The city of Sugar Land plans to either expand its animal shelter or build a new structure as its current one is over capacity with numbers expected to grow.

The Sugar Land City Council discussed several possible options for the shelter—located at 101 Gillingham Lane—during a June 28 work session that would either expand the 4,300-square-foot existing shelter or build a new one entirely.

“Anything is doable and my staff—we do amazing things every day at our current facility as far as trying to get animals in and [providing care],” said Kathryn Ketchum, Sugar Land Animal Services manager. She added that with the space, “every day is a challenge.”

Council did not make any decisions at the meeting, but the issue is expected to come back to council for further discussion. An interim solution for the capacity issues is currently under proposal in the 2017 Capital Improvement Projects Budget.

To accommodate animals before any permanent construction takes place, the interim solution involves adding a temporary building and repurposing existing rooms in the shelter.

“What I don’t like about temporary buildings is you’re just flushing cash,” Mayor Joe Zimmerman said at the workshop.

Built in 2008, the shelter was designed for 24 dogs and 35 cats. But as of June 28 capacity was reported to be 41 dogs and 115 cats.

Thirty-seven additional spaces were created for the animals with some doubling up and others staying at PetSmart or with foster families, according to meeting documents.

For an estimated $2.9 million, one option to improve the animal shelter is expanding the building to 9,100 square feet and providing spaces for 55 dogs and 119 cats. However, the report indicated that would not be enough.

The second option for $4.28 million would involve two buildings and be an expansion of the first option, adding a new 4,400-square-foot building to the 9,100-square-foot facility in the same location as the current animal shelter.

The shelter would be able to hold 77 dogs and 141 cats and would provide space for efficient operation, but little room on the site would be left for parking and outdoor dog walking spaces and play rooms.

“There will be no room on the site for any future expansion,” Quorum Architects, Inc. Project Manager Kim Dowdy said.

The third option would be to build an entirely new shelter in a different location, yet to be examined. The cost of that project would be $5.75 million, not including a land purchase.

“This facility will have much more storage than what [the shelter] has now,” Dowdy said.

The third option would be 17,000 square feet and hold 77 dogs and 139 cats.

Despite being bigger than the shelter described in option No. 2, the third option would hold about the same amount of animals because more space would be dedicated for other services. These would include food preparation, grooming, laundry, storage, a sally port and a slightly larger room for meetings, training and education, said Doug Adolph, Sugar Land assistant director of communications.

“I don’t think even Option 2 is optimal and obviously Option 1 it’s not going to work,” council member Amy Mitchell said.

Ketchum said she would ultimately prefer option No. 3.

“The first option I don’t think gets us where we need to be,” she said. “What concerns me about Option 2 is having to operate out of a 9,100 square foot building for a year while the other one is demoed and rebuilt and that to me is kind of scary, that’s kind of regressing.”