Foster City seeks input on new recreation center

“It’s very critical to understand the needs of current users, future users and all age groups,” Awasthi said.

At its Aug. 2 meeting, the council directed staff to begin the community outreach process through surveys and targeted outreach, consider public-private partnerships, and consider utilization of school bond measure funds.

Foster City began planning a new recreation center in 2016 to replace the recreation center, with RJM Design Group gathering community input and presenting its findings in 2017. The City Council in June directed staff to work with the Parks and Recreation Committee on community engagement and survey tools about recreation center replacement and park system improvements. It wanted community input on whether the city’s vision of the recreation center and parks system aligned with the public or if public opinion changed. Foster City has a December timeline to determine conceptual recreation center design choice and hire an architecture firm to begin construction drawings.

“The City Council directed us to develop a robust community engagement strategy and look to validate a lot of the assumptions and information gained through prior efforts on both the parks plan and the recreation center plan,” Assistant City Manager Dante Hall said.

Potential financial strategy options for replacing the recreation center include a combination of using city-controlled resources like general funding, new taxes or fees, and borrowed funding such as debt through bond sales. Foster City also plans to reach out to the business community and school districts about financial partnership opportunities for the recreation center later this year.

“This is a component where we would engage corporate partners and school districts to find out if there are opportunities for collaboration and funding potential,” Hall said.

City Manager Peter Pirnejad said engagement could discuss programming options for STEM classes, a shared-use option but would not include naming rights options due to a city ordinance.

“There could be other elements that come out of it, but we won’t know until we fully engage with our corporate partners on what that collaboration might look like, and we don’t want to limit ourselves to just the funding piece,” Pirnejad said.

Awasthi also favored creating public and private partnerships to build strategic alliances and discuss potential funding options for the city.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to collaborate with employers in Foster City to figure out creative ways to secure funding,” Awasthi said.

Councilmember Patrick Sullivan said Foster City must take into account the community use aspect of people who would come from San Mateo, Belmont and surrounding areas to use the recreation center and improved park system.

“Let’s start to think a little bit outside of the box and see how we can get the necessary funding because we can’t always get it by bonds and sales tax,” Sullivan said.

The recreation center online survey will reach out to potential user groups like seniors, private events, conference and business meeting organizers. Pop-up event surveys at the recreation center will also occur. The community survey will go from August to September, and the pop-up survey until October. Mayor Sanjay Gehani suggested targeted engagement by working with nonprofits like Foster City Village, an organization aimed at helping older adults to continue to live in their homes.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102