A Fountain Valley’s Boys and Girls Club could get bigger, beefing up an affordable after school program many families rely on.
Last week, Fountain Valley Planning Commissioners unanimously approved a proposal to expand the club’s Kingston Branch on Brookhurst Street.
The Boys and Girls Club of America is a national, nonprofit organization centered on youth development which has been operating for over a century. It provides before and after school programs aimed at improving academics, social skills and teaching a variety of things.
The Boys and Girls Club of Huntington Valley covers 12 locations throughout Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach. According to a staff report, the city of Fountain Valley has had a lease with the club’s Kingston Branch location since 1985 and renewed its 25 year contract in 2010.
The staff report also states that in December 2024, the city council decided to extend the lease for the organization’s nearby ClubHouse Academy on Los Alamos Street, until the end of this year.
Because that location is closing, city officials are now approving the initial steps of expanding the Boys and Girls Club’s Kingston Branch on Brookhurst Street.
On their website, programs offered at the ClubHouse Academy include classes in acting, dance, gymnastics, martial arts and music lessons.
The proposed extension to Kingston Branch plans to have three dance rooms, a classroom and a resource center to mitigate some of the loss of the performing arts programs at the closing location, as well as use the resource center for activities centered around science and technology.
There will also be accessory extensions such as offices, bathrooms and storage areas.
As of now, there are no current plans as to what will replace the ClubHouse Academy.
Laura Portier-LaLumiere the chief advancement officer of the Boys & Girls Club of Huntington Valley, said in a phone interview that though there is no set date for the construction at Kingston Branch to be completed yet, they are hoping to break ground for the project later this year.
“We are anticipating it will take about a year to build from groundbreaking,” Portier-LaLumiere said.
“So right now we are just in the beginning stages of the capital campaign for this project, so we have a few million dollars more to raise,” she continued; noting that along with funding, further planning in regards to bureaucratic processes like permits will also be required.
At the April 9 Planning Commission meeting, Commissioner Cheryl Brothers raised concerns about homeless people in the area.
Art Groeneveld, the chief executive officer of the Boys and Girls Club of Huntington Valley, said they have experience dealing with that issue.
“We’ve been on that park for about 30 years,” Groeneveld said at the meeting, “we work really well with the police department on that, so we’ll continue to monitor it closely.”
Meanwhile, Rancho Santa Margarita’s Boy and Girls club is slated to close in August after city officials there raised concerns about what the club was teaching. Club officials walked away from contract negotiations.
Noriko Ostroy is an intern at Voice of OC. To contact her, please email storybynori@gmail.com