Victory Update: We did it!!! Manatee County has agreed to and fully supports this plan, and is in the process of approving designs for an Aquatic Center with a 50m pool, 25m pool and warmup pool! Groundbreaking in late 2022 at the Premiere Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch!

The Premiere Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch, FL, one of the fastest growing regions of Southwest Florida with over 34,877 residents, was built to support thousands of families from across the country for field sports tournaments and championships. This Sports Campus is also used for local festivals and is located centrally in one of the most rapidly growing areas of Lakewood Ranch.

This existing Sports Campus is the planned location for a new pool. Prior to this petition, Manatee County Government was only supporting the development of a short course (25 yard) pool at this location.

UPDATE: After local citizens and members of swim teams who will be using this facility attended and spoke at the Commissioners Meeting on July 28th, 2022, bringing a spotlight to THIS petition, ALL of the County Commissioners now agree we need a 50 meter competition pool and possibly a 25 yd warm up/down pool and a therapy pool!!! Now they just need to look at the footprint if it can fit, costs, etc BUT we are on our way!!! There are more meetings to come and plans to unfold to ensure this Aquatic Center reaches it's full potential.

By signing this petition, you will support the continued efforts of our local teams and swimmers, as we continue discussions with Manatee County to ensure that this fully functional multi-use Aquatic Center is built in Lakewood Ranch.

This Aquatic Center will grow local swim teams, will allow student athletes to reach their potential in the sport of swimming, it will become a top destination, potentially Nationwide, for Swimming and Aquatics. Ultimately it will give Manatee County a pool suitable for a new US Masters Swim program for adults, as well as to support the local economy from the hundreds of events that can take place at a 50-meter long-course Aquatic Center throughout the year.

As a swim community understanding the needs of our student athletes, individuals and families, this proposed plan includes a multi-use Aquatic Center at this location to include a long-course pool, and a facility large enough to comfortably support regional meets as the location for this pool is not only ideal for this type of setup, but is needed for our region to support the sport of Swimming. Currently the closest public long-course pool is not conveniently accessible nor consistently available for long-course use for the majority of student athletes in this area.

The most consistent use of this new Aquatic Center would be to provide lanes regularly to local area teams, which are currently split between two short course pools 30 minutes apart, and a couple lanes in a long course pool 40 minutes away from the sports campus for only a few hours a week. This Premiere Sports Campus Aquatic Center would provide these team swimmers an easily accessible and consistent location to train and provide more space for these teams to grow.

This Lakewood Ranch Aquatic Center will support the following;

• Community Health & Wellness
  Developing an aquatic center will provide an easily accessible facility for low-impact exercise to promote overall health and for many in the community who thrive in swimming, or need to reduce strain on joints from land-based fitness options alone. Developing an aquatic center that includes a heated, fitness/warm-up pool area for beginner lessons, aquatic therapy & rehab is essential to provide this type of space to our community.
  
  
• Youth Programs
  With our area growing at such a rapid pace, and schools becoming overwhelmed with new students, extra curricular activities are becoming a higher demand in our county. This Aquatic Facility will benefit the growing youth population by providing easier access to joining local swim teams, allowing them to grow exponentially. Additionally, it will open a door for Manatee County and local swim teams to offer swim lessons on a recreational level. This aquatic center should be built to handle the growing demand for youth aquatics within our community.
  
  
• High School Swimming
  By building this Aquatic Center, Manatee County has an opportunity to grow its number of successful student athletes in the sport of swimming exponentially. Swimming, like most sports, requires consistent training for improvement, and the location of existing long-course pools are unfortunately not feasible for most students in Lakewood Ranch to access on a regular basis in order to reach their highest level of success in training. With a tremendous growing population of students within Lakewood Ranch High School and Braden River High School, as well as surrounding Manatee County schools offering High School level sports, and two NEW high schools being built in the next 3-5 years in Lakewood Ranch, the need for this type of Aquatic Center is needed now more than ever.
  
  Limiting athletes to one level of training does not give them adequate development in that sport. Providing every student athlete the opportunity to conveniently access and train in both a short-course 25-yard, and long-course 50-meter pool is nearly the equivalent to someone on track and field who was limited to only running sprints, finally being able to work on distance running while training for a marathon.
  
  
• Aquatic Safety
  Water safety is critical in Florida, and there is a constant demand for access, space, and training for people of all ages in Manatee county to learn to swim, and practice their skills to become confident and safe swimmers. Aquatics safety workshops for new residents adding pools to their homes, safety training for young parents, lifeguard training for all of the community pools - all of these can be hosted and held in a facility that we are proposing. This space will provide the opportunity to hold safety certification programs, and to build the confidence of our residents that they are maintaining a safe environment with aquatics in Manatee county.
  
  
• Swim Team Training
  25-yard Community pools do provide some aquatic training but are limited in the scope of what can be achieved in. This Aquatic Center with a 50-meter pool will allow swimmers to train at highest level of swimming, giving Manatee County area teams ample space, and scheduling availability to train on the same level as top swim teams throughout the Country. Additionally, Manatee County would have the space to support a US Swimming Masters program for adults with this Aquatic Center.
  
• Competitions - Local & National Events
  Every weekend throughout the USA there are hundreds of swim meets where multiple teams come together to compete. These events, starting as young as age 5, train swimmers mentally, and physically as they move up to older age groups, by giving them a chance to improve their event times, to be awarded for their athleticism and training, and gives them an opportunity to qualify for more advanced meets. It is during these meets that high school level swimmers are recruited for college scholarships, and for the fastest swimmers to be selected for Olympic trials. The aquatic centers with 50-meter pools are the ones that are sought out to attend for these meets. In addition to swim meets, Triathalons could be safely and adequately held at this location, opening up an entirely new revenue stream for the local economy.

Pool Design - Built for Success
To handle multiple team training times, and various types of competition events, this Aquatic Center should be built following USA Swimming guidelines as a 50-meter Long Course Pool with a moveable Bulkhead that can easily transition the pool from a long course to two short course pools, adjacent to an additional 25-yard short course pool that can be used exclusively during team training for community purposes. If this proposed Aquatic Center is developed, it will solve an existing County issue: As it stands, Manatee County has a Comprehensive Plan with Recreational Facilities Performance Measures. This plan indicates that Manatee County should have 1 city pool for every 50,000 residents. The current population in Manatee County is over 428k+, and there are only 6 city pools - we are 2 behind according to this plan. Building an Aquatic Center with both a Long-Course and Short-Course pool will aide the County in fulfilling their allotment of pools in the County for this growing population.

Long Course Certification for Competition Pools: ref page 5: https://www.usaswimming.org/docs/default-source/policy-manual-public/section-22-e-swims-times-module-pool-measurement-information.pdf

Making Manatee County a Landmark for All Athletes.
The Premier Sports Complex is already a desired location for field sports tournaments, teams travel from across the county to come here for these events at this location. Athletes playing on these fields throughout the year are receiving scholarships, setting records, and becoming some of the best athletes in our region because they have access to these facilities at this incredible location. To build an Aquatic Center suited to conduct the same caliber of training for swimming at this location as there already is for field sports at this location, would put a spotlight on Manatee County, and put us on the map for one of the top Aquatic Centers in the country for swimming. It will allow our youth the opportunity to train and grow and become some of the top swimmers in the county.

We are asking for your valuable input to support our petition to help the decision makers in Manatee County understand and support the economic and community benefits of this type of facility, and direct benefit this will have on swimmers in our area for years to come.

In your reasons for signing below, I encourage you to please share your input, and insight to support this change.

Thank you!!