Las Vegas’ Whitney area due for new neighborhood pool in 2021

More than 25 years after Whitney Neighborhood Pool was built in southeast Las Vegas, it’s time for an upgrade.

Clark County plans to build a new aquatic center and splash pad on a 10.3-acre site at Missouri Avenue and Andover Drive that’s also home to Whitney Neighbhorhood Park, Whitney Recreation Center and Whitney Senior Center.

Construction on the project — estimated to cost about $14 million — will likely begin in summer 2020 and wrap up the following year. The project is a chance to provide something new for an older area of Las Vegas, county officials say.

“Frankly, this is one of the last parts of the community to get this kind of an upgrade,” said Clark County Commissioner James Gibson. He represents District G, which includes the Whitney area.

The Whitney Town Advisory Board approved a design review for the project Nov. 14, and the Clark County Zoning Commission approved it Dec. 4.

The project includes a new pool, a splash pad with a Southwest desert theme, a 3,939-square-foot pool house, a 2,236-square-foot pool equipment building, walking paths and a turf area.

Gerry Ramirez has lived in the neighborhood within walking distance of the park for 39 years. The new aquatic center and splash pad will be great for nearby children, said Ramirez, who’s chairwoman of the Whitney Town Advisory Board.

“It is an absolutely wonderful-looking project,” she said.

When her children were growing up, the existing pool wasn’t there, Ramirez said, and its addition was “a great enhancement to the park at the time.”

The pool — built around 1993-94 — is in the northwest corner of the park, far removed from facilities and the parking lot, Gibson said.

“We wanted to move it closer to the building where supervision is,” he said.

Because it’s tucked away, “some people don’t even know there’s a pool there,” Ramirez said.

The new aquatic center and splash pad will be much more noticeable, she said, and will help make parents aware of what’s happening in the neighborhood.

Once the new aquatic center — which will be west of the recreation and senior centers — opens, the existing pool area will be transformed into walking paths with exercise equipment at intervals along the way.

A couple of years ago, county officials identified Whitney Neighborhood Pool as a facility that needed work, Gibson said.

With the exception of ongoing county public works projects, work in the Whitney area tends to happen when it’s time to replace something, he said, but “nothing new comes in.”

With the new pool and splash pad project, it’s “refreshing a neighborhood that needs it,” Gibson said.

For an older neighborhood, Ramirez said, “something new like that is really, really good.”

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.

Location

Whitney Neighborhood Pool is at 5712 Missouri Ave. in southeast Las Vegas. It is closed for the season, and Clark County officials haven’t decided whether it will reopen in summer while the new aquatic center is being built.

For more information, call 702-455-8529 or visit bit.ly/35iwegv.