Pool group will sell Verano Ave site, seek new land
The nonprofit behind the effort to build a community pool on Verano Avenue will instead sell the six-acre property and look for a new location somewhere in Sonoma Valley.
“Our mission is alive and well, just not at this location,” said Paul Favaro of Sonoma Splash.
The group bought the old Paul’s Resort tract, including the baseball field across from Maxwell Park, in 2014 with a down payment of $1.5 million. But its efforts to secure a partner for the ambitious project, first Parkpoint Health Club and then a number of housing developers, have been unsuccessful.
Favaro said the land will soon be listed for sale at a yet-undetermined price. The focus is now on finding a new site.
A new pool-only facility would need less land, about 2 to 2.5 acres. Anything larger becomes more complicated and expensive, he said.
Favaro said there have been preliminary discussions with the School District about a pool at Sonoma Valley High School. In that model, Sonoma Splash could help run the pool and “bring in revenue to offset operating costs.”
Though the Verano land is in Sonoma County, the City of Sonoma committed in 2014 support of the pool at $25,000 per year for 10 years. That deal will likely need to be renegotiated to recognize any new location.
Meanwhile Favaro says Sonoma Splash has no specific property in mind, and will search throughout Sonoma Valley, including the Springs.
“It’s early days,” Favaro said. “We’re very open.”
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“It’s early days.” Really? Splash has been a fantasy gone nowhere for over 5 years, which says a lot about both its business model and business acumen. Now it seems to be angling to use a very pricey yet-to-be-built taxpayer-funded public school asset (i.e., the school district’s planned new swimming pool) to prop up its dreams and still keep its hands on $25,000/year in City of Sonoma taxpayer money. As to Splash helping the district run its new pool — the district didn’t need help running the old pool. As to teaching Latino kids to swim (also a supposed objective of Splash), if the school district builds a pool, every kid in the Valley would be able to learn how to swim, courtesy of their public school gym class and school district taxpayers.
Bottom Line: Give It Up.