Senior Center Expansion Project Moves Forward in Coronado

Written by Gloria Tierney

The City Council voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday, to accept a floor plan for a new senior center. 

Councilmen Al Ovrom and Richard Bailey express that they opposed it because it was too ambitious and may not represent the desires of most seniors.

The planned 8,300 square-foot single-storied building will have multi-purpose room, activity rooms, a lawn bowling club, a lounge space, serving kitchen, an office, restrooms and storage space, according to the staff report.

It will cost an estimated $5.943 million dollars to build and an estimated $265,320 to $276,000 a year to maintain, according to the staff report. It will also require the removal of six trees in an historically designated park.

The existing building is only 4,500 square feet and costs $54,000 annually to maintain. It is not up to code and or functional, according Architect Robert Coffee. He and architect Chris Ackerman were contracted by city hired to design a new senior center.

Objections largely centered on the size of the proposed facility and whether the was broad public support, even among seniors for such a large building.

“My friends are all in their 60s 70s and 80s and I yet to have someone talk to me about a need for a new senior center,” Ovrom said.

Bailey pointed out that of the people who responded to the needs questionnaire the city circulated last year, 200 were already members of the Senior Center.

He did acknowledge that the current building was not adequate and would require “more than a Band-Aid to fix,” but wonder if the plans were too ambitious.

He said that he knew a number of seniors and few expressed a need for a larger facility. He suggest the city take another survey that was “more representative of the over 50 crowd.”

Noting the 80 plus supporters who packed the council chambers, community activist Kevin Riley asked the council to consider the people who weren’t there.

“Don’t forget about the 25,000 who are not here tonight and who know nothing about what this will look like next to our treasured library; how it will impact our park,” community activist Kevin Riley said.

Mayor Casey Tanaka said the people at the meeting “represented significant demographic that has not been served in its public building and spaces.”

Tanaka commented he did not think the proposed facility was “excessively large” and that all you had to do was visit the current center to see how cramped it was and why a large space was needed.  

Councilman Mike Woiwode pointed out that if history is any judge, approving the plans would prove prudent. 

“When we built something substantial—the Nautilus Room and the Club Room and Boat House—the demand was more than we expected,” Woiwode said. 

Advice the design team received from other senior centers they visited echoed this:

“Dream as big as possible. Don’t short change the project going in for lack of vision,” said interior designer Caroline Murray.