photo by: Journal-World File

Lawrence's Outdoor Aquatic Center at 727 Kentucky St.

A group that has organized against a potential redesign of Lawrence’s Outdoor Aquatic Center is asking for a citizen oversight committee to monitor the project.

Back in August, the Lawrence City Commission approved a renovation to Lawrence’s public pool that will add features like a lazy river, a 2,300-square-foot splash pad and shallow pool, but the total water recreation would be 16,000 square feet — about a 3,000-square-foot reduction of the current layout.

The design would have kept the existing deep dive pool, a 25-meter section of the lap pool and the water slide and plunge pool on the complex’s west side, but the reduction of the lap area of the pool led to public concern about the design, prompting 1,700 people to sign a petition to reconsider the approved design, as the Journal-World reported.

Holly Krebs, the organizer of that petition, and dozens of other people spoke during public comment during an October meeting, asking commissioners to support a renovation of the pool that kept the existing structure. Commissioners directed city staff to go ahead with that plan, as the Journal-World reported.

On Tuesday night, the commission has an item on its consent agenda that would approve a renovation that would keep the Outdoor Aquatic Center’s original design like the public movement is asking for. According to a city memo, the city would sign an agreement for the renovation to rehabilitate its current pool space, to separate shallow-depth/zero-depth areas from the main pool and to install separate filter systems. The construction cost is estimated to be just over $4.7 million, which is cheaper than the $6.1 million plan approved in August.

Krebs wrote in a press release that she wants that item pulled from the consent agenda so that her group can provide public comment, particularly expressing concerns that the involved companies were a part of a public engagement process that she believes ignored public opinion and misinformed the commission.

Krebs said that although the community provided 5,749 comments in opinion surveys that were used to shape the design of the pool, the public engagement consultants conducting the surveys did not bring those comments to the commissioners’ attention in the planning process. Because of such issues, Krebs believes the project needs a citizen oversight committee for the remainder of the project.

Cori Wallace, a spokesperson for the city, said the city’s communications department is now going to take over the public engagement process for the project.

Wallace said she doesn’t agree with the assertion that public opinion was ignored in the design process, but she said Krebs’ perspective is a critical piece of the conversation that can help the city learn how to ensure fewer people are feeling ignored. She is optimistic that city staff taking over community engagement of the project — with some portion of it facilitated by Krebs — is a potential path to improve the engagement process in Lawrence.

“We have an engaged, caring community who want to know how to best provide feedback and ideas,” Wallace said.