From: Beth Painter
To: Clerk
Subject: Fwd: Harvest Project Pool
Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2026 3:03:52 PM
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Asher Green <[email protected]>
Date: September 16, 2026 at 2:26:58 PM PDT
To: Scott Sedgley <[email protected]>, Christopher DeNatale <[email protected]>, Beth Painter <[email protected]>, Mary Luros <[email protected]>, Bernie Narvaez <[email protected]> Subject: Harvest Project Pool
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Dear Mr. Mayor and Councilmembers:
My name is Asher Green. I’ve been involved in aquatics my entire working life, including the last 23 years as a swim coach in Napa. I’m writing you to comment on the prospective pool plans for the Harvest property project.
I had the privilege of reading Thomas McNicholas’s email to you on the topic and while I can’t hope to match his eloquence, his points perfectly reflect my own opinions. I understand that the Council is looking at three facilities in a special meeting tomorrow, facilities on which I would like to comment.
Rancho San Ramon Community Park: This aquatic facility seems to consist solely of splash pad water features. These are popular and fun, but only for a limited demographic – young children – and a limited season. The same resources directed to a well-designed lesson pool could provide swimmers of all ages – young children through adults – year-round lessons, exercise classes, and other activities.
Washington Community Swim Center: This facility is a four lane 25 yard pool which would be far too small to have any kind of meaningful positive impact on the community unless intended as the secondary pool of a more comprehensive complex.
Note that Sunnyvale has four total community swimming pools to serve its citizens (one of which is a 50 meter pool) of which the Washington Community Swim Center is the smallest.
Rengstorff Park Aquatics Center: This facility is a six lane 25 yard pool with a diving well.
It misses its potential by its L-shape configuration. Had the designers simply matched the width of the shallow end to that of the diving well, the pool would have been a true 25 yards by 25 meters, providing 10 or so total short course lanes.
I know every project comes with constraints. As much as I would love to see a world class 50 meter pool alongside a lesson pool and popular water features, I understand that the available real estate and budget might not allow for an ideal facility.
Nevertheless, I encourage all of the decision makers to have enough ambition and vision to commit to a large enough facility to optimally serve the most Napans, aquatic community groups and the general public alike. A 50 meter pool would be ideal, of course, but a facility like the impressive new one at Sonoma would be a great asset.
Even pools like those at Vintage and American Canyon high would be significantly more useful than the modest ones under your consideration.
I and others have referred to the prospective Harvest pool as a “legacy project.” Napa has two venerable pools, Napa High and Napa Valley College, that are increasingly showing their age. Those two as well as the Vintage pool have great accessibility challenges. The upcoming Harvest pool will very likely outlast all three of those pools and has the opportunity to be the year-round heart of community activity for decades to come.
Please plan for future generations of Napans.
Regards,
Asher Green
383 S Jefferson St, Napa, CA 94559
(c) 707-815-9216
From: Beth Painter
To: Clerk
Subject: Fwd: Harvest Community Pool
Date: Monday, September 14, 2026 06:41:37 PM
Attachments: image001.png
Sent from Beth Painter's IPad
Begin forwarded message:
From: Casey Hughes <[email protected]>
Date:
September 14, 2026 at 6:22:37 PM PDT
To: Scott Sedgley <[email protected]>, Christopher DeNatale <[email protected]>, Beth Painter <[email protected]>, Mary Luros <[email protected]>, Bernie Narvaez <[email protected]> Subject: Harvest Community Pool
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Hi Mayor Sedgley, Council Members,
I noticed there is a city council tour of pools down in San Ramon/Mountain View/Sunnyvale, but I can’t help but wonder why you aren’t touring a much better pool, much closer? The Sonoma splash pool is far more relevant to our community than a small pool in Sunnyvale.
As a lifelong swimmer, water polo player, and coach; and architect here in Napa Valley for 20 years, I have direct experience and knowledge of these facilities. I can’t help but feel like you guys are missing the recommendation of dedicated users, and professionals.
You should be looking at pools big enough to host meets and events. Those users are vital to the swim community development, and ultimately to the financial success of a pool. Recurring use by groups renting the pool for swim or water polo will provide a much more steady income than a splash pad. A 25 yard x 30 meter pool is the minimum you should be considering, along with a smaller, warm ‘teaching’ pool that works for lessons and older/younger users. A 25yard x 50m pool is what you should really do. With outdoor areas for people to hang out at.
I’d be happy to talk with any of you in person about this. I could bring a landscape architect from Roche +Roche too, and give free design feedback, from two professionals that are only interested in improving the community aquatics situation.
Best,
Casey
CASEY HUGHES
PRINCIPAL | ARCHITECT
A.I.A. / NCARB / LEED AP
[email protected]
707-812-5431
hughesarch.com
1040 Main St. #300,
Napa CA 94559
From: Beth Painter
To: Clerk
Subject: Fwd: HARVEST PROJECT
Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2026 9:12:33 AM
Begin forwarded message:
From: T M McNicholas <[email protected]>
Subject: HARVEST PROJECT
Date: September 16, 2026 at 7:21:25 AM PDT
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]
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Christopher DeNatale
Dear Councilmember DeNatale,
I’m writing as a Napa resident who cares deeply about the long-term quality of life in our community, and I hope you will take a strong look at the vision Napa is considering for its future aquatic facility.
The facilities the City is currently looking at concerns me because I worry that we could spend a significant amount of money and still end up with another facility that is simply too limited to meet the community’s needs.
Napa has an opportunity to do something much more meaningful.
I would encourage you to look closely at the new Sonoma Splash (https://sonomasplash.org/
) facility as a model. Sonoma created a 16-
lane competition pool alongside a 60-by-30-foot instructional pool specifically so that school and community uses could happen at the same time. The facility now supports competitive swimming and water polo, lap swimming, swim lessons, water fitness, Masters swimming, therapy and other programming.
That kind of multi-use approach seems particularly appropriate for Napa.
Rather than trying to make one modest pool serve every possible purpose, a thoughtfully designed complex can provide different spaces for different needs—and, importantly, remain useful throughout the day and across generations.
I’m not suggesting that Napa simply copy Sonoma. I’m suggesting that we use Sonoma’s experience to ask a bigger question: What aquatic facility would genuinely serve Napa for the next several decades? This is a legacy project. Whatever Napa builds will be here long after the current discussions and decision-makers have moved on. I would hate for us to look back 10 or 20 years from now and realize that we had the opportunity to create something exceptional but chose something that was too small, too limited, or too inflexible.
I have spent a good deal of my time in Napa trying to contribute to the community. I was a member of Napa Valley Leadership Class 17, alongside Beth Painter, and I have served on the County Wildlife Conservation Committee and the boards of the Area Agency on Aging and Napa Audubon Society. I have also had the privilege of serving as adjunct faculty at Napa Valley College. Those experiences have reinforced for me how important it is to think about Napa not just as it is today, but as the community we are leaving to the people who come after us.
That is why I hope you will push for a facility that is genuinely useful— not simply something that checks the box for having an aquatic facility.
In particular, I hope you will advocate for exploring a multi-use community aquatic complex along the lines of the Sonoma model, including:
A substantial competition-quality pool that can support swimming, water polo, training, lap swimming and community competitions.
A separate warm-water instructional pool for lessons, children, seniors, therapy, adaptive programs and other community uses.
Broad year-round community access and programming.
Partnerships with schools, nonprofits and other community organizations.
A sustainable operating model that recognizes the facility as a long-term community asset.
A facility that Napa residents can be proud of—not simply one that meets the minimum requirements of the moment.
I realize that projects of this scale involve difficult decisions and real financial constraints. But those constraints make it even more important that we carefully consider what we are building before the opportunity is gone.
It would be a shame—and, in my view, a terribly missed opportunity— for Napa to settle for something underwhelming when there is a proven example nearby of a more versatile, community-oriented approach.
I hope you will lend your voice to making sure Napa gets this one right.
Thank you for your service to our community and for considering my perspective. I would be very happy to discuss this further or help in any way that would be useful.
Thomas McNicholas
4200 Maher St Napa 94558