Columbia residents riled up about proposal to turn one of its 23 pools into a splash park

As Columbia is aging, so too are some of its pools. Replacing them could cost millions and the price of staffing them has risen exponentially in recent years.

To avoid raising membership rates, a Columbia Association executive proposed turning one of the community’s 23 neighborhood pools into a splash park in the next few years.

The idea, raised at the association’s final board meeting of 2025, landed like a belly flop among many residents and community leaders, sparking one of Columbia’s most heated debates of the new year.

Aquatic amenities are a major draw in Columbia, with many residents forming emotional attachments to their neighborhood pools. The association operates them at a loss to provide the maximum value to residents and guests, its executives have said.

In 2025, that loss amounted to about $4.8 million. At the same time, Howard County has a deficit of swimming pools, making Columbia the largest provider of aquatic recreation in the jurisdiction.

In the months that followed the splash park proposal by Dan Burns, the association’s senior vice president of community programs and services, residents and leaders in at least half of Columbia’s villages delivered letters, signed petitions and launched political campaigns against the proposal.

Their message was clear: not my neighborhood pool.

Burns knew he couldn’t float such an idea without generating some pushback. After all, he was the guy who closed the pools in the pandemic’s first year.

When he presented the splash park idea, he tried to cut off skepticism by assuring everyone that nothing would move forward without the community’s buy-in. However, he also named six pools — Bryant Woods, Hobbit’s Glen, Jeffers Hill, Locust Park, Running Brook and Talbott Springs — that have particularly low foot traffic.

“We’re not coming for anybody’s pool,” Burns said this month.

The only action taken by Columbia’s board of directors came in February, when it narrowly approved $350,000 for a splash park design, provided a village agrees to a site.

Burns did share renderings in December for three potential splash parks. They include features such as public barbecue areas, pollinator gardens, playgrounds and basketball courts. Unlike the pool, a park would be open to everyone — no membership required.

Yet residents’ anxiety over potentially losing their summer oases persisted, even in villages with popular pools. At one point, misinformation gained so much traction online that Columbia staff published an FAQ: “CA’s Splash Park – What the Project Is (and Is Not).”

The looming threat of a splash park became a major campaign point for some candidates in the Columbia Association’s spring elections.

It’s why Micajah McGarity ran for the Hickory Ridge seat on the board, unseating the village’s incumbent, Skye Anderson.

McGarity, speaking on his own behalf, said he’s since come to see both sides of the issue.

To him, it’s more of a question of whether the association should take away an amenity that residents have enjoyed for decades, a decision that should “not be taken lightly.” Hickory Ridge pools were not on Burns’ list.

Splash parks are “a neat idea,” McGarity said, but he stopped short of endorsing them as pool replacements. Instead, he suggested that 3 acres of land next to Hickory Ridge Village Center could be a great spot for one.

But Burns said building a splash park while keeping all 23 pools would only add to the Columbia Association’s mounting costs. He noted that some of the pools are more than 50 years old and state regulations would require ripping out all of the infrastructure to upgrade them.

Meanwhile, operating the pools has gotten more expensive due to rising staffing costs. The Columbia Association typically hires about 500 part-time workers whose pay is based on the state’s minimum wage, which went from $12.50 in 2022 to $16 in 2026.

“$16 isn’t likely the last stop,” Burns said. Previous minimum wage hikes have added as much as $750,000 to Columbia’s costs in just one year.

Other communities around the country have turned to splash parks to replace their aging pools, he said. Converting just one pool into a splash park costs substantially less than upgrading it, and wouldn’t require lifeguards.

But Long Reach resident David Zinner considers the splash park proposal a slippery slope.

“We’ll close one pool and then maybe one more after that,” said Zinner, who was alarmed to learn that the Jeffers Hill pool, which he frequents, was among those with low foot traffic.

Burns estimates that the pool draws about 7,500 visitors. By comparison, the most popular pool, River Hill, draws about 41,000.

Some pools may not make the association money, Zinner said, but they contribute to the general good. For the last five years, the 75-year-old has helped his wife Roslyn organize an underwater art installation at Jeffers Hill called the “Coral Reef Encounter.” The event draws about 1,000 visitors, who snorkel through the plastic seagrass to spot fish fashioned from scraps of fabric and coral made out of pool noodles.

Columbia’s oldest and smallest pool, Bryant Woods, was built in 1967. An online petition asks the association to choose a better location for the splash park.

However, not all Bryant Woods residents oppose replacing the aging pool.

Meagan Lopes thinks a splash park would benefit the neighborhood. It wouldn’t have an entrance fee, making it open to everyone, not only residents who can afford an association membership, Lopes said.

“I know I’m the minority of those speaking about it in my community, but I think if more kids could have a place to cool off during the summer that would be great,” Lopes said.

The Oakland Mills Board of Directors invoked Columbia founder James Rouse’s words to make their plea for saving the Talbott Springs pool.

Rouse wrote in a 1993 letter to the association’s president: “I can find no justification for changing the operation of a neighborhood pool because it is not being used as much as other pools and there is a better market for some other use. The only valid question would be: Does it serve the neighborhood?”

Oakland Mills Board President Jonathan Edelson said this week that the village’s opposition has less to do with the splash park idea and more to do with the lack of investment in the Talbott Springs facility. The village’s Stevens Forest pool is popular each summer, and it’s compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, is heated and has a hot tub. Why can’t Talbott Springs get the same? Edelson asked.

Burns will begin visiting village boards in July and August to discuss the splash park proposal in more detail. If a community’s feedback is that they don’t want to replace their pool, that’s what he’ll tell the association board, he said.

The staff just want to make the best use of the community’s finances, Burns said.

“Money only gets spent if someone says, ‘Yes, this is an awesome idea,” he said. “Which it is.”