ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Asheville Parks and Recreation has released updated design plans for the long-awaited rebuild of the Malvern Hills Park pool in West Asheville, a nearly 90-year-old facility that closed in 2024 after being deemed unsafe for continued operation.

The city hosted a drop-in meeting Tuesday evening at West Asheville Park to showcase professional renderings and gather public input. Officials said the design reflects safety codes, environmental compliance, budget limitations and feedback from a community survey conducted last spring.

The pool replacement will be funded through $20 million in General Obligation Parks and Recreation Bonds approved by voters. Plans call for upgraded utilities, new pool equipment, fencing, accessible parking, and renovations to the adjacent bathhouse, which last underwent significant updates in the 1970s.

While the current design slightly reduces the pool’s size, including a smaller deep-water section, officials emphasized that public input remains a critical part of the process.

“This isn’t a done deal,” project leaders said as community members looked at renderings and design information. “We’re allowing folks to provide questions, comments or thoughts on what they’ve seen here tonight. This is our professional recommendation of how the pool should be rebuilt right now.”

Construction is expected to begin in summer 2026, with a target reopening by the 2028 swim season.

The Malvern Hills pool, originally built in 1935 with federal New Deal funding, has long served as a community gathering spot. A professional assessment almost a decade ago recommended against further patchwork repairs, and inspectors last year determined the pool could no longer safely operate.

Community groups, including the grassroots Rebuild Malvern Hills Pool campaign, have expressed concern that reducing the pool’s footprint could undermine its role as a full-service swimming facility. Petitions calling for the city to preserve the pool’s original size and depth have drawn thousands of signatures.

Some residents voiced sharper criticism ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.

“Prepare to be underwhelmed by plans to shrink the size and especially depth of pool, despite overwhelming public input (as evidenced by the raw data of the survey; not the way it was categorized and presented),” Matt Christie said in a social media post. “Prepare to be told this is only fair and equitable that we accept a pool as comically small and reduced as Grant Center (a failure that nobody is happy about), despite the fact that West Asheville is also racially and economically diverse and grossly underserved by the city.

“Ask why Grant Center was ‘featured’ to death and why the budget was used as a lever to get what the current parks and rec leadership clearly wanted all along, which was a glorified splash pad, a shiny brochure, instead of an actual pool where kids can learn to actually swim,” Christie added. “There is ample money in the budget now for a rebuild of the same size and depth pool we lost. We shouldn’t settle for anything less, and please don’t be distracted by shiny plastic objects. A real pool serves all of Asheville.”

Marcos Harkness also urged neighbors to speak up.

“Everybody in West Asheville should go to this meeting and be heard,” Harkness wrote on social media. “The cutout deep end is really weird and shrinks the pool greatly and I can’t imagine a plausible explanation for it.”