Welcome to the Brookline Community Outdoor Pool Project
It’s Time to Establish an Outdoor Community Pool for Brookline
Why is it so Important?
- It’s a wonderful community builder – a gathering point and exercise for all ages and abilities.
- It’s an equity issue. Many Brookline families cannot afford private pool options, summer homes, or private summer camps that provide outdoor swimming and lessons. Subsidies will be provided.
- Swimming is an important survival skill. Swim lessons are oversubscribed at our one indoor pool.
- Teens need a safe, healthy option for summer activities. The pool also creates summer jobs.
- It’s a public health issue. Extreme heat days keeps increasing. People need ways to stay cool. Beaches & lakes are increasingly closed due to high bacterial counts and are not nearby.
- DCR pools are overcrowded. On hot days people line up to enter and there is no lap swimming, sloped access for young children and the elderly, and limited seating. They are not a community resource for our swim team, swim lessons, or community events.
Land required is less than 1 acre
For a 25 meter lap pool, recreational pool, splash pads, bathhouse, snack bar, and green space for seating. Parking will depend on location. Several sites can accommodate this.
Costs are very reasonable for the public benefit created
- Capital cost: Newton’s 2024 renovation cost $9.3M. Belmont’s complex was $5.3M, ($7M in 2025 dollars). No tax increase required. Capital costs can be funded by the Capital Improvement Plan over two years. Other municipalities also use Capital Preservation Act funds; Brookline can too.
- Operating costs: Can be self-sustaining with revenue from memberships, day passes, lessons, team fees, rentals, community events, and a snack bar.
Brookline’s Parks Open Space and Recreation Strategic Asset Master Plans of 2006 and 2020 reported Brookline residents are underserved and should have 1 pool per 20k residents; Brookline’s 64k population indicates 3 pools needed. Two outdoor pools is the median for comparable communities.
Heating extends the season to the shoulder months, and a bubble would enable year-round usage. A sun shade would reduce harmful rays and leaf litter.
Of greater-Boston communities of at least 30k population, ONLY Brookline and Peabody do not provide residents with a public outdoor swimming facility. This is not a luxury. We established the Brookline Community Outdoor Pool Fund at the Brookline Community Foundation and are accepting donations to document community commitment.