SANTEESANTEE — The long-envisioned Santee Community Center is getting closer to becoming a reality, with a plan to place it in the parking lot east of the YMCA.
Late last month, the Santee City Council awarded a $1.1 million contract to HMC Architects to provide architectural, engineering, landscape and environmental design services for the project.
The community center will seat 300 people with capacity for more. The center is expected to be about 12,500 square feet in size and will feature “flexible spaces.” But unlike previous plans for the community center discussed by the council, the new vision for the center will not include a gymnasium.
A community center as well as a new library have been on the city’s list for decades. While the library isn’t moving anytime soon from its cozy spot in a shopping center near Mast Park, the community center project is moving along.
Santee native Lynda Marrokal, who is in her 60s, said she is “worried that it is going to be 40 years” for the center to come to fruition.
Marrokal told the City Council last month that it is long past time to build the center that will include space for social events, educational classes and meetings, and offer recreational opportunities for everyone from kids to seniors like herself.
“I really hope that this doesn’t take 40 years… because I don’t have 40 years,” Marrokal said. “Right now in Santee we’ve got children running around, just crazy. They’re wild. I got the kids behind me… just obnoxious. And I think it’s because they have nowhere to go. And I think it’s crucial to the parents of these children to have a place for their children. And for our seniors.
City Manager Marlene Best said the site for the center will be east of the Cameron Family YMCA near Town Center Community Park off Cuyamaca Street. Mayor John Minto said he has made it clear for a long time that he would like to see it near Santee’s oldest building, the Edgemoor Barn, on Magnolia, but that is unlikely to happen.
Santee staff said that it has been looking for ways to deliver the kind of recreation and educational programs that would be perfectly suited in a new community center.
Santee staff said the city is working with the Grossmont Hospital District to offer senior health programs at City Hall and at the Herrick Community Health Library in La Mesa. Staff is also finalizing plans for bringing senior programming into Santee mobile home parks.
The city also has t-use agreements with both the Santee School and the Grossmont Union High School districts to allow residents access to school facilities when they are not in use by the districts.
