Harger: Shoreline desires $100 million for a swimming pool. With a lazy river. For a metropolis of 62,000 folks

I want somebody to verify my math, as a result of this quantity can’t be proper.

The City of Shoreline desires voters to approve $100 million for a swimming pool. One swimming pool. With eight lap lanes, a recreation pool, a hydrotherapy pool, a lazy river, a sauna, a snack bar, and versatile seating.

Shoreline has 62,000 folks.

For context, $16.6 million of that $100 million simply pays off the property town purchased in 2020 earlier than a single shovel hits dust. The relaxation builds the pool.

And about that pool. The Gordon Family YMCA in Sumner opened in 2015 for $35 million. It’s 110,000 sq. toes. More than double the dimensions of what Shoreline is proposing. It has a lap pool, a lazy river, a vortex pool, water basketball, three full gymnasiums, a climbing wall, a working observe, racquetball courts, an arts heart, a teen heart, yoga and biking studios, and multipurpose rooms.

Now, development prices have gone up since 2015. Be beneficiant. Double it. Call it $70 million in right this moment’s {dollars}. That’s nonetheless $30 million lower than Shoreline’s proposal, for a constructing greater than twice the dimensions, with ten occasions the programming, in a facility that runs on membership charges.

Those membership charges aren’t low cost, by the best way. But the YMCA gives income-based scholarships so no one will get priced out. The YMCA mannequin asks customers to pay for what they use, scaled to what they’ll afford. Shoreline’s mannequin asks each property proprietor to subsidize the constructing, whether or not they swim or not.

Seattle Public Schools simply changed John Rogers Elementary for $91.5 million. Montlake Elementary’s modernization and addition value $84.9 million. Brand-new college buildings, lecture rooms, gyms, libraries, and playgrounds, all underneath $92 million every. Shoreline’s pool prices greater than any of them.

Look, I grew up swimming in public swimming pools. I cherished going to the Yost Pool in Edmonds as a child. I’d pop over to the Mountlake Terrace pool, which is indoors, so you can swim in January for those who needed to. When I visited my dad in the summertime, his trailer park had a pool, and on a scorching day, that was the very best place on earth. I’ve finished commentaries in regards to the worth of locations just like the Raymond Pool for households who don’t have a yard or a rustic membership membership. I imagine in public swimming pools. I imagine they matter. And if the voters of Shoreline need this, extra energy to them.

But they need to go in with their eyes vast open, as a result of the Shoreline Area News revealed the main points, and there are some things the $35-a-month speaking level doesn’t point out.

Shoreline already requested voters for $103 million in 2019. They mentioned no. This time, town modified the principles

Shoreline has tried this earlier than. In 2019, the city asked voters to approve a $103 million bond for a 75,000-square-foot facility that included the pool, two gymnasiums, a industrial kitchen, a jogging observe, train rooms, neighborhood areas, and upgrades to 4 parks. The full bundle. It received 54% sure. Needed 60%. Didn’t cross.

The new proposal is $100 million for a 48,000-square-foot pool-only facility. No gymnasium. No kitchen. No jogging observe. No park enhancements. A 3rd much less constructing for basically the identical cash.

And right here’s the structural wrinkle: the 2019 bond wanted 60% approval. By switching to a Metropolitan Park District, town solely wants a easy majority. Same price ticket. Lower bar to cross.

The Shoreline City Council would even be the MPD Board. Same folks, totally different hats

If this structural trick sounds acquainted, it ought to. The governing board of the brand new Metropolitan Park District (MPD) can be the Shoreline City Council. Same folks. Different identify on the agenda. Different taxing energy.

I simply wrote about King County pulling the identical transfer with the Transportation District. Nine county council members sitting as a separate board, utilizing authority voters by no means gave them. At least Shoreline is placing this one on the poll. That counts for one thing.

The pool runs a deficit yearly by design. The property tax that covers it by no means expires

The pool prices about $4.4 million a 12 months to function. Memberships, lap swim, and social gathering room leases herald about $2.9 million. That leaves a spot of about $1.5 million per 12 months that’s coated by property taxes.

Every 12 months. Forever.

And I imply endlessly. The property tax doesn’t expire when the pool is constructed. It doesn’t expire when the 20-year development bonds are paid off. After these bonds are retired, town says the income “could be repurposed for a recreation facility or pool renovations.”

Could be repurposed. That means as soon as the development bonds are paid off in 20 years, the tax income doesn’t go away. The MPD board, which is town council, can redirect it to construct new services, a recreation heart, no matter they determine, with out going again to voters for approval. You vote for a pool in 2026. Twenty years later, the tax is funding belongings you by no means voted for.

What occurs when the projections miss?

The $35-a-month determine for a median Shoreline dwelling assumes the pool hits its enrollment targets and payment income is available in at $2.9 million. Public swimming pools are fantastic. They’re additionally not well-known for hitting income projections. If payment income is available in at $2.5 million as an alternative of $2.9 million, the hole between what the pool earns and what it prices doesn’t shrink. It grows. And the property tax is already locked in.

The metropolis initiatives the pool will cowl 66% of its personal prices by means of person charges. That means 62,000 residents are subsidizing pool entry for the portion of these residents who really use it. That’s a selection. It is perhaps a selection price making. But make it together with your eyes open, not with a brochure.

Oh, and yet another element from the FAQ. Qualifying senior residents on fastened incomes? They can’t be exempted from this tax. State regulation doesn’t enable it for Metropolitan Park District levies. The individuals who can least afford a brand new property tax are those who can’t decide out.

I would like Shoreline to have a pool. I simply need voters to know what $100 million really means

I would like Shoreline to have a pool. Every neighborhood ought to have a spot the place households can swim, youngsters can take classes, and seniors can do water aerobics on a Tuesday morning.

Sumner constructed a bigger facility with extra programming at a fraction of the associated fee, even after adjusting for a decade of inflation. That comparability alone is price eager about.

If Shoreline voters need that, I respect it. Just know what you’re shopping for. And perhaps ask town what the plan is when the projections come in brief.

My dad’s trailer park pool didn’t have a lazy river. We had a good time anyway.

Charlie Harger is the host of  on KIRO Newsradio. You can learn extra of his tales and commentaries . Follow Charlie  and electronic mail him . 

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