For years, some Chapel Hill community members have pushed for the town’s park system to add a splash pad facility. The water recreation spaces have grown in popularity as inclusive and accessible ways to cool off and have fun.
On Monday, the town council heard the results of a feasibility study on where to add a splash pad and helped take steps to advance planning of bringing one to Chapel Hill.
Chapel Hill Parks & Recreation Director Phillip Fleischmann said splash pads are the buzz of the parks community.
“The splash pad in particular is an amenity that’s popping up everywhere in park systems,” he told 97.9 The Hill. “There are some nearby in Mebane and Pittsboro, for example, so we’d really like to have one here.”
After a petition of more than 800 Chapel Hill community members was delivered to the town last summer in favor of a splash pad, the Parks, Greenways, and Recreation Commission unanimously voted in favor to add one. That decision helped the town officially get started in its planning process, with the first step being where a splash pad might make sense.
Mebane recently added a splash pad to its park system in recent years. (Photo via City of Mebane)
The feasibility study presented to the Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday shared data from six of the town’s parks and two public housing communities where potential splash pads might work. The assessment looked at areas with the right size, infrastructure, parking, and availability of utilities for a potential splash pad, as well as details like access, age of facilities and socioeconomic data to help inform equitable decision-making.
Town council members shared they are largely in favor of a medium-sized splash pad – navigating the cost of building a destination-level fixtures, but space bigger than a pocket park size. Many of the elected officials also vocally supported the recirculation model for splash pads, meaning the water would be collected, treated and reused at the same site.
Matching what the feasibility study suggested, Council Member Amy Ryan said those two elements of a splash pad led her to believe it would make sense to be near Chapel Hill’s existing aquatic centers.
“I think that co-locating where possible with pools is really smart, especially if we have existing restroom facilities,” Ryan said. “One of those things that really bump up the pricing is when we need to add parking, those restrooms, changing areas. So, as we’re looking at sites, that kind of co-location would be important to me.”
That option narrows down the splash pad to three places: Community Center Park, Hargraves Park and Homestead Park. Council Member Paris Miller-Foushee said of the three, Hargraves Park stood out as the most attractive option to her.
“I think it checks all the boxes. In terms of being close to a trail, a greenway, downtown, [higher] population, our public housing, being able to upgrade the playground, all of it. So, to me, Hargraves definitely rises to the top.”
Many others agreed, adding that Homestead Park also presents itself as a good option based on the placement of existing water and sewer infrastructure and the availability of parking.
Council Member Adam Searing took his endorsement of the locations a step further. He said he feels like Chapel Hill is lagging other towns of similar size in building such park attractions like splash pads. He advocated for building more than one, if the town had identified multiple locations that fit their criteria.
“I would say let’s extend ourselves, let’s try and catch up a little bit to other communities,” said Searing. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time and, absolutely, let’s go ask what the community wants. But when I look at the work you’ve done, I think it’s two destinations: Hargraves [for the] most people, Homestead [for the] most parking.”
Photos from the 14th Annual Orange County Dog Swim at the A.D. Clark Pool at Hargraves Park and Community Center. The park has space nearby to the pool the Chapel Hill Town Council said may be preferable for a future splash pad. (Photo via Town of Chapel Hill.)
Any construction of a splash pad, however, is far from breaking ground. The parks and planning departments will now ramp up community engagement efforts to see where residents would prefer the water space.
Fleischmann said there’s another major component that still needs to be worked out: where the town will get the money to pay for splash pads.
“At the current time, the projects are not funded,” said the parks director. “So really, this exploration is a good start looking at what it would take to bring one here. And then later there will be conversations that occur around the funding piece of this [study].”
From the town council and hundreds of community members, though, there is clear interest heating up for a new way to cool down.
Featured photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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Putting a splashpad near an outdoor pool is kind of a dumb idea and redundant. Going cheapskate and winding up with something that’s basically pointless is not a good use of tax dollars.