After six long summers without a public place to swim, Piedmont is finally getting its community pool back this Saturday. The long-closed facility has been rebuilt from the ground up, replacing the aging 1964 pool with two temperature-controlled pools, more lap lanes and a rooftop pavilion. It is the first chance for residents to dive into the new complex after years of planning, fundraising and construction.
Opening day, hours and preview pricing
The City of Piedmont says the new pool will open this Saturday with special opening-day hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a month-long preview rate of $5 per drop-in visit through April 30. Officials are calling the first few weeks a “ramp-up” period, when hours and programming will gradually expand and summer passes will go on sale. Online registration and the new pool pass portal went live in March, with resident pass sales starting later that month, according to the City of Piedmont.
What’s inside the rebuilt pools
The centerpiece of the complex is a 27-meter competition pool with a diving well and 12 lap lanes, alongside a 3,177-square-foot activity pool with warm water and three 25-yard lap lanes. That represents a major expansion over the old setup. Local reporting notes the competition pool roughly doubles the water surface area of the prior facility and is sized to support school teams and larger meets, not just casual lap swimmers.
The site also adds some extras that the old pool never had: a family poolside room, new grassy areas, two diving boards, a scoreboard and even a poolside sweet-treats station for post-swim sugar fixes, as reported by the East Bay Times.
Cost, funding and community support
The rebuild carries a price tag of about $35 million. Most of that came from Measure UU, the $19.5 million bond that Piedmont voters approved in November 2020, with the rest filled in through a local capital campaign and other funding sources.
The Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization led a private fundraising effort that pulled in more than $2 million from hundreds of donors, closing earlier gaps in the budget. Local coverage and city updates note that the pool project ultimately became one of the largest capital undertakings in Piedmont’s history.
Design and climate goals
From the start, the city set out to cut emissions and move away from fossil fuels, so the new complex runs on all-electric systems for pool heating and mechanical operations. That puts Piedmont among the early adopters of fossil-fuel-free municipal pools in the region.
Reporting places the Piedmont pool alongside Mountain View’s Rengstorff Park Aquatics Center as one of the first all-electric municipal outdoor pools in the Bay Area. City and local coverage also point out that the old gas-heated pool had been a major source of municipal greenhouse gas emissions, a key reason residents pushed for an electric rebuild, according to the San Francisco Chronicle and the Mountain View project page for Rengstorff Park.
Who can swim and what comes next
The new pool is open to both Piedmont residents and the general public, with programming set to grow through April and into the summer as staff complete on-site training. The city is still hiring lifeguards and swim instructors, with entry lifeguard pay starting near the posted rates for the openings and additional positions listed on the city’s website.
For full schedules, pass options and program registration, the City of Piedmont is directing residents to its pool information and registration pages for the latest details.
