YMCA, LPS plan school, rec center

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By MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star

Picture this: On the crest of a hill in far northwest Lincoln, a new middle school shares space with a new YMCA, a 31-acre example of public and private working together.

Both the school and the YMCA  would use the gymnasiums, the exercise rooms, the art rooms.

Entrances would be separate and students couldn’t get into the YMCA during school hours, nor YMCA patrons into the school. Parking would be separate.

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Homes in the Fallbrook neighborhood. (Jill Peitzmeier)

Homes in the Fallbrook neighborhood. (Jill Peitzmeier)

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Graphic: Fallbrook Middle School schematic and map.

Graphic: Fallbrook Middle School schematic and map....

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A city park would be nearby, possibly with soccer, baseball and softball fields.

The shared project would be built in the Fallbrook residential and business development that borders U.S. Highway 34. The Lincoln Board of Education approved a design concept Tuesday.

An $18.1 million middle school was among the projects included in  the $250 million bond issue voters passed in February. It is scheduled to open in August 2009.

Dennis Van Horn, Lincoln Public Schools associate superintendent for business affairs, said the concept of sharing locations isn’t new — city recreation centers are attached to Belmont, Irving and Calvert elementaries and the city runs a teen center at Park Middle School.

But this is the first time the city and a private agency are planning to share bricks and mortar.

The concept saves both money, because they share cost as well as space, Van  Horn said.

The YMCA will also provide a place for afterschool programs or Community Learning Centers.

“It extends services for our students beyond the school day,” he said.

The entire project is in the preliminary stages and even the land purchase hasn’t been finalized.

LPS has owned about 17 acres in the Fallbrook area for some time, but bought it with plans to build an elementary school there.

A middle school — particularly one attached to a YMCA — takes more space. So officials are negotiating with Nebco, the Fallbrook developer, to shift the location and buy a total of 31.2 acres.

The YMCA would lease the land from LPS to build its new facility.

Van Horn assured board members Tuesday that the land transaction is in the final stages and should be ready for board approval next month.

Tim Mettenbrink, Nebco’s vice president for real estate, likes the concept.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “We’ve been highly supportive of that. We think it makes a lot of sense.”

For one thing, he said, the northwest part of town is sorely in need of a YMCA. And it fits in well with the “new urbanism” concept of the development, which tries to create a small-town feel in the area.

“It’s at the heart of what we’re trying to do there,” he said, “with a commercial anchor on the south end (of Fallbrook) and a civic anchor in the middle.”

Tom Shamburg, YMCA vice president and chief financial officer, said his organization has wanted for some time to build a YMCA in northwest Lincoln. The city’s third YMCA, in southwest Lincoln near Lincoln Southwest High School, opened in 2002.

The design concept for the school-YMCA project in Fallbrook, prepared by Bahr, Vermeer Haecker Architects, includes a 161,000-square-foot middle school and a 50,000-square-foot YMCA. About 45,000 square feet would be shared space.

The school would be built on three levels, though students could exit from each level, Van Horn said.

The building  would be designed for 750 students but could handle more than 900 without portables.

The district’s two newest middle schools — Lux and Scott — are single-level schools designed in a “pod” format to separate students into teams. It also allows sixth-graders to be largely separated from upperclassmen.

The middle school in Fallbrook would follow the same design philosophy, but, because of the layout of the land, would be on different levels. 

Its design would be a combination of the new high schools, North Star and Southwest, and the newest middle schools, Van Horn said.

“It takes advantage of what we learned with the high schools,” Van Horn said at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The plans include soccer, baseball and softball fields but officials said just which entity would build them hasn’t been worked out yet. 

Board member Doug Evans noted that the plans show the possibility of the YMCA having an outdoor pool. He questioned whether that might lead to the perception of inequality.

“Have you thought of the political reality of driving by a school that looks like it has an outdoor pool?. . .I think there’s going to be some problems with that in the future.”

Van Horn agreed the district would have to be very clear about what belonged to LPS and what did not.

But Shamburg said an outdoor pool is only a possibility and not anything planned for the immediate future.

Shared spaces would include the gymnasium, exercise and locker rooms, a health center, family consumer science, art and industrial tech rooms.

The YMCA is considering using the art, family consumer science and industrial tech rooms for summer classes, Van Horn said.

Combining resources of organizations like the YMCA and schools will likely become more common around the country because it makes sense for everybody, Van Horn said.

“If everything is right there, the likelihood that it will be used by the families and kids will be higher,” he said.

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com.

Fallbrook

The plan: a 700-acre residential and commercial development in northwest Lincoln that is projected to eventually include 1,000 to 1,500 homes and up to 680,000 square feet of commercial and retail space. The “new urbanism” concept is designed to create a small-town feel — homes with front porches and garages in the back, narrower streets, pedestrian paths, common areas and parks. The development is bordered by U.S. Highway 34, North First Street, Northwest 12th Street and extends a half mile north of Alvo Road.

Now: The development has about 100 single-family homes and 28 townhouses. Ameritas Life Insurance has offices there, along with Farm Credit Services of America. BryanLGH Medical Center is building a medical plaza and another building is available for lease.