The town’s advisory committee was expected to present a proposal to the CSD board this week recommending the athletic club on Discovery Bay Boulevard as a potential site.
“At this point, it is the recommendation of the committee that we pursue it,” said CSD Director Ray Tetreault, who also sits on the advisory community center committee.
“If it could happen, that would be a good thing. It’s already zoned and it has a pool and tennis courts. I think it could be feasible.”
The 5,600-square-foot facility sits on 10 acres at the corner of Willow Lake Road and Discovery Bay Boulevard. Built in 1975, the one-story structure is currently on the market for $2.3 million.
Local realtor Randy Prince is the athletic club’s listing agent and agrees that the property might be just what the town ordered.
“I always thought it was the perfect location for the town’s community center,” said Prince. “The 10 acres combine one big parcel and one little one, and the owners wanted to expand it in the 1990s – they even put it through the DERC’s preliminary plans – but it never went through to the county because the population then was less than half what it is now and they just couldn’t afford to do it.
But now the club is getting old and needs some work, and the asking price is about half what they were originally asking. This might be a good time.”
The proposal marks the second time in two months that the athletic center site has come before the CSD board.
In October the board took no action on the advisory committee’s proposal to purchase the property. However, now that the location is officially up for sale and the results of the recent community center survey name it as the No. 1 preferred site, the timing might be better.
“This is an opportunity because it is currently for sale,” said General Manager Rick Howard. “And I think it is something that should be explored based on the community center survey. Sometimes you only get one bite of the apple, and this might be it.”
The ongoing search for a community center site began in the 1990s when Discovery Bay’s original developer, the Hofmann Company, was required to set aside property for the town’s community center and contribute 50 percent (approximately $875,000) to the total cost of the project.
To date, the town has secured an additional $530,000 in conventional funding and approximately $750,000 through Measure WW – a grant created to meet park-and-recreation needs in towns throughout the county – bringing the available total to a little over $2 million.
Still to be determined are ongoing costs associated with a center, such as ongoing maintenance.
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