After hearing concerns from dozens of residents about the price tag for the proposed community center, town officials promised to look at lower-cost alternatives if voters approve an initial spending measure later this month.
More than 100 people attended a November 16 Zoom meeting of the Community Center Building Committee (see video here) to ask questions and air their worries about spending an estimated $25 million so soon after completing a $93 million school project. A November 30 Special Town Meeting will decide whether to approve $325,000 for design costs including fees for architects and an owner’s project manager.
Several people suggested crafting the meeting motion to require the architect to come up with less expensive options for voters to consider in addition to fleshing out the two 2018 concepts, and/or specifying a limit on how much the town is willing to spend.
The November 30 vote requires a two-thirds majority to pass. Select Board member and CCBC co-chair Jonathan Dwyer warned that “a ‘no’ vote would halt the process… we really need a ‘yes’ vote to proceed and answer some of these questions.” However, while no one disputed the need for a facility — primarily but not only to house the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging and Human Services — some argued for a delay.
“We’ll try to find as economical a design as we can put forth for each of the designs and explore where we can cut as much as we can within reason,” CCBC Chair Sarah Chester said at the start of the meeting. “We all share the surprise and dismay at the projected costs of our two designs and we want to reduce that as much as possible.”
Among residents’ comments:
- “I’m having a real hard time with the scope of this project and its cost…how can we address the great concept at a much lesser scope?” (Peter Braun, former member of the Select Board Finance Committee and other groups)
- “I’m incredibly concerned about the cost, which is not to say I don’t think there should be a better space for the community… It seems like we’re trying to build something that’s much bigger than a town of our size really needs.” (Rachel Shulman)
- Assuming a tax hike of about 4% if the town borrows $20 million, “we are looking at a very significant increase in our taxes.” (Surendra Shah)
At the same time, officials vigorously reiterated the need for new facilities for the PRD and COA&HS, noting that the Hartwell pods and Bemis Hall are old, inadequate, and even unsafe, especially for seniors. Bemis Hall’s plumbing, layout, and lack of sufficient parking and air conditioning are also major problems that can’t be cured by renovations, and COA&HS services and programs therefore must take in several different locations in Lincoln as well. The Pierce House is not suitable for the COA&HS for many reasons (an elevator and other extensive safety improvements required by building code would be needed, among other issues).
Several studies including the most recent one from 2018 have evaluated the space and programming needs of the two departments and studied other locations in town for a community center, as well as community centers in several neighboring towns for comparison.
“One of the problems that Lincoln has in benchmarking anything is that we lack scale” due to the town’s small population, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said. “We’re always going to be high” when it comes to per-capita costs for town facilities such as a school or community center.
Another consideration: “The amount of money [you spend] for a building doesn’t mean much unless it’s tied to a specific scope and program,” CCBC member Tim Christenfeld said. In other words, cutting a building’s cost necessarily reduces what services it can offer and what needs it can meet.
Although the two design concepts developed in 2018 are “a good jumping-off point,” Higgins said, “those two options could frame one end of the price point spectrum.” Echoing what the School Building Committee did, the CCBC could direct architects to produce several choices: “one that would satisfy the existing needs and programs, one that would reflect current programs with some enhancements, and the 2018 designs to anchor the far end of the spectrum with comprehensive programming.”
The warrant article for the November 30 town meeting is intentionally vague; the actual motion to be put forward by the Select Board “will reflect the dialogue that’s happened in the meantime,” Higgins added. However, he noted that $325,000 will not cover more extensive work duplicating what’s been done in the past, such as identifying the needs for a community center or looking at other sites.
“People are talking about the overall cost of the project when what they’re really concerned about is the tax rate impact,” said Dilla Tingley, a CCDC member and chair of the COAHS board of directors. Private fundraising already underway, along with tapping some of the town’s debt stabilization fund and perhaps other sources, means that the actual amount to be borrowed will be less than the full cost of the building.
If the $325,000 is approved, there will be another Special Town Meeting a year from now to select a preferred design option and budget and create detailed building designs. Votes to borrow money to fund construction (with approval requiring a two-thirds Town Meeting majority plus a simple majority at the ballot box) would occur in March 2024.