Members of the Coon Rapids City Council are mulling a critical go or no for a proposed regional community and athletic center.

The council will vote at its next meeting whether to spend $3.2 million to draw detailed plans for the center. On Tuesday night, council members received a briefing from the community center task force and the design firm Perkins+Will.

City officials hope the center -- first a replacement for the aging Cook Arena, that also will include a fitness center, senior center and community gathering space -- will kick-start a needed revitalization of Coon Rapids Boulevard as a regional corridor. Much of the boulevard now is blighted or vacant.

They also discussed the power of a community center to attract and keep new families.

"This is a short-term cost," Mayor Tim Howe told the council and a small audience of community center task force members, noting that development generates tax revenue. "I believe this will speed private investment along the boulevard. ... We can sit idle and do nothing to move forward in the community, or do we move forward and help it along?"

The city originally proposed a $60 million project that was opposed by folks who said they could not afford the additional taxes to support it. Since then, the price tag has been scaled back to $56 million, and the city is continuing to look for alternative funding sources.

The question at hand is whether designer Perkins+Will should move beyond conceptual drawings to first create basic schematic designs laying out in detail the center's appearance and operations, then move ahead to interior and landscape design, and then to construction documents. If the city goes ahead, the project is likely to be ready for bids by April 2010.

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409