Denton's 1977-built senior center sits inside a 100-year FEMA floodplain, where major storms could bring three feet of water into the building, according to the city's director of capital projects. That flood risk, combined with cramped space at the South Branch Library, pushed the Denton City Council to unanimously direct staff this week to move forward with brand-new locations for both facilities.
The council's decision, made during a work session, sends the senior center to a 16.2-acre city-owned site near Mack Park and the South Branch Library to a 14.4-acre city-owned site on Ryan Road, as reported by dentonrc.com. Both projects trace back to a 2023 voter-approved bond, and Community Impact reported the bond provides $96.5 million for the two projects combined, according to the seed report from Community Impact. Seth Garcia, Denton's director of capital projects, presented council members with four options for using the bond funds before the vote.
Why the Current Buildings No Longer Work
The senior center currently sits on a 2.5-acre property downtown near Quakertown Park, where it shares onsite parking with the Civic Center pool, per Community Impact's reporting. Garcia told council that remodeling in place would require extensive and expensive flood-proofing to meet city codes and would close the center for 12 to 15 months, while the property also suffers from a lack of reliable underground utility records. Council member Suzi Rumohr said relocating and expanding the senior center would also ease the ongoing competition for parking with pool users, and that the move could eventually let the city renovate and expand the Civic Center pool or add parking there instead.
The South Branch Library faces its own space crunch. Built in 1994 on a 2.8-acre parcel on Teasley Lane, the branch was expanded in 2009 to 21,000 square feet, nearly doubling its size, Garcia said. But the voter-approved Proposition G calls for growing the library to about 40,000 square feet, and Garcia said the existing parcel simply cannot accommodate a building that size along with the outdoor programming space and parking the project requires. The current site also lacks adequate underground utility records, mirroring the senior center's documentation problem.
Options Council Considered Before Choosing Separate Sites
Garcia's four options ranged from building a combined senior center and library on Ryan Road, to expanding and renovating both facilities at their current sites, to acquiring and converting existing commercial buildings elsewhere in the city. City staff had previously floated co-location as a way to save money, noting that placing the senior center with the library on Ryan Road could create operational synergies, according to a separate dentonrc.com report. Mack Park had also been floated as a more central option for the senior center, though staff flagged parking capacity there as a potential issue.
Council member Joe Holland said he preferred two separate sites if relocation moved forward, and the council ultimately selected construction of new, separate facilities rather than a joint building. Garcia also said moving the senior center to Mack Park specifically would not improve service to other parts of town, while relocating the library roughly a mile south would help capture more city residents who already use the branch, per the same account from Community Impact. New construction on the fresh sites would let both the current senior center and library stay open and operating throughout construction, Garcia noted, avoiding the lengthy closures a renovation would require.
Demand Is Rising as Denton's Senior Population Grows
The South Branch Library is the smallest branch in Denton's library system, yet it posts the highest material check-outs per hour of operation of any branch, according to the city's Proposition G materials. The branch recorded 185,115 items checked out and 159,703 visitors in the prior year, and it hosted 301 programs, more than any other location in the Denton Public Library system, per dentonrc.com's reporting.
The push for a larger senior center comes as Denton County's older population has grown sharply. Residents age 65 and older increased by nearly 100% between 2010 and 2019, rising from 7% to 10.5% of the county's population even as the county's overall population grew by more than 33% to 887,207 residents, according to data reported by Community Impact. Denton also operates the American Legion Hall as another city-run senior center, which reopened in December 2021 after a significant renovation, per the city's website.
Funding Figures and What Comes Next
Figures for the bond allocations tied to the two projects vary by source. Community Impact's report on the work session cites 2023 Bond Proposition F allocating $47 million for the senior center and Proposition G budgeting $49.5 million for the South Branch Library, attributed to city documents. Separately, dentonrc.com reported that November 2023 voters approved $47.3 million for the Active Adult Center and $49.5 million for South Branch Library, while the city's own Proposition G page states the measure authorizes the issuance of $49,545,000 in bonds for the library and estimates the total library project cost at $48,576,000. The city's 2023 Bond Program page separately states the full six-year bond program totals $291,355,000, while a city bond-election announcement from August 2023 put the overall program at $309,590,000 across eight propositions — figures that have not been reconciled publicly.
City staff received a separate $250,000 planning allocation, distinct from the bond itself, which will go toward hiring an architect and beginning preliminary site evaluations, according to Community Impact's report. The capital projects department will next conduct traffic impact studies, utility assessments and zoning reviews for both properties, and will coordinate facility layouts with department leaders within the voter-approved budgets. Detailed cost estimates are expected only after public outreach and stakeholder sessions, and staff plan to return to the city council during the 2027-28 fiscal year budget process to request full architectural design funding.
