The Reno City Council unanimously approved to move forward  to create potential designs for a 35-meter long pool facility at Moana Park.

The design will include a meeting room, party room, a spa and outdoor hot springs.

While the city of Reno would run the facility, private donors would cover construction costs.

"Basically the facility is built using private donor funds," President of Sierra Nevada Community Aquatics Chip Hobson said. "And then upon completion the facility is then operated by the city."

They are open to making the pool 50 meters long, since that's the Olympic size, and would allow Reno to host larger swim meets.

"All of those sorts of regional events that would have a state-level, high school and club championship swimming,"  Hobson said. "Competitive events that would have an economic impact for the region, we don't have a facility to host those."

A 50-meter pool would cost more to build, and cost more to operate. The city of Reno would prefer that money come from elsewhere, and that elsewhere could be the University of Nevada, Reno. Multiple council members said during the meeting they've spoken with representatives from UNR who have shown interest in the pool, if it's 50 meters.

"I think we can still have a conversation with the university to see if they're interested in covering the additional capital," Reno City Council Member David Bobzien (At-large) said. "Covering the additional operational demand that the full 50 would result in."

The 35-meter pool would create similar revenue to the 50-meter pool, and would be more accessible for the public, because the large swim events would at least restrict pool access if not eliminate it while there's an event.

Hobson says people have been working to reopen the Moana pool since it closed back in 2007, but partnerships have grown, and the availability of private funds has increased.

"Now we're into a better period of times," Chip Hobson says. "Discussions and partnerships with the city have progressed to a level where we now feel we have the opportunity to formally pull the funding together and move the project forward."

Hobson says the design will help attract private donors for the facility. He also says the potential savings of both geothermal and solar resources to the development make the facility relatively low-cost for the city to run.

Both pools would be 25 yards wide, regardless of the length.

There is no timetable to release the designs, but Hobson says they'll work with the city during the process.

This past January, the city council decided to move forward in partnership with Sierra Nevada Community Aquatics on the complex.