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Council members offer suggestions for senior center
By Chris Roark, roarkc@acnpapers.com
As the process of updating Flower Mound’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan is getting underway, discussion of where a senior center should be located continues to heat up.
There is growing talk of the center being located within the Wilson/Carmel/Ruff Tract, a future park that will be located just east of the Community Activity Center (CAC) that will include botanical gardens, an amphitheater, a trail system and a conservation area.
Town council members Tom Hayden and Al Filidoro told The Leader last week that the Wilson/Carmel/Ruff tract is a prime location for the center.
Thursday at the town’s Parks, Arts and Library Services (PALS) meeting, board member and Seniors in Motion (SIM) member Denis Toth also suggested the tract contain the center.
Hayden and Filidoro, who were not speaking on behalf of the council, cited several reasons why the tract would be the right spot for the center, such as cost. Hayden said he believes 20,000 square feet would be sufficient space for a center, based on what he's seen in neighboring cities. He said a facility of that size could cost about $4 million. They compare that to another option that has been discussed, which is putting the center in the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) district, which is the commercial area near the FM 1171 and FM 2499 corridor. They said putting the center in the TIRZ district could cost $8.5 million.
“If we put it in the TIRZ district, we would have to buy the land,” Filidoro said. “Here (at the tract), we already own the land.”
Hayden added that funding from the TIRZ may not be available as quickly.
As far as offsetting the cost, Hayden and Filidoro said the building being a multi-use facility could be a benefit.
“It can be more than a senior center,” Hayden said. “It can be a facility for conferences, wedding and receptions. We can work out something where the seniors use it during the day, and it can be used for conferences at night and weddings and receptions during on the weekends. It can generate revenue.”
Hayden also said the room currently used for the seniors would then be vacant, and it could then be rented out for additional CAC revenue.
Hayden said the tract is a good location also because of the visual effect.
“The center would be next to the park, and this can be a beautiful place to complement the park and the town,” Hayden said.
Filidoro said if the center is in the tract, many of the amenities the seniors would need would be next door at the CAC, so the town could save money by not duplicating some of them at the senior facility.
During Thursday's PALS meeting, Toth shared a similar vision for the center, such as the multi-purpose component. He said he envisioned the building's largest room facing the park, along with a other rooms for senior equipment and capabilities for other events. He also envisioned a patio, gardens and exclusive parking for the site.
As for paying for it, Toth made a push for the center’s funding during a PALS meeting in July when he requested that half of the $1.59 million the town will receive in cash and park development fees from the Orchard Flower Village senior housing community go toward building the center. Orchard Flower Village is a 27-acre multi-family concept that will be located near the intersection of FM 3040 and Old Orchard Lane. There will be 196 dwelling units.
While Filidoro and Hayden like Toth’s idea, they said what they don’t want is a senior center component being used to push through a flood of high density apartments. They also said it can be funded on its own.
“Building the center or not is not reflective of any other projects,” Filidoro said.
On the subject of senior housing, Filidoro and Hayden said they would like to find alternatives to senior housing apartments because they said Flower Mound would begin to deviate from its master plan, which allows for high density but only in certain areas.
Filidoro said one idea is quad homes, which have four 1,000-square-foot units in one building, along with an amenities center.
“We’re not trying to keep apartments out of the community, but we want them to go where they were intended to go,” Filidoro said.
“We recognize that there is a need for reasonably-priced homes for seniors, but we need to find an alternative,” Hayden said. “All of the plans that have come forward would have required a master plan change for high density apartments. And I don’t think that's what the town wants.”
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