SBRC "Fieldhouse" Designs Obtained; Trust Lost with Parks & Rec
Since February 2026, the Parks & Rec’s Future of Recreation Centers webpage has stated “there are no plans or designs for a fieldhouse at any recreation center.” The Parks & Rec Director has publicly reiterated the sentiment multiple times.
Through the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), we obtained a seven-page billing document dated December 12, 2025, showing large expenditures for design work for the South Boulder Rec Center (SBRC). The designs are not final construction plans. Rather, the architecture firm called them “detailed”, “site fit”, “conceptual” designs and billed 2,125 hours for creating them and cost-estimating (2,125 hours x $195.91/hour rate = $416,309, which was part of a $1,045,571 billing document that was discounted to $806,000). Our current SBRC facility is 27,292 sq ft. The “detailed”, “site fit”, “conceptual” designs for SBRC include a facility that is 88,000 sq ft with an indoor soccer warehouse “fieldhouse” and that paves over the disc-golf course for the facility and parking.
Let us be clear: the community doesn’t want an indoor soccer warehouse “fieldhouse” on Harlow Platts Park, nor do we want our outdoor soccer field, volleyball courts, or disc-golf course to be paved over.
At Monday’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting, the Director said she hadn’t seen the designs until she was reviewing the CORA request and that “there was never any single conversation on it [the designs]; it was developed by architects, and shared with the team, and discarded, and never talked about again.” We’re not sure which scenario is more troubling: spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on designs and then discarding them and stating there are no designs, or not knowing that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on designs that were summarily discarded. Either way, the existence of these incredibly expensive fieldhouse designs directly contradicts what the Parks & Rec department has told the public for at least eight months: “there are no plans or designs for a fieldhouse at any recreation center.” Furthermore, at Monday’s PRAB meeting, the Director did not say a fieldhouse has been abandoned for SBRC, only that these specific designs were discarded.
This is not the first time we’ve encountered misleading statements and a lack of transparency from Parks & Rec. This is why, over the past five years, PARKS & REC HAS LOST THE COMMUNITY’S TRUST. This extends beyond SBRC to Spruce Pool, the West Senior Center, the unspecified $10 million “park refresh,” the two new high-end restaurants, and of course the $53 million “renovation” of East Boulder Community Center that was presented to voters as a $13.5 million “energy retrofit.” At this point, calling for oversight of Parks & Rec is not enough. We need new leadership that is upfront, forthcoming, and honest with the community at all points. Please email City Council and the City Manager to demand this change before these multi-million-dollar projects are allowed to move forward:
City Council: https://bouldercolorado.gov/contact-city-council-and-staff
City Manager: rivera-vandermyden@bouldercolorado.gov
UPDATE: A member of Boulder’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) has formally requested that City Council commission an independent review of the Parks and Recreation Director’s leadership and oversight of public funds. The six-page memorandum raises serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and financial management as Boulder considers up to $230 million in pre-interest investments across its three recreation centers. Read the memorandum and the specific concerns raised about the department’s leadership and use of taxpayer dollars: saveSBRC.com.
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