The City of Coralville is taking on several projects to expand its park and recreation amenities, including the reconstruction of the Coralville Recreation Center and a new 110-acre park.

City staff and councilors said these moves will not only help make current Coralville residents have a better quality of life, but the new amenities will also attract prospective residents and businesses to the area.

On Tuesday, the Coralville City Council officially decided to tear down and start new with the Coralville Recreation Center. In August, the city council adopted a master plan for an update to the facility, which included two options, Sherri Proud, the city’s director of parks and recreation, said.

In both options, the nearly 40-year-old aquatic center within the facility will be redone due to its outdatedness and deterioration, Proud said. The two options differ in that one would tear down and reconstruct a new center, and the other would revamp the existing center, she said.

In the tear-down option, the current recreation center will remain open while the new facility is being built, Proud said. Once the new facility is completed, the old facility will be torn down.

Both options are estimated to cost around the same amount, with the rebuild option ranging between $50 and $55 million and the renovation option ranging between $52 and $56 million, Proud said.

According to meeting documents, the new aquatic center will feature a competition pool with spectator seating, a recreation and community lap pool, and a leisure pool. Other amenities include three gyms with an elevated walking track, various fitness rooms, and meeting and activity spaces, according to documents.

The reconstructed building would take up less nearby park space than the renovation option because it will not feature the additional element to the east, Proud said. Additionally, the shape of the reconstructed facility allows for better lines of sight for staff as opposed to the renovated building, meaning more efficiency, she said.

However, there were some concerns about a brand-new facility. Proud said some worries included the environmental impact of tearing down and building a facility from scratch and the change potentially being seen as not honoring a somewhat historic community building.

Councilors ultimately did not see these concerns as outweighing the benefits. Councilor Mike Knudson said he did not think the recreation center had much historical meaning to the community.

Bringing the center to modern standards would make more financial sense in the long run as well, Councilor Rich Vogelzang said.

“In the real estate industry, people say, ‘Why are you tearing down a vacant building?’” Vogelzang said. “Well, it goes to that point of renovation. When you’re trying to retrofit space that you need today, and the next year you try to retrofit that into something that’s existing, it just doesn’t make any practical, long-term sense.”

In terms of the next steps, the city now has to determine funding methods for the recreation center project, Proud said. The Iowa City Community School District has pledged $17 million towards the project because of the district’s utilization of the new aquatic center for a number of its swimming teams, she said. Now, the city has to find a way to come up with the remaining $38 million.

Coralville in planning stages for new 110-acre park

The City of Coralville is in the early planning stages for a 110-acre park located near the in-development University of Iowa Health Care hospital in North Liberty.

The park would preserve the existing environment, including marsh and forested areas, Proud said in an interview with The Daily Iowan. There would also be several other amenities, including walking and bike trails, a playground, and a parking lot, she said.

The Coralville City Council approved the master plan for this project along with the recreation center master plan at its Aug. 13 meeting.

While Coralville has hundreds of acres of park and green space within its city limits, the area of the proposed park — which is on the west side of town — does not have a nearby nature center, Proud said.

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“The west land use is really an area that is going to develop and has started to develop already with residential units,” Proud said. “So whenever that happens, we are always trying to look ahead and make sure that we’ve got park space plans for that area.”

As of now, Coralville is working with the UI on a long-term conservation easement, a legal agreement that dictates how a landowner can use a plot of land to preserve the environment. Additionally, the city is looking for grant opportunities to help fund the park, Proud said. The estimated cost for the park with all proposed amenities is $9.4 million, she said.

No timeline has been discussed with the Coralville City Council, but Proud said the city does know that the project will be completed in phases over time.

Proud said the park and recreation center projects are exciting for the city and show how proactive Coralville is in meeting the needs of its residents as it continues to grow.

“I’m a Coralville resident, and I often say, I work in Coralville, I live in Coralville, but I don’t have to go anywhere else to have fun in Coralville because there’s everything else that I want to be doing in my life,” Proud said. “So we really just try to look ahead, all the time, at how we can be making improvements and make sure that the quality of life is really high here for our residents.”