NEW COMMUNITY CENTER at OAK HILL PARK

By Newell Arnerich

Mayor Arnerich, appoints committee to plan a new community center at Oak Hill Park.

The Danville Town Council has authorized the planning and design for a new community center at the lovely lakeside setting at Oak Hill Park. The existing small meeting room has served its useful life. The Council has created an oversight group to work with an award winning architect and our Town staff to carefully plan a new community center with the same care and thought that went into the community center next to our library on Front Street.

The new facility will feature a large multi-purpose room, similar in size to the Front Street center, a large recreation room (dividable into 3 smaller classrooms), an art room area, public restrooms accessible directly for park patrons and interior restrooms for the community center users. A kitchen facility will be designed to support the many functions in the multi-purpose room. One of our prestigious local caterers, Patrick David's Café and Catering, will assist with the planning and design of these facilities.

Along with the actual new building there will be exterior terraces overlooking the lake. The terraces will provide warm weather expansion of the large multi-purpose room to enjoy outdoor dining for weddings and special events. The committee will look at adding and improving parking as part of the new community center project. Easy drop-off and access will be a key solution to making the new center a great success.

The visual character of the new center will be equal in quality to our famous library and community center while providing large expanses of glass to enjoy the view of the majestic Mt. Diablo and lakeside setting. The center will not impact any of the existing programmed areas of the park. This new facility will further support our Summer Youth Day Camp programs and provide much needed space for additional recreation and art programs. We look for this facility to be under construction next spring.