Work has been delayed on the $6 million California Splash Waterpark, moving the opening date of the controversial park to May 2007, a year later than planned.
Developer Glenn Kierstead, who owns the waterslides on Stanley Boulevard, said those slides will open in mid-May with regular summer hours starting on Memorial Day, May 29.
“The expansion on the Waterpark is going slower than anticipated,” Kierstead said. “This is primarily due to the fiberglass component delivery schedule and rolled steel availability for the pool.
The new, expanded park will have twice the number of its current four waterslides and will have numerous ground level water activities. These will include a Lazy River water ride, children’s wading pool and large swimming pools, a more challenging wave pool and a corporate picnic area that will have its own water-related amenities.
Kierstead said that although the existing waterslides and snack food facility will remain unchanged for the 2006 season, construction work is starting on a larger food concession nearby, a ticket sales office and an administration building. Rough grading for a new roadway behind the waterslides and an overflow parking lot was completed last fall.
“There will be considerable activity shortly, weather permitting,” Kierstead said. “A new food concession building and a changing facility will be framed as soon as underground plumbing and electrical work is finished. Meanwhile the existing four slides, known as the Rapids waterslide, will be open for business this year while work on the larger California Splash continues.”
Because Kierstead has started work on the project, the one-year delay does not threaten his permit for the 20-acre site, which was issued two years ago after the City Council approved the project in a 3-2 vote. For months before that, Kierstead and his investment team were faced with protests from Pleasanton residents who feared the expanded park would attract at least twice the number of daily patrons, who now number more than 2,000 on warm summer days.
Those who objected to more noise and heavier traffic volumes faced off before the Planning Commission and the council at several public hearings with Waterpark supporters, who said the more challenging waterslides and other features would keep Pleasanton teenagers from traveling to similar facilities in Concord and San Jose.
In the end, Kierstead convinced the council that he would have to close his popular local waterslides if he couldn’t upgrade the facilities to compete against the larger waterparks, an argument that caused then-Mayor Tom Pico to cast the swing vote on a split council to approve the project.
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