed in 2017 to try to reignite interest in the project. PACC was created by Point Loma High School parents and alumni, swimmers, kayakers, civic leaders and other community .
Rodi said the group’s engagement in 2019 with then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s office seemed promising, but the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 stalled the project again, and Faulconer left office after being ineligible to run for reelection that year because of term limits.
Current Mayor Todd Gloria’s office “has taken the flag and carried it, I’d say more effectively and with much more interest,” Rodi said. “COVID put such a hurt on all of the momentum of what we were trying to accomplish. It’s been over three years and we’re just now able to get something happening. The city is finally starting to take some action.”
San Diego recently conducted a feasibility study for the aquatic project and is eyeing the area along the waterfront at NTC Park. Rodi said the abandoned Building 619 south of the playground and its surrounding grass area is the site of interest.
“We were told there is a separate project by [the San Diego Parks & Recreation Department] to repurpose that building and that they were considering rebuilding it as a rec center with an aquatic center along with it,” Rodi said.
Details of the feasibility study are expected after the holiday season, Rodi said.
The property was used as a child-care facility for military families when the naval base was active, but it has been vacant for many years.
The longer the building is unused, the more problems it creates, Johnson said.
“It’s really a dilapidated building and it presents a danger to the community,” she said. “It’s surrounded by a fence, but fences don’t necessarily keep people out. It’s essentially a blight in the middle of the park.”
“We don’t have any control of what happens in the park because [the structures are] city-owned, but it’s associated with us,” Johnson added. “When people come to Liberty Station, they don’t differentiate between who owns what buildings, they just see it all as Liberty Station. I think any use of the buildings other than leaving them to rot would present an economic driver in addition to meeting community needs.”
City spokesman Benny Cartwright said in an email that the aquatic project aims to create a “modern, flexible facility that caters to a diverse range of s and meets the city’s program requirements and vision.”
He said the city will coordinate community outreach events to solicit input that will influence the city’s conceptual designs.
Rodi said the events will give the public an opportunity to let the city know the need for a regional pool.
“This could be a central aquatic center for the region, not just the Point Loma community,” Rodi said.
A May 2020 update on PACC’s website estimated the project would cost $20 million to $25 million. Cartwright said a more solid cost estimate is expected to be available by next summer, following completion of a schematic design.
