Buchanan calls for halt on Bayview Center and Boathouse

Pensacola mayoral candidate Drew Buchanan has called for an immediate halt construction of the Bayview Park Community Center and asked for the Pensacola City Council to conduct a full review of the project, which is now nearly 70 percent over budget.

“I support this project, but the costs are out of control and citizens deserve answers,” Buchanan said in a press release this morning.

While rising construction costs can be blamed for a portion of the project’s increased cost, a nearly 70 percent budget overrun is indicative of a larger management problem, Buchanan said. In the past five years, the City of Pensacola built two other community centers — the Theophalis May and Woodland Heights centers — at a cost of just $3 million each.

“In the private sector, if there were cost overruns like this and a project’s cost nearly doubled, questions would be asked and people would be held accountable,” Buchanan added. “For projects of this scale, the city should be utilizing design-build construction management to keep costs predictable. As Pensacolians, we would expect the same amount and level of accountability from our municipality.”

Buchanan is also requested the city host a town hall meeting in East Hill to gather more public input on the project’s design. The only public meeting held with the East Hill residents was a year ago. The final plans were never brought back to the neighborhood. In fact, the public was never given public notice the final plans would be discussed at the council’s last budget workshop.

“The citizens of Pensacola and residents of East Hill feel their voices were not heard when it comes to building this neighborhood community center — the costliest in city history,” Buchanan said. “Holding one public input meeting just isn’t going to cut it. The citizens deserve to have input on this taxpayer-owned facility.”

A poll commissioned by Inweekly immediately after the city council vote for the project last September found 80 percent of city residents and 69 percent of District 4 residents, which includes Bayview Park and East Hill, said the mayor’s office failed to give them sufficient notice to view the final plans and comment on them.

An Inweekly/Political Matrix poll conducted yesterday found only 48.22 percent of all city voters and 48.83 percent of District 4 support the $9.6 million expenditure.

Buchanan reiterated that he supports rebuilding the Bayview Center, but that this project must reflect the needs and wants of citizens and its costs must be appropriately managed.

“This is a facility that will stand for generations in one of our city’s premier parks,” Buchanan said. “The project is way over budget and residents feel that the design doesn’t reflect their wishes. It’s time to go back to the drawing board.”