Erie Town Council Study Session: Jan 20, 2026 - ECC Expansion & Ballot Issues
Erie Town Council Study Session - January 20, 2026
The Erie Town Council convened a study session on January 20, 2026, to deliberate on the pre-design concept for the Erie Community Center (ECC) expansion and renovation, alongside a long-range discussion on potential 2026 and 2027 ballot initiatives. Staff presented findings from a feasibility study indicating a critical need for additional space due to population growth and program demand, while Council members expressed significant hesitation regarding proceeding with funding without first gauging voter appetite for both the ECC expansion and a potential second community campus. The session concluded with a directive to focus the upcoming ballot measure strategy on the ECC expansion and renovation, while deferring other capital projects and new facility studies to 2027 pending further community polling and feasibility data.
Consent Calendar
- No routine approvals or unanimous actions were recorded in this study session transcript.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Community Member/Concerned Resident: Spoke about the competitive nature of youth sports registration, comparing it to "buying Taylor Swift tickets," and noted the stress of missing registration windows due to demand.
- Community Member/Mother: Expressed that the current facility's popularity leads to overcrowding, specifically citing the difficulty of finding parking and the safety risks of high schoolers and elementary-aged children sharing gym space simultaneously.
- Community Member: Highlighted the need for reliable programming and the frustration of having to move programs to schools due to ECC lack of availability.
- Community Member: Noted the high demand for senior lunch programs, approaching capacity, and the emotional weight of potentially having to turn seniors away.
Discussion Items
Erie Community Center Expansion and Renovation
- Project Sponsor (Luke Bolinger, Director of Parks & Recreation): Stated that the ECC is an essential service facing capacity issues, with nearly 1,500 people wait-listed for programs in 2025. He emphasized that the community survey ranked facility expansion as a top priority and that the current building, designed in 2006, cannot meet the needs of a population that has grown to 40,000 residents.
- Project Team (Chad & Rachel, Staff): Presented a study recommending a "surgical" expansion targeting approximately 7,000 square feet of new space on the existing "A side" (north) for meeting rooms, youth areas, and staff offices. They also presented a separate concept for a gym and fitness expansion utilizing adjacent land previously restricted by a self-imposed easement, totaling an additional 10,000 square feet of active space.
- Consultant (Collab Architects): Explained that the total estimated cost for the targeted expansion and renovation is approximately $14.5 million, while a gym/fitness expansion option is estimated at $12.5 million. They noted that the higher cost per square foot for the renovation is due to the complexity of retrofitting an existing structure compared to new construction.
- Mayor: Expressed strong hesitation to direct staff toward design contracts for either option until voter preferences are clarified via a new survey. The Mayor argued that moving forward now risks the community's willingness to approve a bond for a larger, second community campus, and noted that the current expansion might be seen as "solving yesterday's problem" if a new facility is approved later.
- Council Member Hoback: Discussed the strategic trade-off between upgrading the current facility vs. waiting for a second campus. She suggested that if voters approve a new facility, the current ECC's programming (like senior services) might need to shift, altering the renovation scope entirely.
- Council Member O'Connor (via transcript references): Advocated for maximizing the use of the adjacent "future town building" land to lower construction costs and buy time, suggesting the renovation costs are high relative to the square footage gained.
- Council Member (Unidentified): Questioned the feasibility of going "vertical" (adding stories) versus expanding horizontally, with staff noting that expanding upward would require tearing off existing peaked roofs and is the most expensive option due to structural constraints.
- Staff (Sarah): Clarified that the $12.5 million gym expansion figure is based on independent estimates and does not reflect shared mobilization savings if both projects were done simultaneously.
Ballot Issue Planning & Funding Strategy
- Town Manager (Melissa) & Communications Director (Gabby): Outlined the 18-month timeline required to successfully place a tax measure on the ballot, emphasizing the need for public education and multiple polling cycles. They presented eight potential ballot items, including facility bonds, long-term revenue taxes, and accommodation taxes.
- Council Discussion on Priorities:
- Support for ECC Focus: Several members argued for focusing the 2026 ballot solely on the ECC expansion and renovation to secure immediate community benefit and secure a "win" for the community, while using the sales tax sunset structure to only fund capital costs initially.
- Opposition to Split Measures: Several members opposed separating the ECC expansion from other capital needs (like the Leon A World Service Center) or delaying them, noting that bundling projects (as Lafayette did) could increase voter buy-in.
- Survey Direction: The Council directed staff to limit the February polling to two specific questions: interest in the ECC expansion/renovation and interest in a short-term rental/hotel tax (though the latter was later debated for deferral). They agreed to delay the Second Community Campus feasibility study direction until the next council term to allow for a 2027 ballot cycle.
- Tax Type Debate: A debate occurred regarding property tax vs. sales tax, with Council noting that while property taxes are currently high due to metro districts, sales taxes allow non-residents to contribute to local infrastructure.
Key Outcomes
- Strategic Direction for 2026 Ballot: The Council directed staff to prepare a ballot measure for the 2026 election focusing specifically on the Erie Community Center expansion and renovation (capital costs only) and potentially a short-term rental/hotel tax.
- Deferral of Other Items: The Council agreed to postpone the Second Community Campus feasibility study, the Leon A World Service Center expansion, and transportation infrastructure taxes to the 2027 ballot cycle. This decision was made to allow time for the feasibility study, increased community education, and voter feedback on the scope of a potential second facility.
- Vendor Selection: The Council approved the Town Manager to proceed with contract negotiations with Polco for the upcoming community polling and surveying, avoiding a new RFP process.
- Design Contract Status: The Council has not yet approved a professional services agreement for full design of the ECC expansion; this action is contingent on the voter polling results and the final scope of the ballot measure. Staff is directed to bring a contract to the February meeting to initiate the design process contingent on voter support.
- Survey Scope: Staff is directed to limit the next community survey questions to focus on the ECC expansion and the lodging/short-term rental tax to avoid survey fatigue and to ensure clear voter direction before the August ballot deadline.
Meeting Transcript
601 p.m. and I'm calling to order the town council meeting on January 20th, 2026. This is a study session uh for three different items. Uh the first item is item 2026 34, the Uri Community Center Building Addition and Renovation Pre-design concept presentation and summary report. And with that, I'll turn it over to Luke and Bulletin. Thank you, Mayor. Uh good evening, council. Luke Bolinger, Director of Parks and Recreation. And before I flip it to uh Rachel and Chad, who've done uh all the work on this project, I just wanted to put us uh back into mindset. If you recall last September when we adopted our playbook, our parks and recreation strategic plan. I kept making that reference of that upside down pyramid where you have your overarching goals and then you're getting down into the action items. So tonight what we're doing is we've we've we've done this already, we've established our goals, and now we're getting down into that implementation stage. So that's what you're gonna you're gonna see a representation of that specifically as it applies to this project, but I just wanted to put us back in that mindset. Investment in parks and recreation facilities is really no longer a want or a need, it's an essential service, physical health, social connections, the simple opportunity to participate in a program, economic value or all benefits of investment in parks and recreation facilities. Every meeting that we have, every design charret, every survey is intentional community building in parks and recreation. So over the past two years, when we've been living up here, we've been planning to make sure that we can continue to provide recreational services that our community has come to expect. So through our 2024 parks and community survey, through the data that we collected in our playbook, we know that it's projects like this that our community wants us to pursue. And so as we continue discussions with you all with the community about this project and the second community campus, it's important to remember that building community doesn't happen, happens at a system-wide level, uh system-wide lens, not just within a specific project. So that's the approach that we take when we when we present information to you all and to the public. So with that, I will turn it over to Chad and Rachel. Thanks, Luke. So today we're here to talk about the Uri Community Center renovation expansion study. And the study really started in Earth back in July of 2025. Um that was uh due to budget that was requested in 2024 to study the ECC expansion. And I was following up on the facility's master plan that was completed back in 2020. 21 uh kind of identified the need for digital space. And uh I'll get into that in a little bit more as we go forward. But just to start, uh Luke mentioned uh Rachel and I uh have been working on this with collab architects, and welcome Chris. Um there with uh collab and then also Chris Kastelik. Um Brian's here with us tonight, but that's the kind of architecture team that's been helping us um with the study. Um a lot of staff involved, and Rachel will kind of go into that uh as we go forward. But um, that's been uh team so far. And uh just to kind of talk about um our agenda for today. We're gonna talk about the current state of the ECC. And when I say ECC, obviously URI community center, I'll say that um uh out of the gate, but uh we'll talk about the conception study that we've completed to look at the feasibility of expansion and renovation of the current ECC. Um we'll also talk about the objectives of this presentation. Um talk through the pre-design process. Um again, I mentioned a lot of staff input uh from a design advisory team, and then also ad hoc members uh of the town staff and on actually members of the community. Um we'll talk about some recommendations born out of that uh study um for expansion and renovation of the the current facilities. And obviously, we'll have some costs. And I want to preface again to Luke's point. We start out here. We're at the conceptual stage. These are recommendations based on this current study. And we'll have some costs to present that are very high level at this point. We'll also talk about additional opportunity for expansion that was identified through the course of this study. And then we'll talk about some next steps for this process. Staff next steps. Your community center has become an integral part of daily life for residents in Neary. Providing a place for all the ages to connect, play and grow.
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