The Maricopa City Council approved a $1.45 million contract with Tempe-based Architekton Inc. Tuesday to design the long-anticipated recreation complex.
Money for the contract comes from the $20 million parks-fund bond approved by voters in 2009.
The 140-acre sports and recreation center will include outdoor playing fields and a 54,000-square-foot multigenerational recreation and aquatics center on the city-owned Vekol site at North John Wayne Parkway and Bowlin Road.
“Things are going to begin to move very quickly now on the Vekol property,” said Brent Billingsley, director of development services, during his presentation to council.
Groundbreaking is expected by the end of the year, city spokeswoman LaTricia Woods said Wednesday.
Councilman Alan Marchione said he supported the project, but asked the city manager how the city will finance operation of a facility as it goes into its second fiscal year of zero-based budgeting.
City Manager Brenda Fischer said the first task for city staff will be to get council direction on how to operate the facility, whether it will be run by city staff, outside staff or a combination of the two.
The contract with Architekton Inc. is called “construction manager at risk,” which means the contractor is hired early on during the design phase.
Brad Hinton, a development services employee who works with developers on city projects, said Wednesay this method takes the risk off the city, and puts it on the contractor.
“They are hired prior to design completion to assist in the design and to continually estimate the cost to build the design to be sure the project can be built, and within budget,” he said.
Before approving the contract with Architekton Inc., council heard a presentation from the ABACUS Program Management Team on the master site plan for the recreation site.
ABACUS has been contracted by the city for design work on the Vekol site, the new city hall and other projects.
Adam Brill, ABACUS senior project manager, said his team formed an oversight committee with members of the council, the city manager and city staff to get input.
He introduced architect Jay Silverberg of the Gensler firm to present the committee’s preferred option and alternate option to council.
After discussion, but without a formal vote, council gave consent for staff to move forward with the alternative plan.
Councilman Carl Diedrich suggested the orientation of the ball fields be changed from directly east to west to a quarter turn to deal with sunlight issues. He said most new ballparks were being designed that way.
Silverberg said as the design team developed the final layout, tweaks could be made to the master plan.
Diedrich said the minute the plan presented to council goes in the newspaper, people will “pick it apart” and assume the version council members saw that night was the final version.
“There will be someone out there with their map the first day it opens,” he said.
Mayor Anthony Smith said he liked the preferred plan because it gives a “curb appeal,” meaning the park could easily be seen from State Route 347 and not hidden behind commercial development.
Vice Mayor Ed Farrell, who served on the project’s executive committee, said he liked the alternate option because it separates the park from the commercial development.
“It keeps the park on one piece and the commercial on one piece,” he said.
More importantly, Farrell said, the commercial area in the second option is on an access road, which creates more “street-front property” for commercial pads and retail.
Councilwoman Julia Gusse asked, “Wouldn’t it be ideal to present both plans to planning and zoning?”
Billingsley said it will go to planning and zoning once it moves from the conceptual to the formal planning process.
Marchione said he preferred the alternative option because the multigenerational center and the aquatics center seemed to be in one facility and would be more convenient for families with several children. He said some kids might want to go the multigenerational center while others would want to take swim lessons.“I don’t think parents would be comfortable with it in separate buildings,” he said. “I prefer the facility to be one structure and not two.”
Diedrich said he also liked having everything in one building, too, and favored the second plan because it left more State Route 347 frontage available for development.
Both of the plans call for a dog park, and Diedrich and Marchione said they liked how the second plan would separate the dog park from the other outdoor areas and was close to parking.
Councilman Marvin Brown agreed with other council members the more the park can do to attract commercial development, the better.
To view maps of both of the options presented to council, click here.
