Point Reyes Light - December 7, 2000
Lagunitas trustees mull building art & environment center
By Stephen Barrett
Long-held plans to build a facility in the San Geronimo Valley dedicated to art, childcare, and environmental education now depend largely on whether Lagunitas School District trustees will commit $60,000 in developers fees to help build it.
The facility was first conceived as a permanent site to house art and childcare programs for both the school district and San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center when school district trustees adopted the campus-wide plan in 1993.
Although the art center proposal was included in a $2.5 million construction bond measure passed by Valley voters in 1995, that money got spent building a new middle school and on other district priorities.
Still, members of the Art, Childcare, and Environmental Center Planning Group have continued to gather funds for the project, which will cost $295,000.
French Ranch fees
Much of the available money comes from a $127,500 state grant that must be used by June 2001. Other funds committed to the project include $25,000 from the County of Marin and pledges of $23,000 from private donors. The $60,000 in developers fees comes from the developers of neighboring French Ranch, who paid the amount as a condition of the getting the subdvision approved.
However, Lagunitas School District trustees expressed reservations last week about committing money towards an art building at a time when district classrooms sit empty and ongoing maintenance costs could sap their efforts to raise teachers’ salaries.
Dave Cort, director of the San Geronimo Valley Healthy Community Collaborative, noted the facility would provide valued space for pre-school, after-school, and teen programs offered by Community Alliance and Valley Family Preschool.
The availability of two modular buildings at a discounted rate of $275,000, plus the impending deadline on the state grant, make it a critical time to follow through on building the facility, he said.
Next to Larsen Creek
Locating the roughly 2,000 square-foot center along Larsen Creek would also allow the district to relocate a propane tank and maintenance shed to a more suitable site on the Lagunitas campus, he added.
Cort invited anyone interested in discussing the facility’s construction, operation, and projected ongoing costs to attend a meeting with its backers at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, in Room 10 of the Lagunitas School campus.
"We’re working hard to assure that it is not only going to fall on the school to pay for these costs," he said on Tuesday. "From our perspective, we feel like this is an incredible opportunity to do something that is sensitive to the environment and brings in the community with the school."
A public presentation of the proposed "ACE Center" has also been scheduled for the San Geronimo Valley Planning Group when it meets at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11, in the San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center.
Lagunitas School District trustees are expected to receive a presentation from the ACE planning group and consider their request to devote some developers fees money towards its construction at an upcoming school board meeting.