City Council vote terminates funding agreement with MDD
Fair Oaks Ranch City Council voted to sever its grant agreement with the Municipal Development District, officially ending the city’s latest attempt to construct a community center.
The city and the MDD had signed off on an agreement for $1.2 million to be spent developing and constructing a community center on the city complex, now with a price tag in excess of $2.4 million.
City Manager Scott Huizenga Monday said the intention from council’s June 5 meeting was to go back to the MDD and request the full $2.45 million, but council postponed that motion.
“Because we weren’t prepared to proceed with that, and the project at this time, it was beneficial to both parties to terminate the agreement,” he said, which occurred at the council’s June 19 meeting.
The community center, which began in February 2020 as a 3,000-4,000 square-foot facility at a price tag of around $600,000 — as part of a $1.2 million effort to renovate City Hall and build the community center — had grown to a 5,330 square-foot structure with an estimated cost of $2.25 million.
Huizenga said the city and council now can decide “what, if anything, to do next” about a potential community center.
He said about 70% of the monies for the design contract had been expended. “We paid $217,580.30 to date for design and bid documents, out of a total of $299,440 inclusive of a 10% contingency,” he said.
“This is an opportunity to step back and look at what our options are,” Mayor Greg Maxton said. “ From my standpoint, it’s something we could utilize for the city, but I don’t see there’s an urgency to rush in.”
The desire to build a civic or community center is not a new idea in Fair Oaks Ranch.
“The project, at least as a concept, has gone through several iterations since probably late 2017, a desire for a civic or community center,” Huizenga said. “This was reinvigorated ... back in early 2023, on this specific proposal or concept.”
Maxton said the city was at a point where it had to go back to the MDD to request additional funding if it expected to move forward.
“There was a need; there is a need. But I got to the point of, ‘Let’s hold on a second,’” the mayor said. “Are we just going through the motions of something, or are we really taking a serious look at this?”
The community center was designed to provide functional meeting and event space on the City Hall campus for such needs as city council meetings, elections, large group committees and town hall meetings.
“Our initial estimate before we went into design was $2.2 million, from the get-go,” Huizenga said. “I think we’ve been very close to that version of the project throughout.”
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