Belmont begins rec center outreach

The online survey as of that meeting had received about 700 responses and the city, along with facility designer Group 4 Architecture, have already engaged the public at two events and an iPad kiosk has been set up at the library to gather feedback. Residents will be able to weigh in on their vision for the facility at various community events next month, including the Easter egg hunt and Earth Day celebration.

There will be a total of five community advisory meetings, three Parks and Recreation Commission meetings and three council meetings for the first outreach phase. That phase will first focus on a community needs assessment and site analysis, then programming and site concept options before conceptual designs are recommended. After that, discussion will focus on cost estimates and funding strategies before additional community engagement.

Councilman Charles Stone celebrated the approach at the meeting, but he wants even more outreach.

“I think the outreach efforts are phenomenal and I think we can probably take it a little bit farther,” he said. “One of the other things I’d like to see if possible is let’s get those iPad kiosks up to the middle school. Let’s see what middle school kids think should be there, that interests me greatly. I’d even be willing to extend it out to the elementary school and see what fourth- and fifth-graders think should be there.”

According to a staff report attachment, an ice skating rink, pool, gym, classrooms, art studio, fitness center, dog park and café, among other options, are all possibilities for the new community centerpiece. Options for outdoor activities and spaces include an amphitheater, dog park, community garden, playground and basketball or pickleball courts.

While planning for the community center is very much in the beginning stages and funding will be discussed in greater detail later in the process, councilmembers broached the topic at the Tuesday meeting.

Councilwoman Julia Mates suggested a funding strategy should be discussed sooner rather than later.

“At some point, we need to have [the discussion] also include how much money we’re talking about just to set expectations and dollars of what this would be,” Councilwoman Julia Mates said. “Funding and figuring out how we’re going to pay for this is a large part of this project so that’s the thing I want to keep remembering. We all want to dream about what we see and then sometimes you see the sticker price and that may be something where we decide to scale it back or put it down the road.”

Mayor Davina Hurt said the cost of operations needs to be carefully considered in addition to construction costs.

“It’s one thing to build it, the cost, but operational costs can be a whole new expensive layer, especially when you talk about having a pool,” she said. “Not only do we need to think about the cost of building but the cost of operating it. Again, tempering expectations. There’re a lot of things to consider and we have a small piggy bank.”

Kim said a tax measure will likely be needed to fund the project.

“The ultimate financing of this project is probably going to involve some kind of parcel tax or some type of locally controlled new source of funding,” he said. “And that means there has to be broad support from homeowners and whoever is asked to help fund this thing.”

The council will certainly return to that discussion in the future and Hurt concluded the Tuesday meeting with another reminder that the planning process is only just beginning.

“We need to temper expectations on where we are because I do get folks saying ‘so when are we building this,’” she said. “That’s more down the path than we are so baby steps is important to say.”

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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