Community center program draft okayed 4-3
By Grace Lovins
After another contentious discussion on Birmingham's future community and senior center to be located at 400 E. Lincoln, commissioners approved a draft architectural program in a 4-3 vote, allowing city staff and the contracted firms to move forward with planning out the space for Next and the YMCA in the building structure.
The commission first reviewed a draft program for the building at its last meeting on February 10, ultimately giving staff direction to conduct an independent audit of both Next senior services and YMCA’s programming hours used to calculate the building size and reanalyze where the building size could be reduced. Jim Stock, design director with Neumann/Smith, and Brian Deming, vice president of Kramer Management Group, returned with both elements being presented.
Deming said that, based on their audit, they focused on the programming hours within the multi-purpose rooms. The YMCA currently has 233 program hours and has indicated 27 future programming hours, he said. Next senior services currently has 158 program hours and has also indicated 27 future programming hours.
Outside of those program hours, Stock and Deming noted that Next will have 58 hours that are fee based, the YMCA will have 104 hours that are fee based, and YMCA and Next will share about 18 future program hours. In total, the building accounts for 421 current program hours and 54 future program hours.
Also different from the last draft, Stock and Deming said that they went through the draft and shrunk spaces where possible. The size of the wellness areas, storage rooms, kitchen and multi-purpose rooms were shrunk to get the total size of the building reduced. With a five percent reduction factor, the total building square footage was 47,120 sq ft., a decrease from 49,800 sq.ft. in the last draft.
Commissioners Brad Host, Andrew Haig and Clinton Baller used their time during commissioner comments to raise concerns about approving the draft program without having a clear picture of what does and does not need to be included in the building.
A main point of concern between Haig and Baller was the commercial kitchen included in the draft. Some kitchen space was requested by Next to continue its work with Meals on Wheels, but a larger space accommodates future programming from both YMCA and Next, and it adds a benefit to those looking to rent the space for events. Haig repeatedly brought up having Next work with The Community House to host programming at The Community House which could eliminate space from the new community center.
Other commissioners disagreed with the trio. The intent of the architectural program, stated in the meeting packet, is to outline spatial requirements to guide the design process. Commissioner Jason Emerine took the time to point out that the program is flexible and the agenda item is about approving the draft so the process can move forward and the building can start to be mapped out.
“It’s a balancing act and commissioners have to be, I think, comfortable with a little bit of ambiguity and trust the professionals to do their work before we micromanage this into the ground,” mayor Therese Longe said.
Commissioners Haig, Host and Baller voted against approval of the draft building program, all for similar reasons. The trio each stated they felt the project is moving forward too fast with too many variables remaining unknown.
