“It will include a pool. That’s a big deal, folks.”

That was Salt Lake City Erin Mendenhall at her State of the City address in January 2024.

Now, the proposed pool at Glendale Regional Park has been quietly cut out of the city’s plans for the green space at the site of the old Raging Waters waterpark. As of Thursday, the pool was still listed on the city’s website as a part of the plans.

Jana Cunnningham, a spokesperson for the city’s Public Lands Department, however, confirmed that the pool is “currently not included” in the designs for the next phase of construction at the park.

That’s ticked off some west-siders.

“It just shows you, in terms of the city, they like to make promises for the west side, but they just don’t want to follow through with the west side,” said Matt Finnigan, the head coach of west-side swim team Race Swami. “It’s too bad.”

Finnigan’s swimmers are mostly from western neighborhoods and 80% are Latino. The team, which is a nonprofit, also offers swimming lessons to kids and adults. The Glendale pool would’ve been a great place to do those lessons, Finnigan said.

Planning for the park — and the demolition of the abandoned waterpark facilities — started way back in 2021. Throughout the process, west-siders implored the city to build another place to swim and cool off.

Meredith Jacobsen is one of the west-siders who would’ve loved to have a pool in her neighborhood. She has a membership to the Liberty Park facility across Interstate 15.

“I like to utilize outdoor pools a lot myself, especially as the summers are getting hotter and hotter,” Jacobsen said. “Once I moved to the west side seven years ago, [it] has definitely been a disappointing discovery that we don’t really have access to anything like that over here.”

For her, outdoor pools play a different role in the community than other aquatic offerings, mostly because they appeal to people of all ages and interests. Indoor pools and splash pads are one-dimensional; the pools appeal to lap swimmers and the splash pads are really only for kids, she said.

But the latter is all that’s coming. The splash pad will open — alongside a raft of other amenities — in 2029, when the park’s construction is largely complete. The water feature will include parts of Raging Waters’ slides.

“It’s important that Glendale Park is built out to be resilient, water-wise and a sustainable operation for decades to come,” Mendenhall said in a statement. “While our original ambitious plan included an outdoor pool that’s not currently feasible, the park will include other water features families have spoken up for among gathering spaces and cool amenities so you can have fun year-round.”

Cunningham, the Public Lands spokesperson, said the city was no longer pursuing the pool because of both fiscal and operational challenges. Neither the mayor’s office nor Cunningham specified exactly what is preventing the pool from moving forward.

“Public Lands does not currently operate aquatic facilities, so during the planning process, the city explored a partnership with Salt Lake County, which operates the city’s existing aquatic facility within a park,” Cunningham wrote in a text. “As planning progressed, the county determined that taking on a new facility was not feasible at this time.”

The city doesn’t operate recreation centers, even within its own boundaries. The west side’s indoor pools at Sorenson Unity Center and the Northwest Recreation Center are county-run, for example. Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation also handles Salt Lake City’s two outdoor pools at Liberty Park and the Salt Lake City Sports Complex.

County Parks and Recreation spokesperson Lauren Brady did not directly answer why the pool’s operation wouldn’t be feasible. She did say, however, that all the county’s spending decisions “must align” with its new, 10-year plan for recreation.

The Glendale pool was not mentioned in that document.

And even though the pool isn’t in the city’s plans now, the park has been designed to accommodate one in the future if it becomes easier to build and operate, Cunningham said.

“A lot of our parents — most of them are Latino — have always said, ‘We’ll believe it when we see it,’” Finnigan, the swim coach, said.