Cambridge council aims to bring an outdoor pool back to Soper Park

An outdoor pool could be returning to Soper Park as early as 2025 after council approved a $1.76 million play area to replace the Kinsmen Pool that includes a splash pad, playground and pickleball courts.

Knowing how many residents lamented the loss of the Kinsmen Pool, Cambridge councillors didn't want to rule out the idea of a new pool Tuesday as they voted unanimously to approve the new play area in the meantime.

Instead of making any hard decisions now, they amended their approval to ensure the new play area is constructed with a future pool in mind.

The park's 60-year-old Kinsmen Pool was decommissioned in 2021, setting the stage for more than a year of community consultation to figure out what types of amenities residents wanted to see replace it.

The city's landscape architect and construction consulting group Aecon was tasked with gathering that feedback and landed on three design concepts that included features like a splash pad, senior and junior playgrounds, a yoga space, activity space, picnic area and community garden.

The consultant's recommended option, which was within the set budget of $1.5 million, included the splash pad, large playground apparatus and swings, large open activity space surrounded by trees, yoga area and a picnic area, and a plan to demolish the existing washroom building to accommodate a new washroom/changeroom facility.

But on the urging of Coun. Donna Reid, council voted to go with the amended option that adds two pickleball courts to the design.

“I think we need to get this right, and for me the pickleball is really an important part of the sports world,” she said. “Pickleball is played by all ages. I really think it's important for this structure.”

Coun. Scott Hamilton agreed the sport caters to a wide age group.

“It seems like we're getting in on the ground floor of a growing sport.” he said, adding he will be lobbying hard to add a basketball net.

Adding the pickleball courts bumps the original budget up by $200,000, including $10,000 in improvements to the park's disc golf course.

Coun. Adam Cooper wondered why rebuilding the pool wasn't considered in the first place knowing it was one of the top requests among respondents to a community survey. 

But as city landscape architect Claire McLoughlin pointed out, it was simply not part of the scope of the project to replace the Kinsmen Pool.

Council took a 10-minute recess to amend its motion to approve the project, adding in their direction to staff that the new amenities be built to accommodate an outdoor pool at some point down the road.

The city's chief engineer Kevin De Leebeeck said amending the motion to include mention of the pool gives the design team direction that will help them map out plumbing needs related to the pool and the design of the new washroom/changeroom building that will replace the existing structure.

An additional $51,000 for the new washroom structure will be pulled from the city's capital works reserve fund.

Council voted unanimously in favour of moving the project ahead to the design phase and has asked staff to provide a projected budget for an outdoor pool in 2025.