Indoor lap pool with lane lines, blue and white pennant flags and a no diving marking on the pool deck — An indoor pool at Life Time Johns Creek. Life Time’s proposed Forsyth County club would add a new location to the company’s North Atlanta footprint.

For a family living near Johns Creek City Hall, Medley or the southern edge of Forsyth County, an ordinary afternoon at a public swimming pool can require considerably more effort than expected.

Johns Creek does not operate a municipal pool. Forsyth County acknowledges that its parks system does not have one, directing residents instead to the Cumming Aquatic Center. That facility is open to the public but sits at 201 Aquatic Circle near Pilgrim Mill Road—well north of many South Forsyth neighborhoods and frequently more than 20 minutes from Johns Creek Town Center.

The result is an unusual recreational gap in one of North Atlanta’s most family-oriented areas. Residents have parks, trails, athletic fields and privately operated swimming facilities, but no nearby municipal pool offering affordable general admission.

The closest outdoor pool is private

Life Time Johns Creek operates indoor and outdoor leisure pools near the Town Center area. It is not a public recreation facility, however, and access depends on a paid membership and its terms.

A new adult membership at the club recently started at $199 per month, according to a North Atlanta Star comparison of Life Time prices. Adding family members can raise the total, and Life Time advises that access to amenities such as outdoor pools can vary by membership.

Dynamo Swim School also operates a substantial Johns Creek facility on Abbotts Bridge Road, including competition and instructional pools. Its focus is lessons, training and competitive swimming—not inexpensive public open-swim access.

Many subdivisions have neighborhood pools, but those are financed through HOA dues and limited to residents and their guests. Apartment pools, country clubs and the planned plunge pool at Prelude at Medley carry similar access restrictions.

That leaves families without the right membership, HOA amenity or club access looking outside Johns Creek.

Facility	Access	What residents should know
Life Time Johns Creek	Private membership	Indoor and outdoor pools; adult membership recently started at $199 monthly
Dynamo Johns Creek	Programs and team use	Three indoor training and competition pools, but not a municipal open-swim facility
Old Atlanta Park Splash Pad	Public	Useful for younger children, but it is not a swimming pool
Cumming Aquatic Center	Public admission	Year-round indoor pools and a seasonal outdoor leisure pool; $8 youth and $9 adult admission
Wills Park Pool, Alpharetta	Public, seasonal	Johns Creek and unincorporated Forsyth visitors pay nonresident rates
Roswell Area Park Pool	Public, seasonal	Another option, but generally a longer trip from the Town Center area

The Cumming Aquatic Center’s current fees do not distinguish between Cumming residents, Forsyth residents and other visitors. That makes it a legitimate public option, but not necessarily a convenient neighborhood one.

Why wasn’t a pool built with the Town Center?

The short answer is that the Town Center was planned around a different collection of amenities.

Johns Creek’s vision emphasizes trails, ponds, public gathering areas, restaurants, housing and connections between Medley and the city-owned Boardwalk park. The city’s Town Center plan does not establish a municipal aquatic facility as part of that district.

Life Time’s existing pools may also have reduced the perceived urgency for another large aquatic investment—even though a private athletic club does not provide the same level of public access.

Johns Creek’s broader recreation planning has prioritized Cauley Creek Park, Creekside Park, trails, improvements to existing parks and expanded programming. During preparation of the city’s 2023 Recreation and Parks Strategic Plan, residents identified a need for indoor multipurpose space. The five major initiatives presented to the Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee did not include a stand-alone aquatic center.

There is also a jurisdictional divide on the Forsyth side. Forsyth County operates extensive parks and recreation facilities but explicitly states that its department does not have a pool. The Cumming Aquatic Center belongs to the separate City of Cumming government.

That arrangement works reasonably well for residents near Cumming. It works less well for the dense population around McGinnis Ferry Road, Peachtree Parkway, Shakerag and southern Forsyth.

Is a Johns Creek pool finally being considered?

Johns Creek now identifies a new recreation center among its strategic priorities. The City Council is exploring the concept, and council members previously supported preliminary work toward a feasibility and community-needs study.

That represents a meaningful step beyond a casual suggestion. It does not yet mean Johns Creek has selected a site, approved a design, allocated construction money or committed to including a pool.

A recreation center can be built around gymnasiums, indoor walking space, classrooms, fitness rooms and senior programming without an aquatic component. Adding pools significantly changes a building’s size, mechanical systems, staffing requirements and continuing operating expenses.

Public demand for aquatics is nevertheless becoming more visible. A resident petition created in January 2026 calls for an indoor competition-ready pool and diving well, arguing that local swimmers and divers currently depend on distant or privately operated facilities. The petition remained modest in size, but it puts a specific proposal into the public conversation.

Forsyth County offers another potential opening. The county began updating its 10-year Parks and Recreation Master Plan in late 2025 and held additional public-input meetings in January 2026. That process is the clearest route for South Forsyth residents to seek an aquatic facility closer to the county line. No funded South Forsyth pool has been announced.

What would have to happen next?

For Johns Creek, the recreation-center study would need to identify aquatics as a priority, compare construction and operating costs, determine whether demand supports a leisure pool, competition pool or both, and find a suitable site. City Council would then have to add the project to its capital plan and identify funding.

Forsyth County would face the same questions through its updated parks plan. A partnership could also be considered, particularly because a facility near the county line would naturally draw residents from both jurisdictions.

For now, the answer is straightforward: a public pool is being discussed indirectly through broader recreation planning, but residents near Medley and Johns Creek City Hall still have no approved or funded municipal aquatic facility to anticipate.

The new recreation-center discussion gives Johns Creek its most plausible opening yet. Whether that future building actually includes water will depend on the next needs assessment—and whether residents make the pool gap a sustained public priority.