Foley Council to Review Aquatics Designs, Weigh Senior Center Architect Monday
The council gets its first public look at renderings for Foley's long-planned aquatics center at its June 15 work session, and in the same meeting will vote on hiring a Birmingham firm to design a new senior center — two pieces of a slate of major civic facilities the city is advancing.
The Foley City Council will get its first public look at preliminary designs for a new aquatics center when it meets Monday, June 15, with the renderings attached to the agenda as a work session discussion item, 26-0321. The agenda lists the item simply as "Discuss Aquatics Center"; the facility has been described as an indoor pool in prior Gulf Coast Media coverage and by city officials, though the agenda itself does not characterize the building. The meeting begins at 4 p.m. in the Council Chambers.
The June 15 agenda lists "Discuss Aquatics Center" (item 26-0321) as a work session item, with three design documents attached — Foley City Council agenda.
Three design documents are attached to the agenda: an elevation option dated June 5, 2026; a preliminary pool and parking layout dated June 8, 2026; and a revised overall floor plan dated May 19, 2026. The agenda does not name a cost estimate, construction schedule or design firm. Those details, along with the full scope of the proposed facility, would be contained in the packet attachments and any presentation made at the work session.
The aquatics project has been in planning since 2024. According to prior Gulf Coast Media reporting and the City of Foley's own news releases, the city set out that year to build an indoor pool at Max Griffin Park, off West Roosevelt Avenue, after residents ranked an indoor pool a top recreation priority in a city strategic-planning survey. A July 2024 public input meeting at the Foley Civic Center drew more than 100 residents, who voiced preferences for a competition-length lap pool, a therapy and leisure pool, zero-entry access, water slides and a splash pad. The facility has been described in earlier coverage as a year-round replacement for the city's outdoor pool, which dates to 1953.
When the project was announced, Foley City Administrator Mike Thompson estimated the aquatics center would cost about $6 million, according to NBC 15. No appropriation ordinance or bid award has been publicly reported, however, and the June 15 agenda lists no dollar figure. Earlier schedules described by city officials called for design completion in spring 2025, construction starting in August 2025 and an opening by the end of 2026 — a timeline that Monday's review of still-preliminary drawings suggests has slipped. Work sessions are informational discussions and do not produce a binding council vote.
The same meeting carries a firmer decision on a second major project. As resolution 26-0323, the council will vote on a professional services agreement with Williams Blackstock Architects to design a new senior center. The agreement appears in the packet as a draft on the AIA B101-2017 form, dated June 4, 2026; the agenda lists no contract amount or site. The council voted March 23 to seek proposals for a purpose-built senior center, after concluding that a new building would be more practical and cost-effective than its earlier idea of converting the current public library once a new library opens. Williams Blackstock, a Birmingham firm, designed the Mountain Brook Municipal Complex, which opened in 2013. David Thompson, the city's executive director of leisure services, is listed as the staff contact.
The resolutions section of the June 15 agenda, including the Williams Blackstock Architects contract for a new senior center (item 26-0323) — Foley City Council agenda.
A third item, resolution 26-0322, would approve WAS Design's proposal for landscape architectural work on the Rose Trail North Segment rehabilitation, also accompanied by a memo from David Thompson. Together, the three items reflect a building push that city officials and prior Gulf Coast Media coverage have tied to longer-range plans for a new library, a civic center and a performing arts venue.