We established our Capital Campaign goal of $1.4M in June 2014, and due to the Campaign’s efforts and congregants’ generosity, we are close to reaching that goal for Phase 1. This calculation anticipated the usual delays and increases in construction costs and so included a comfortable cushion. However, since the Campaign’s inception, we incurred significant project delays in seeking annexation into the city of Escondido and dealing with the city on approval issues for our Conditional Use Permit (CUP).
The Renovation Committee recently received updated Phase 1 project budgetary estimates. Our construction estimate has grown from $1,179K to $1,508K, much of this due to a $200K-plus cost increase when the city added requirements for street widening and improvement. There were other cost increases as well. Based on this new data, the Capital Campaign recommends that we increase our funding goal from $1.4M to $1.8M.
The Board is preparing for our annual congregational meeting on Sunday, June 11, where along with other business we will update you with our recommendation on how best to move forward. We are currently investigating all possibilities, including whether to delay plans and reset the Capital Campaign with a higher goal and longer timeline (recognizing a desire to focus on continued growth in membership expressed in our visioning meeting and focus groups), whether to seek a mortgage or other loan (recognizing that significant growth in membership requires a larger campus), whether to move forward with just the first part of Phase I focusing on infrastructure with existing funds, or perhaps some combination of these. Both the Renovation Committee and the Capital Campaign reports are available for your review in the Members-only portion of our website. Please consider reviewing these before the June 11 congregational meeting if you’d like more details.