A pocket park for Old Town Lompoc will go back to the drawing board, but the City Council has approved a dehumidifier system for the Aquatic Center, and the new Senior Community Center will move forward.

The decision to proceed on two out of the three projects was approved Tuesday by the council in a special afternoon workshop. Funding for the two projects will come from a proposed Redevelopment Agency (RDA) bond, which city staff said would be presented to the City Council for final approval later this year.

While all five council members agreed on the need to fund the center and the pool projects, they split 4-1 when discussing the pocket park, with Councilwoman Ann Ruhge voting in the minority.

Ruhge said that after following the project through conceptual community meetings, and the Planning Commission, that "I don't want it set on the back burner."

The workshop also included a presentation on the details of the RDA bond, which was initially $7.1 million, to help fund all three projects.

City staff began the workshop by outlining what each project was, beginning with the installation of the dehumidification system, estimated to cost $1.7 million.

Parks and Recreation Director Dan McCaffrey showed pictures of some of the rust problems that required repair or replacement at the Aquatic Center because of the lack of a dehumidifier.

Mayor Mike Siminski commented that the decision to exclude the dehumidifier in the design of the Aquatic Center had been a council attempt at cost-saving.

The plans and permits for the dehumidifier system could be ready by the spring of 2010, according to McCaffrey, but he said due to the high demand for the Aquatic Center over the spring and summer months, that work would probably be delayed until the fall.

Councilwoman Cecilia Martner expressed frustration after the report, warning that until a full structural analysis of how much rust damage had already occurred in the three years the center had been open, it was premature to know how much money to budget for repairs.

"I potentially see a huge hole in our budget to fix the corrosion problem," Martner said.

When questioned, McCaffrey also said his department would be approaching the City Council in the near future to ask for another maintenance worker position, something the pool had been doing without, due to the city's ongoing hiring freeze.

The discussion about the city's new Senior Community Center, recently renamed in honor of former Mayor Dick DeWees, was more about how soon it could be built, instead of the $4.8 million that the project would receive in bond revenue.

McCaffrey presented the current "tentative timeline" for construction of the Senior Community Center. The plan review and permitting would begin in December, construction would start in April 2010, with "substantial construction done by December of that year," he said.

Councilman Bob Lingl said the community center should be done as soon as possible, and challenged city staff to provide a timeline "a little bit better than tentative."

The future of the pocket park project was put into doubt by the City Council's decision. Chief among the criticisms of the center was its development cost, estimated at $1.6 million, of which $500,000 would be paid through the RDA bond, and $609,000 for construction cost of the park's two-story 2400-square-foot building structure, including public bathrooms and meeting space.

The pocket park building's design architect, Ann Burt, of Ravatt Alrecht and Associates, of Santa Maria, helped present the project, which includes upstairs meeting space for up to 57 people.

Elevator access allowing disabled access was to be provided by an adjacent building project which never was developed. The additional cost of an elevator, estimated to add approximately $60,000 to the cost, would be required to make the space accessible to the public, according to Burt.

"A lot of the community hears that $250 per square foot, and thinks that sounds like a pretty expensive building," Councilwoman Ann Ruhge said.

Burt said that regardless of the economy, that construction materials and labor had not been decreasing in cost. She added that there were some materials and design elements which could be changed to decrease some of the cost, such as using immature trees, instead of the 20 mature trees the current plan calls for.

Burt warned the council that major changes, or a scrapping of the current design plans would mean throwing out $45,000 in design and engineering work that has already been done.

"And to redo that work today is going to cost two-and a half, almost three times what it did," Burt said.

The pocket park proposal emerged from the community-developed Old Town Specific Plan, drafted in 2000, according to Community Development Director Arlene Pelster. The lots of

119 and 121 South H Street were identified as the park's location and the city began looking for funds. In 2003 the RDA began saving some funds, and design of the park space began. Community meetings were held to give input on the design, which also garnered the support of the Parks and Recreation Commission, Planning Commission and the City Council in 2005.

"Since then, a lot of things have changed," said public speaker Ron Fink.

Fink recommended redesigning the park as "a less ornate affair," and suggested the community group Lompoc Valley Parks Recreation and Pool Foundation would be able to use volunteer labor to build a park for a much lower cost.

Lingl and Martner both said they were amiable to exploring community volunteer options to help build the park. Council direction to staff was to redesign the pocket park, and to explore the options of using community labor to build it.

The $7.1 million RDA bond was the last subject of the workshop. The financing details were presented by Dan Cox, of KNN Public Finance, Oakland.

Cox explained that an RDA bond would not represent new taxes for anyone in the city.

"It uses the tax increment that is generated within the (Redevelopment Agency) project zone," which is a portion of the existing 1 percent sales tax.

It was a point Siminski wanted emphasized.

"There's no way they can be put on anyone's tax bill," Siminski said.

RDA funding is based on how much the assessed property value of the redevelopment area has increased since the redevelopment area was established in 1984.

The bond would be repaid through the city's future annual RDA funding. Next year's net RDA after program expenses is estimated to be

$1.6 million, according to Cox's report.

"We'll probably be stagnant for a few more years," Cox said, referring to the drop in the region's real estate market.

Minus the $500,000 for the pocket park that is currently not a part of the bond proposal, a resolution asking for approval of a $6.6 million bond will be presented in the spring of 2010 according to city staff.