You Can’t Always Get What You Want
In the past year, the pool issue has dominated Vienna’s public discourse. Should the Town build an aquatics center at the Center Street site acquired by the town in 2020? Closely associated with this proposed project is the recently-enacted one percent increase in the meals tax. While I voted for the meals tax increase, I do not support a publicly-funded aquatics center at that site. In this, my second 2025 campaign blog, I’ll address the first elephant; namely, why I do not support the pool. In a follow-up blog, I will discuss why I nevertheless voted to increase the meals tax by one percent.
First, I fully supported the Town’s acquisition of the former Baptist Church property on Center Street. An opportunity to acquire a piece of land in the public/government heart of Vienna does not come around very often. And I voted to conduct a feasibility study to determine if an aquatics center was a good fit. But, after seeing the feasibility study and doing some of my own research on the project, I have concluded that I cannot support the project as it currently stands, for the following reasons.
I have serious reservations about the economics behind the proposed aquatics/fitness center. In short, the proposed location is just too small for an aquatics center that can support itself through membership fees (not low – projected at nearly $1000 per family), rentals and program revenues. While Fairfax County aquatics centers such as Oakmont break even, they typically have triple or quadruple the pool area of that of the proposed Annex pool. Economies of scale make larger aquatics facilities – although they cost much more in upfront capital costs – more likely to break even. Given the small size of the property, no tweaking of the original design could make the project workable from an operating cost perspective. Moreover, the small size would undoubtedly limit memberships, making it hard for many residents to even use the facility. Thus, there is a real chance that the facility would generate substantial operating shortfalls, which would have to be covered by future reductions in services in other areas and/or increases in property taxes.
Second, even an undersized pool would eat up nearly all the town’s available funds for new capital projects for the next 15 to 20 years. Because the town traditionally has funded all capital projects through meals taxes, the amount of meals taxes we collect puts a limit on what we have available for new capital projects. Historically (in constant dollars), Vienna has been able to afford one major new capital project every 10 to 20 years. Just a few years ago, we built a new $17 million police station. And a few years before that, we spent approximately $14 million on expanding and upgrading the Community Center. So, we have already funded two new capital projects in the past decade or so. As the original $30 million capital cost estimate for a combined aquatics/fitness center (including land) no doubt will increase, the ability to fund other needed maintenance and capital improvements will decrease even more if the proposed pool is built. Indeed, the recent Parks Master Plan stresses that the Town’s priority should be to fund maintenance of existing park facilities over creation of new ones (1).
Moreover, even if the operating economics and capital requirements can be covered, I cannot support allocating so much of our town’s treasure for the benefit of a relatively small portion of the total population. I estimate that, at most, 25% of the town’s residents would use this facility in any given year. By contrast, 100% of our residents benefit from enhanced safety associated with the new police station, and the Parks Master Plan authors found that 77% of our residents use the Community Center in any given year. And 100% would benefit from lower taxes needed if there were no pool operating losses to cover. While I recognize that it would be nice to have a year-round aquatics facility in Vienna, I don’t think that it should be paid for totally or even primarily with public funds, given the small portion of the residents that it would serve.
Finally, I cannot vote to spend such a large portion of the town’s wealth on a single project unless that project has deep and broad community support. In my conversations with residents, I certainly have not seen evidence of such broad support for a pool. Citations to the survey showing that the pool ranked highest in desire do not convince me, as the question did include any mention of how much it might cost residents in terms of membership and usage fees, capital costs, and coverage of operating costs.
If significant private funds can be raised to cover the capital costs, then I might reconsider. And, if re-elected, I will work to find an affordable option for the Center Street site which serves a greater portion of the community. To paraphrase the great Jagger, we might not be able to get what some want, but I will continue to seek ways to keep giving our town residents what they need.
Up Next: Why I supported the meals tax.
(1) See, Town of Vienna, Parks and Recreation Master Plan: Our Plan to Play, May 2025, at 37 (“Future investments should prioritize on enhancing existing facilities to meet high community expectations for quality and satisfaction”). Available at: https://www.viennava.gov/files/assets/town/v/1/parks-and-rec/pdfs/parks-and-recreation-master-plan-2025/202505-draft-report-vienna-our-plan-to-play.pdf