San Mateo is inching closer to a multimillion-dollar overhaul of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, and City Council members have started weighing in on what the project should fix and what it could add.
The center at 725 Monte Diablo Ave. in the North Central neighborhood has hosted sports leagues, classes and social programs for more than five decades. The San Mateo Daily Journal reports the current plan would replace and upgrade the pools, modernize the locker rooms and turn part of the building into a community resiliency center for emergencies.
What residents asked for
The city and ELS Architecture and Urban Design ran three rounds of community workshops this summer, starting with an open house on July 14. At the third workshop on Aug. 27, city materials show 68% of participants favored a pool layout known as Option C, and 69% wanted a dedicated aquatics entrance off Monte Diablo Avenue while keeping the main center entrance where it is. Residents asked designers to prioritize swim-lesson capacity, shallow water and a balance between lap swimming and recreation.
For the resiliency hub, the top priorities were a safe place to gather during emergencies, Wi-Fi and internet access, heating and cooling, and drinking water and supplies. Other ideas included backup power for charging devices, clean air on smoky days and support for seniors and people with disabilities.
A building that needs the work
City documents describe a roughly 23,800-square-foot community building next to an 11,490-square-foot pool and deck. The city has used federal housing grant money for planning and design, which required an environmental review under U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rules. The adjacent sports field is not part of the renovation.
According to the Daily Journal, council members discussed changes such as moving the front desk to the center of the lobby and upgrading the kitchen, and staff said they would come back with firmer cost numbers.
What comes next
The project went to the Parks and Recreation Commission on Sept. 2 and to the council on Sept. 22, according to the city's project page. Staff are refining the preferred concept, cost and scope before it moves into the next phase of design. Updates are posted at the city's MLK project page.