The Snoqualmie City Council will consider approval of an operating agreement with the YMCA of Greater Seattle to run a Snoqualmie Community Center at its Monday, March 22, regular meeting.
The agreement, good for 40 years, goes to the council after a unanimous vote on Monday, March 15, by the council’s Planning and Parks Committee. It confirms the YMCA as operator of the center and spells out how that organization will run the facility.
The YMCA will run the center rent-free. The agreement states that the value to the community of a YMCA outweighs the rental value of the site.
“I think it’s a fantastic deal,” Mayor Matt Larson said. “We feel that we’re effectively getting a payment. We don’t have anything come out of our general fund. The taxpayers don’t have to pay a dime. It’s a very good deal.”
Agreement details
In its first phase, the center would be between 9,500 and 12,000 square feet in size and include a fitness or recreation room, teen activity room, family changing rooms and community meeting room. Under the agreement, the city will lease the community center site, about two acres not including current parking, to a developer for construction. Once built, the property would be leased back to the city with an option to purchase, which the city intends to do.
The agreement calls for residents of the city to receive a 50 percent discount in joining fees and 15 percent off annual membership fees. City residents will still receive membership in regional YMCA facilities.
Under the agreement, the YMCA must make a meeting room and youth drop-in facility available to citizens. The organization must accommodate scheduling of community activities for gyms or meeting rooms.
The YMCA is responsible for maintenance of the premises, while the city must maintain the grounds surrounding it. The city will insure the building and be liable for the grounds, while the YMCA is liable for injuries inside the building.
Businesses that subcontract inside the center must have city approval.
Under the agreement, the YMCA must establish a Snoqualmie Branch Advisory Board of between 15 to 25 people.
Similar to conditions in 2008’s failed community center bond, the agreement includes a $100,000 annual payment to the YMCA by the city to provide for financial assistance to members who cannot afford typical user fees. That money comes from casino mitigation payments to city from the Snoqualmie Tribe.
The YMCA may terminate the agreement due to financial reasons on one year’s notice.
Bids and funding
With approval, the city will now negotiate a lease-leaseback agreement with the YMCA. The city will also send out at request for bids to design and build the structure.
Upcoming negotiations will be when issues of cost, including who bears responsibilities for overrruns, will be discussed, councilman Bryan Holloway said.
The city has budgeted nearly $4 million for the project, with about $3.2 million coming from Snoqualmie Ridge mitigation fees, the rest from real estate excise taxes (REET). Larson said that $800,000 in REET funds have been committed entirely to the project.
Larson said that one of the reasons the YMCA was selected was for its fundraising ability. The YMCA may be able to bring additional grants and funding to the table for a larger first phase, and may also help fund future expansions of the center — perhaps precluding an eventual voter-approved bond for a gym expansion or aquatics facility.
Planning and Parks Committee members explicitly stated last week that no new bond is actively being considered.
“Not one staff member of the city has spoken to me about a bond,” Councilman Charles Peterson said. “I would not vote for a bond in November.”
The city is pushing forward now, Larson said, because the recession has amplified purchasing power.
“We’re looking for every opportunity to grab time,” he said.
Parking and traffic
On March 8, Fehr and Peers Transportation Consultants of Seattle released its traffic and parking analysis of the proposed community center. That document states that the city’s initial Environmental Impact Statement for the Ridge’s phase one estimated a maximum of 2.6 car trips per thousand square feet of the facility, or 43 peak hour trips for a 15,000-square-foot facility and 72 peak hourly car trips for a 35,000 square foot facility. Fehr and Peers looked at recently built YMCAs in Bellevue and Newcastle and found between four and five car trips per thousand square feet. That generated between 200 and 253 peak hourly car trips. Those facilities are 48,000 and 49,000 square feet in size, respectively.
If Snoqualmie sees comparable visits per square foot, a 15,000-square foot Valley YMCA would see 69 peak hour afternoon/evening trips. Under the same formula, a 35,000-square-foot facility would get 165 peak hour trips.
There are 114 parking stalls at Ridge Community Park now. Between 50 and 60 would be built in the community center’s first phase.
The study does not take into account whether and how many Ridge residents would walk or bike to the YMCA.
“Assuming full buildout, the EIS underestimates PM peak hour trip generation by more than 100 trips, which could lead to traffic impacts that were not identified in the original EIS,” the Fehr and Peers memo states.
The consultants called for a formal traffic study to be conducted to provide more details about the adequacy of existing traffic controls and school traffic circulation.
Several Ridge residents and business people have questioned traffic and safety impacts from a potentially busy community center. The YMCA would be adjacent to Cascade View Elementary School, with Ridge Boulevard becoming busy as school children and picked up and dropped off.
“In the afternoons, the stalls are taken. There is a line of cars waiting to pick kids up, and usually a lot of foot traffic,” said Sean Higuchi, fitness director at Snoqualmie Ridge Fitness.
The lower Ridge Marketplace recently saw signs installed in an attempt to free up business parking there.
“All the businesses share,” Higuchi said. “If they build something with not enough stalls, saying that this parking can be used for it, too, that’s taking away from the businesses.”
