Groundbreaking inches closer on new Keller Senior Activities Center

The city of Keller took one step closer Oct. 13 toward breaking ground on a new senior activities center, as members of the Keller Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously approved a site plan for the $9.6 million project.

The planned 21,210-square-foot building will be located on a 15-acre lot that is the site of the current senior center and the Keller Public Library. According to the site plan, the new building will be located on Johnson Road to the southeast of the Johnson and Bourland Road intersection.

Commission members approved the site plan with four variances to the cities’ unified development code. City Council is expected to vote on the plan at an Oct. 20 meeting.

According to Keller City Planner JP Ducay, the variances will allow an additional 14 parking spaces, a 5-foot encroachment of the building structure and the placement of ornamental trees instead of canopy trees, all of which will impact a required 30-foot landscape buffer along Johnson Road.

A fourth variance was also approved to allow “softscape” landscaping in lieu of 5-foot foundation planting along the base of the building, which will help mitigate potential issues with the foundation, Ducay said.

Approved by 68% of voters in November 2018, the new center is expected to have a capacity of 800 people. It will replace the current 4,200-square-foot facility, which was built in 1990 and has a capacity of 120 people.

Expected to break ground by January, the project has been delayed about six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, City Manager Mark Hafner said. Once underway, the project will take 9-12 months to complete, he said.

“We had to make sure before we got into construction that we weren’t seeing a large revenue decrease,” Hafner said.