Harger: Shoreline wants $100 million for a swimming pool. With a lazy river. For a city of 62,000 people

I need someone to check my math, because this number can’t be right.

The City of Shoreline wants 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 flexible seating.

Shoreline has 62,000 people.

For context, $16.6 million of that $100 million just pays off the property the city bought in 2020 before a single shovel hits dirt. The rest builds the pool.

And about that pool. The Gordon Family YMCA in Sumner opened in 2015 for $35 million. It’s 110,000 square feet. More than double the size 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 running track, racquetball courts, an arts center, a teen center, yoga and cycling studios, and multipurpose rooms.

Now, construction costs have gone up since 2015. Be generous. Double it. Call it $70 million in today’s dollars. That’s still $30 million less than Shoreline’s proposal, for a building more than twice the size, with ten times the programming, in a facility that runs on membership fees.

Those membership fees aren’t cheap, by the way. But the YMCA offers income-based scholarships so nobody gets priced out. The YMCA model asks users to pay for what they use, scaled to what they can afford. Shoreline’s model asks every property owner to subsidize the building, whether they swim or not.

Seattle Public Schools just replaced John Rogers Elementary for $91.5 million. Montlake Elementary’s modernization and addition cost $84.9 million. Brand-new school buildings, classrooms, gyms, libraries, and playgrounds, all under $92 million each. Shoreline’s pool costs more than any of them.

Look, I grew up swimming in public pools. I loved going to the Yost Pool in Edmonds as a kid. I’d pop over to the Mountlake Terrace pool, which is indoors, so you could swim in January if you wanted to. When I visited my dad in the summer, his trailer park had a pool, and on a hot day, that was the best place on earth. I’ve done commentaries about the value of places like the Raymond Pool for families who don’t have a backyard or a country club membership. I believe in public pools. I believe they matter. And if the voters of Shoreline want this, more power to them.

But they should go in with their eyes wide open, because the Shoreline Area News published the details, and there are a few things the $35-a-month talking point doesn’t mention.

Shoreline already asked voters for $103 million in 2019. They said no. This time, the city changed the rules

Shoreline has tried this before. 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 commercial kitchen, a jogging track, exercise rooms, community spaces, and upgrades to four parks. The full package. It got 54% yes. Needed 60%. Didn’t pass.

The new proposal is $100 million for a 48,000-square-foot pool-only facility. No gym. No kitchen. No jogging track. No park improvements. A third less building for essentially the same money.

And here’s the structural wrinkle: the 2019 bond needed 60% approval. By switching to a Metropolitan Park District, the city only needs a simple majority. Same price tag. Lower bar to pass.

The Shoreline City Council would also be the MPD Board. Same people, different hats

If this structural trick sounds familiar, it should. The governing board of the new Metropolitan Park District (MPD) would be the Shoreline City Council. Same people. Different name on the agenda. Different taxing power.

I just wrote about King County pulling the same move with the Transportation District. Nine county council members sitting as a separate board, using authority voters never gave them. At least Shoreline is putting this one on the ballot. That counts for something.

The pool runs a deficit every year by design. The property tax that covers it never expires

The pool costs about $4.4 million a year to operate. Memberships, lap swim, and party room rentals bring in about $2.9 million. That leaves a gap of about $1.5 million per year that is covered by property taxes.

Every year. Forever.

And I mean forever. The property tax doesn’t expire when the pool is built. It doesn’t expire when the 20-year construction bonds are paid off. After those bonds are retired, the city says the revenue “could be repurposed for a recreation facility or pool renovations.”

Could be repurposed. That means once the construction bonds are paid off in 20 years, the tax revenue doesn’t go away. The MPD board, which is the city council, can redirect it to build new facilities, a recreation center, whatever they decide, without going back to voters for approval. You vote for a pool in 2026. Twenty years later, the tax is funding things you never voted for.

What happens when the projections miss?

The $35-a-month figure for a median Shoreline home assumes the pool hits its enrollment targets and fee revenue comes in at $2.9 million. Public pools are wonderful. They’re also not famous for hitting revenue projections. If fee revenue comes in at $2.5 million instead of $2.9 million, the gap between what the pool earns and what it costs doesn’t shrink. It grows. And the property tax is already locked in.

The city projects the pool will cover 66% of its own costs through user fees. That means 62,000 residents are subsidizing pool access for the portion of those residents who actually use it. That’s a choice. It might be a choice worth making. But make it with your eyes open, not with a brochure.

Oh, and one more detail from the FAQ. Qualifying senior citizens on fixed incomes? They can’t be exempted from this tax. State law doesn’t allow it for Metropolitan Park District levies. The people who can least afford a new property tax are the ones who can’t opt out.

I want Shoreline to have a pool. I just want voters to know what $100 million actually means

I want Shoreline to have a pool. Every community should have a place where families can swim, kids can take lessons, and seniors can do water aerobics on a Tuesday morning.

Sumner built a larger facility with more programming at a fraction of the cost, even after adjusting for a decade of inflation. That comparison alone is worth thinking about.

If Shoreline voters want that, I respect it. Just know what you’re buying. And maybe ask the city what the plan is when the projections come in short.

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

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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