North Natomas aquatics complex debuts. Swim lessons, party rentals are just part of the fun

Bubbles and beach balls floated between pools as music carried across the deck Saturday morning at the newly opened North Natomas Community Center and Aquatics Complex.

The aquatics complex is a vision of Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby after listening to constituents about what they wanted, according to community enrichment division manager Jackie Beecham. She said that before the facility was built, there was not a pool in the North Natomas community.

The complex features Sacramento’s first Olympic-size pool.

“This is our 17th pool that we’ve opened citywide, operated by the city of Sacramento, but this is the very first 50-meter pool and this complex is the first facility that has been designed to really serve the entire region. All of our other pools are neighborhood pools, this is more of a regional amenity,” Beecham said.

For anyone who appears to be under the age of 13, Beecham said, a swim test is required for the 50-meter pool.

“The test requires that they go the length of the pool and back without stopping. You don’t have too go fast, you don’t have to use a stroke but you have to control your breath and consistently swim without struggling.”

She said that the facility broke ground in September 2019.

“It started with a feasibility study just to see if it would even be possible, and it is.”

Beecham said that the “bread and butter” of the facility’s offerings are the recreational swimming and swim lesson programs. Rec swimming is open to the general public, walk-in only, with $5 admission for children and $7 for adults.

They offer lessons for children age 6 months all the way up to older adults, in addition to water aerobics, lap swimming, lifeguard training and junior lifeguard classes. Beecham said they also book for parties.

“We actually have party rooms available for rent and then you can also either join us during recreation swim and rent a party room or you can exclusively rent use of one of the pools. We also have these cabanas that are on a first-come, first-served basis right now but starting Memorial Day weekend, we’ll be renting those out.”

She said that they envision hosting a lot of competitive swim meets and water polo matches because of Sacramento’s lack of another Olympic-size competitive pool, adding that Natomas Unified School District contributed funding so it also can utilize that pool.

The 50-meter pool has depths of 7 to 13 feet with a 631-person capacity. The facility also has a 25-yard recreation pool that goes to 3.5 feet with a 294-person capacity, and a beach-entry pool that goes from 0 to 1 foot with a capacity of 227 persons. The two slides at the complex are flume-entry and do not have a pool area.

“By having (the slides) enter a flume versus a pool, it allowed us to lower the minimum height requirement to let kids slide down the slide,” Beecham said. That height requirement is 40 inches.

Saturday’s grand-opening offered three preregistered sessions of recreational swimming at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. The event was free to preregistered guests.

Beecham said that going forward, all recreational swim will be first-come, first-served on a walk-in basis.

The community center is open year-round, while the aquatic center is closed in December and January.

This story was originally published April 23, 2022 at 2:23 PM.