"This is the first step," Department Spokesperson Kathryn Holmes Johnson explains to GlobeSt.com. "We're looking to get the input of the community about the facility itself, and we're also engaging the community about actual programming and what will be going on inside the building." The center will offer recreation space as well as education and community programs.

Arlington County purchased the structure, which was formerly a Safeway grocery store, for $2.3 million in 1996 as a temporary facility. Since the day the community center opened, it has been "bursting at the seams," Johnson says. "It's highly used seven days a week, from the time the doors open to the time they close." Costs of the county-funded renovation project are not known at this stage.