Playground

Playground Refurbishment Project

• Safe structures for 2-5 and 5-12 year olds
• Café seating for more family dining area by kitchen and playground

The playground is not just a “nice” “add-on” feature. 

At any time, we may have a lot of members in the pool, over 1000 of whom are children:

Totals:
Adults in Pool:	1290
Children in Pool:	1043
Caregivers:	124
Total:	2457

We have a LOT of kids coming to the pool.

Typically, quarter to the hour, the guards blow the whistle for “adult swim.” The kids need to have something to do.

Observed usage is also that not every kid is in the pool all the time. The sport court and playground receive constant usage throughout the hour, even beyond adult swim.

One way to prevent pool overcrowding is to actually utilize the grounds more effectively—the more children have other activities to pursue, the less density of kids will be pressed into the pool.

The current configuration of the pool recreation and playground area does not efficiently utilize the space and is dangerous to our younger members. Here are a number of items of great concern to the board:

• The current play structure is intended for residential use.
• The current play structure is designed for older children and there are not safe and age-appropriate options for 2-5 age group.
• Design of the current unit is not acceptable for heavy use in a commercial environment and does not meet acceptable standards set by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (“CPSC” or “Commission”) Public Playground Safety Handbook (http://playgroundsafety.org/standards/cpsc) or ASTM standards for durability and injury prevention of materials (http://www.playgroundsafety.org/standards/astm)
• One significant example: there are no guardrails to prevent climbing out to unsafe areas at significant heights (10-12’). A fall from these areas will likely lead to severe injury or death
• Another significant example: the surface around the playground is solid packed and does not meet standards for “impact attenuation” that can absorb fall impact and minimize harm from falls.
• Another example: the surfaces of the slides have burned children due to the direct sunlight; standards are now in place to have shade over exposed surfaces
• Close adult supervision would be required to prevent children from climbing out on unsafe areas and the observed use patterns are that children are left unattended, despite our pleas to not do so.
• The condition of the current play structure is also at the end of its serviceable life (e.g. there are areas of decay that would need to be repaired.
• The Pool Association bears a real risk of liability which must be remediated.

The current configuration of the playground also under-utilizes significant ground in direct proximity to the sport court, current playground, and the kitchen facilities. We have repeatedly observed a squeeze on places for families to sit and eat, relax, and be near the play structure.

The current configuration of the grounds is depicted in this figure:

After consultations with play structure experts, we have developed the following plan to reconfigure the playground area. The main features are:

• A new café seating area with tables and umbrellas for increased dining/recreation space
• A 2-5/6 year old play structure in direct proximity to the new seating area to maximize supervision
• A 5-12 play structure with features like enclosed stairs and catwalks, and enclosed slides from higher platforms that do not allow climbing outside of the platforms
• Integrated shade to minimize heat burns in the increasingly hot sun
• An acceptable surface for the playground area. Our plan is:
  • In initial install, to utilize an engineered wood chip surface at 9” depth. This will be a lower cost option that still meets the standards for impact attenuation.
  • When the serviceable life of that material is reached (5-8 years), the surface can be replaced with the more expensive poured in place epoxy

We plan a two phase installation:

• Phase 1 (2019):
  • Excavate area and install slope retention
  • Install main structures (professionally designed, engineered, installed, and permitted)
  • Install engineered wood surface

• Phase 2 (somewhere around 2025-2027)
  • Remove decomposing engineered wood surface
  • Install poured-in-place epoxy or similar permanent surface

The general configuration of the revamped area is depicted in the figure below:

The general design of the new playground structure could look something like the following: