The Frisco Citizen Bond Committee began finalizing the bond proposals Jan. 19 and discussed whether a performing arts center should be proposed to the city council.

Each bond member listed how much money he or she thought should be proposed for each bond project. The numbers were then compiled into a spreadsheet so the committee could see what the average recommendations were.

For the entire bond package, the lowest recommendation was about $245 million and the highest recommendation was about $302 million.

The committee began discussing the performing arts center proposal first because six out of 17 committee members did not recommend any money for the project. All but one of the other projects had all 17 members recommending some amount of money.

Some members said a bond proposal for an arts facility should wait until a more specific plan, such as the square footage of the facility or the number of seats, is laid out. These members said they are not against an arts facility in Frisco but rather think the project can wait for a year or two.

"There's a lot of 'depends' here. There's a lot of 'we're not sure,'" bond committee member Shona Huffman said. "That's going to be very hard for both the [Political Action Committee] and for us as a committee [to support]."

Tammy Meinershagen, the committee member who proposed $20 million for an arts facility, said she would like to provide specifics for a project, but she doesn't want to wait to get the project started.

"We have a need for an arts facility in Frisco because 120 seats is not sustainable for the next five to seven years," she said. "The conversation needs to happen now, and that's why I presented it."

Meinershagen said the Grand Park project faced a similar situation in the 2006 bond election when not all the project specifications were established. Rick Weiland, Parks and recreation director, said the city wanted to know that the public supported the project in 2006, and the bond election was one way to do that.

"At that point in time, the only thing we had to work with was the vision that was brought forth in terms of, 'Here's the property, and here are really just some general things that it could potentially work toward,'" Weiland said.

Also in 2006, voters approved $5 million to go toward a cultural arts and science center. About $1 million contributed to the creation of the Frisco Discovery Center, which houses the Black Box Theater and art gallery.

City Manager George Purefoy said the bond committee in 2006 originally recommended about $12 million to go toward the center. The recommendation was reduced to $5 million with the hope that the Community Development Corp. and the tax increment reinvestment zone would add additional funding to build a larger facility, he said. The recession contributed to that plan falling through, he said.

Purefoy said part of the reason city staff recommended $10 million for an arts center for this bond election is that this bond election plus the $4 million left over from the 2006 bond election would bring the total close to the 2006 recommendation.

The committee will finish bond discussions, including the performing arts center proposal, Jan. 26, the last meeting before the proposals are presented to the city council.