New Boys & Girls Club facility easily gains planners’ approval

By Rachana Dixit

Published: September 9, 2008

With only a smattering of comments, the Charlottesville Planning Commission swiftly approved site plans for a new Boys & Girls Club facility during its Tuesday meeting.

The new, $7 million center — to be located on the campus of Charlottesville’s Buford Middle School at 617 Ninth St. S.W. — measures at 24,700 square feet and will house a gymnasium, a learning center and game and activity rooms for various ages. There will also be an entire wing devoted to teenagers.

The Boys & Girls Club of Charlottesville/Albemarle began operating in the site’s old Smith Pool building, which was demolished in June, in 1992. But space became all the more scarce as membership grew.

Thomas Jones, chairman of the building committee and a member of the organization’s board of directors, said in an interview that the organization regularly crammed 80 children into the facility, and sometimes that number reached 100 during the summer.

“As we grew, we were basically out of space almost as soon as we opened,” Jones said of the old building.

Before construction can begin, planning manager Missy Creasy said final site plans must be approved by the city. But she said that would not be far off, as the new center is set to open in 2010.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Dan Rosen-sweig expressed concern about where the construction staging area would be, in order to avoid conflict with the middle school. Jones said the plan was to have the major construction staging point off 10th Street Southwest.

Commissioner Genevieve Keller said it is also crucial to maintain the area’s existing trees.

“Caution needs to be taken because this is a community use surrounded by a residential neighborhood,” she said.

Construction will be no stranger at the 18.8-acre Buford site, as a $9.8 million aquatics and fitness center adjacent to the Boys & Girls Club facility is also set for completion in 2010. Though Smith already shuttered to allow for the 19,000-square-foot center, it will enable the city to eventually close Crow Pool as well.

The Crow and Smith pools were built in 1975. City officials have said that a new facility will save the city money over renovating the aging facilities, which would cost up to $6 million.

Jones said the Buford site is ideal for the Boys & Girls Club because of its central location, and it has been looking to expand in the city for many years.

In the past 16 years, the area organization has built new facilities at the Southwood Mobile Home Park — located off Fifth Street Extended — Jack Jouett Middle School in Albemarle County, Madison County High School and a branch site at Prospect Heights Middle School in Orange County.

In 2003 a lease was inked with the city to use Buford grounds for the new center, and at the City Council’s Sept. 2 meeting a special-use permit was approved to allow a club to operate in a residential neighborhood. Councilors also approved a parking space reduction to 23 spaces.

“For serving the kids of Charlottesville, we needed space to build a larger facility,” Jones said. The new building will have capacity for 400 students.

At Tuesday’s meeting, he added, “We’re very excited about this project.”