Community center vision, space needs reviewed

By Grace Lovins

Birmingham’s new community and senior center project continues to move along with an updated vision, goals and objectives which were approved Monday, February 10, by the city commission which is now moving to the next step of determining programming space for the new building.

While the search for Next senior services’ new home had been ongoing for about a decade, the project gained momentum after the purchase of the former Birmingham YMCA building at 400 E Lincoln in July 2023.

Since the purchase, the city has pursued the route of constructing a new 44,000 to 49,000 sq ft. building for a maximum of $32 million. Both YMCA and Next senior services will be tenants of the city-owned building.

Birmingham City Manager Jana Ecker explained that the ad hoc senior/comunity center committee reviewed a drafted update to the vision, goals and objectives for the project considering all the changes that have occurred along the way.

The updates reflect the commission’s recent approval of the name “Birmingham Community and Senior Center” as well as the fact that the city is pursuing construction of a new building rather than renovation of the existing one. Ecker said additional language adjustments were made to reflect such decisions made by the commission.

In a 4-2 vote, the commission approved the updated vision, goals and objectives for the new community center, with Katie Schafer absent and Brad Host and Clinton Baller voting against approval. While Baller didn’t explain his vote, Host has consistently voted against motions on the new center, repeatedly saying he feels the city is moving too fast on the project.

After discussing the new vision, goals and objectives, the commission transitioned to reviewing the programming for the new building. Jim Stock, design director with Neumann/Smith Architecture, explained that the draft was developed as an exercise to help outline the spatial requirements for the new building and is hypothetical.

Based on the current programming hours and potential future hours given to Neumann/Smith by Next and the YMCA, the draft program for the building accounted for 17 hours per day, under the proposed operating hours, totaling about 119 program hours per week, Stock said. The hours were calculated using the pool, both sides of the gym and six multi-purpose rooms.

Stock said that, based on all the information provided to the architects for the exercise, the space required to meet the needs of all parties would be approximately 49,895 sq ft. after a 30 percent factor adjustment for things like wall thickness, plumbing and janitor’s closets.

Commissioners Andrew Haig and Clinton Baller specifically questioned the validation of the program hours used in the exercise. Baller, having done a quick calculation during the meeting, said the current program hours for Next do not add up to what was provided in the draft.

Haig, along with Baller, said the commission must be mindful of the ‘big asks’ that come along with such a project. He encouraged Next and the YMCA to look at compatibility opportunities, saying there was too much overlap between programs that could unnecessarily inflate the size of the building. Other commissioners echoed the sentiment of Haig and Baller, encouraging slimming the square footage down when possible and eliminating redundancy in programming.

The commission gave the city and owner’s representative direction to do an independent evaluation of the programming used to calculate the building size and reanalyze where the building can be shrunk without harming any party’s business operations.

Voters in Birmingham are tentatively scheduled to decide on a .6715-mill tax proposal on the August ballot this year to fund construction of the center. On a taxable home value of $315,250, the city is estimating that the average homeowner cost of the millage would be $212 annually.