Charlottesville’s smallest swimmers will still have one wading pool to splash around in for summers to come.

Councilor Holly Edwards has been inundated with messages about the city’s controversial plan to shut down the McIntire Park wading pool, and she’s not the only one.

After many residents decried a city decision to close the McIntire Park wading pool, Mayor Dave Norris has put the fate of the facility up for a City Council discussion and vote.

A YMCA in McIntire Park, planning done by the city and proposals to light Darden Towe’s three softball fields have all contributed to the confusion surrounding the loss of the treasured fields, resulting in almost nonstop finger-pointing and questions of what brought on their elimination.

To some, a park means a peaceful place to explore nature. To others, it means a place for recreation.

In the coming years, McIntire Park will lose land to the Meadowcreek Parkway and a YMCA athletics center, reducing the greenspace in the heart of Charlottesville.

Charlottesville will overhaul the west end of McIntire Park when a new YMCA is built there next year, adding a soccer field, pedestrian trails and more parking.