Drastic changes to the cost and design of a new clubhouse at Beaver Meadow Golf Course weren’t enough to sway city councilors to delay a vote on a $10.3 million bond before the new council takes office next year.

Until last month, the designs called for a three-story clubhouse that would be about 18,000 square feet. Now, it’s a scaled-back single-floor structure about one-third of the size after the New Hampshire Golf Association decided against leasing a space in the clubhouse.

Cost estimates, which are more than double the $4.9 million allocated used as a “place-holder” in the last city budget weren’t finalized until last week.

Ward 10 councilor Zandra Rice Hawkins said Mayor Jim Bouley and other councilors should not be pushing a $10 million golf clubhouse through before the council turns over, especially after voters in the recent elections signaled a desire for a more comprehensive discussion on the city’s priorities.

“I think that we do a real disservice when we rush a major vote through like this in the last two months of the lame-duck council,” said Rice Hawkins at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Since the new plan came out, the ad-hoc committee established to develop plans for the clubhouse construction has not met, and the public also hasn’t been presented with the revised design.

“It is a sad commentary that for some councilors, the golf clubhouse is more important and a higher priority than affordable housing, public safety, our schools, and other critical issues in Concord,” Rice Hawkins said in an email. “Fast-tracking the golf clubhouse right now is a clear sign that certain city leaders know they are out of touch with public opinion.”

Ward 5 Councilor Stacey Brown made a motion to table the matter from a Dec. 11 public hearing to give the public more time to digest the new plan. She suggested sending the project back to the committee to allow the public to get feedback on the new design.

However, the motion went nowhere. Councilors voted 12-3 against any delay of a vote or to slow down the process. Only Rice Hawkins and At Large Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton voted in favor of Brown’s motion.

Brown said the amount of public input on the design changes was in stark contrast to other projects, like the skatehouse at White Park and the Community Center on the Heights, where public engagement led to better outcomes.

Brown argued that the community deserves the opportunity to weigh in before committing to such a significant financial endeavor.

“This is a drastic change,” said Brown at the meeting. “The public doesn’t have any input other than the December vote. I feel this is too soon to ask folks for such a large sum without their input.”

Bouley, however, defended the decision-making process and said that the clubhouse renovation plans had been in motion since June 2019.

However, the council has had little public input from residents on whether they prefer to renovate the existing structure at a cost of $914,000 or construct a new clubhouse at more than 10 times the cost.

The pace of the clubhouse discussion has been swift since Bouley initiated an ad-hoc clubhouse committee in December 2022. In April, the committee gathered for a visioning session, and by August, new building designs and site plans were unveiled. Then the project took a twist and was scaled back.

“This is not a rush by any imagination,” said Bouley. “We have a responsibility to the citizens of Concord to fulfill our obligations when we sat there two years ago and we held their hand up, and we took our oath. So I would strongly encourage that we move forward with a public hearing.”

The taxpayer-funded bond will require a two-thirds vote of the council to pass.

“Just because the majority of the current lame-duck Council may be willing to jam this through does not mean we should commit $10 million in taxpayer dollars when we already have other major expenses before Concord residents, including the new middle school,” Rice Hawkins said.

If approved, the project is set for a bond sale in January 2025, with residents experiencing a yearly tax impact starting in 2026.

For a property valued at $300,000, the annual impact will start at $30. At its peak in 2030 and 2031, it will be $39. And by 2044, it will decrease to $6.