The overview
In January, Sugar Land’s Animal Advisory Board brought in architecture, engineering and planning firm PGAL and Animal Arts, an architecture firm dedicated to the care and shelter of animals, to verify the proposed facility would meet animal standards and update the construction budget to the 2024 cost, Director of Special Projects Jennifer Brown said at the May 10 Animal Advisory Board meeting.
Brown said the proposed facility’s cost is now projected to be $20.36 million compared to the initial project estimate of $9 million due to:
- Rising construction costs
- Changes in animal housing industry standards requiring an additional 15 square feet per dog
“We want to build what is needed—we don’t want to undersize our facility,” Brown said. “One of the options was to build with the money that we have, and basically it gives us what we have now; it doesn’t give us any bigger of a facility.”
Digging in
The new facility is proposed to be 23,609 square feet with an outdoor canopy, which would be able to accommodate:
- 80 dogs
- 132 cats
The facility proposed in 2019 would have been about 6,400 square feet smaller and housed 10 fewer dogs, Brown said.
Something to note
During the Sugar Land City Council retreat April 23-24, council directed Animal Advisory Board officials to build what is needed rather than what the funds already covered, Brown said.
Brown said council also gave the Animal Advisory Board several directions, including:
- Completing fundraising for what was previously committed, though fundraised money is not required up front
- Finding ways to reduce funding needed, if possible
- Evaluating alternative existing commercial and municipal spaces to see if the option would be more cost effective
The Animal Advisory Board will discuss the proposed new facility as well as a proposed general obligation bond for the November election at a City Council workshop May 28, Brown said.
