The town of Brighton is moving ahead with plans to build a community center near the winter farmers market at Buckland Park.
As proposed, the $26 million two-story facility would include a double gymnasium and a yoga or dance studio, an elevated walking and jogging track, an indoor playground and meeting rooms. There also would be dedicated senior space and a commercial kitchen.
“There's a a general layout,” Supervisor Bill Moehle said, “but it's really very, very conceptual.”
In the coming weeks, the town plans to apply for state funding from a newly minted $100 million competitive grant program specifically created for such facilities. New York’s Building Recreational Infrastructure for Communities, Kids and Seniors, or BRICKS, program provides grants of up to $15 million for design, construction, renovation and land acquisition.
Applications are due next month, with awards likely announced around Nov. 1.
Priority is given to underserved communities and those offering affordable childcare, eldercare and mental health counseling. Moehle said “any or all of those, we’ll be fleshing out with our application.”
"Before there's an actual design, we'll be doing a lot more work,” Moehle said, “including, you know, continued community input.”
The consultant's report sets out an aggressive but still nearly four-year timetable that would include a public referendum. With inflation, the project cost could reach almost $29 million by the time construction began.
This process began back in 2021, when the town hired consultants SWBR and Colorado-based Ballard*King & Associates to conduct a needs assessment and feasibility study.
Brighton is one of the largest local suburbs still without a community center.
The town of Perinton was the first in the area to provide a membership-based, indoor rec center. It “has become a benchmark” for others, consultants said.
Perinton’s community center opened in 1997, and expanded to include an aquatics center in 2004. Chili, Webster, Pittsford, Irondequoit and Henrietta all have followed suit, either building new or renovating and expanding.
These projects have not come without pushback, with the loudest objections coming from private health clubs.
“The private sector has vigorously contended that public facilities unfairly compete with them in the market and have spent considerable resources attempting to derail public projects,” consultants wrote in their final report. “However, the reality is that in most markets where public community recreation centers have been built, the private sector has not been adversely affected and, in many cases, has continued to grow.”
Public centers instead serve a market more aligned with nonprofit providers like the YMCA or the Louis S. Wolk Jewish Community Center of Greater Rochester.
“While less vociferous than the private providers, the non-profits have often expressed concern over public community recreation centers,” the consultant report reads.
A message left with JCC leadership was not immediately returned.
Brighton had considered partnering with the JCC on Edgewood Avenue or renovating the former Family Jubilee Center on South Clinton Avenue before it sold to Northridge Church.
But while each would be a quicker and cheaper solution, consultants concluded that the JCC doesn’t meet the total space needs, and the town would not own the facility despite a projected $1.5 million capital outlay. Jubilee would cost a projected $11.5 million but would still be an aging facility.
The consultant report summarized the financials for each option:
JCC
- Capital investment: $1,541,717
- Annual (rent) payment: $1,528,151
- Cost per average home: $159.53 annually / $13.29 monthly
Family Jubilee
- Capital investment $11,543,717
- Annual (bond) payment: $1,546,196
- Cost per average home $161.41 annually / $13.45 monthly
Buckland Park
- Capital investment: $26,288,281
- Annual (bond) payment: $2,463,318
- Cost per average home: $257.15 annually / $21.43 monthly
Each comes with an operational budget approaching $3 million annually, with Buckland presenting the greatest potential new revenue through new program and course offerings of around $830,000.
Brighton’s initial concept currently list an aquatics, fitness or workout component — though the latter is shown in a preliminary floor plan and ranked high on a residents’ wish list during early public input sessions. An indoor pool “would require a minimum investment of $15 million beyond the base cost of a community center,” according to the consultant report, figuring an eight-lane, 25-yard swimming pool. An outdoor pool would cost $5 million.
The town has an outdoor pool behind the public library off Elmwood Avenue. The pool is closed and awaiting refurbishment and other improvements. Moehle said that work, along with a planned splash pad and new playground, is not likely to be completed until summer 2027.
The consultant recommended that town officials continue discussions with the JCC, noting that the town previously asked JCC for a proposal for pool access for town residents. The JCC proposal was for the town to pay an annual $155,000 access fee, the equivalent of $10 for each household in the town. Residents would then pay a daily admission fee of $7 per person to access the JCC pools, the report states.
