City board OKs pool project at Marin Academy

The San Rafael Planning Commission has approved Marin Academy’s plan to build a new swimming pool.

The private high school plans to build the pool at 1530 and 1534 Fifth Ave., adjacent to the campus library. The pool will be 25 yards long and about 36 yards wide.

Two vacant, two-story office building son the site will be demolished. The pool site will include bleachers eating, a public address sound system, a scoreboard and a two-story building with restrooms, showers, storage and offices.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the project. The approval is final unless it is appealed to the City Council by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

San Rafael Senior Planner Steve Stafford said that while the new pool constitutes an expansion of the school’s campus, “it is not increasing the maximum allowable student enrollment at Marin Academy.” The school’s enrollment is cappedat 450 students.

The school plans to demolish its existing pool after the new one is built, administrators said. The current swimming pool was built in 1930 at the northern edge of the campus.

Marin Academy CEO Mike Taylor said the current pool will stay open until the newone is complete. He said the school has no plan for the site where the current pool is located, “but we won’t be running two pools at the same time.”

Stafford said the city got dozens of comments on the project, and the majority were in favor of it.

Richard Meyerhoff, who swims with an adult swim team at Marin Academy’s pool, said the newsite will be a boon to the community.

“A new facility like Marin Academy is proposing will supplant the old and very outmoded current pool,” Meyerhoff wrote in a letter to city officials. “The new pool will be able to provide diversity to the many different groups of youth activities as well as adult endeavors.”

Glenda Carol, who also swims with the Tamalpais Aquatic Masters, said the growth of the adult swim team has been “limited because of the size of the pool.”

“I see a new larger pool as an asset to San Rafael and a way to reach out to its many diverse communities,” she wrote to city officials.

“The new pool will be able to provide diversity to the many different groups of youth activities as well as adult endeavors.”

— Richard Meyerhoff, swimmer