The Capital Campaign Steering Committee reviewed preliminary architectural drawings at our meeting in January. These include plans for expanded classroom, office, and storage space, kitchen renovations, and an elevator. There are three main constraints that limit our expansion. The first is a strict limit on the percentage of our property that may be covered by impervious surface. Second, certain interior dimensions cannot be exceeded due to code restrictions. Finally, we are limited by budget. We won’t have projected costs for the preliminary plans until we have engineering input, but we are confident that we will have to make decisions about what we can afford from the extensive wish list of identified needs.
Next steps
We are waiting for bids from two of three engineering firms.
We have begun the process of reaching out to the FOUR governing agencies that will ultimately have to approve our plans. Recall that it took over two years to get those approvals for the parking. We anticipate it will not take that long for the building renovations approval, but we do not anticipate “breaking ground” on the project before 2020.
We will present the preliminary plans to the Board and Council in February.
During Middle Hour on Sunday, March 3, we will hold an informational session for the congregation.
If you haven’t yet made a commitment to support the Capital Project, please consider doing so. Recall that our original “wish list” came with a $1.7 MM estimated price tag, and the goal we ultimately decided on (at the recommendation of our consultant) is $1.1 MM. We have $920,000 pledged so far. The higher our pledge commitments, the more “wish list” items we will be able to include in the renovation plans.
Keep an eye out for news bulletins on the UUCWC website, the lobby screen, and these monthly CrossCurrents updates!
And mark your calendar to attend the informational session during Middle Hour on March 3!