The wheels for a new community and aquatic center are now in motion.

The Sammamish City Council voted Monday to allow city Manager Ben Yazici to sign a $2.5 million design and construction contract with Colorado-based Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture.

“It’s been a long time coming,” council Tom Vance said. “I’m very happy to see this start happening for real.”

The motion passed in a 5-1 decision with council member John Curley opposed and council member John James absent.

“This is a $30 million project to satisfy 3,000 people who live in the city of Sammamish,” Curley argued. “We expect to capture 10 percent, so 3,000 people enjoy $30 million of everyone else’s money.”

Mayor Tom Odell countered by saying the same could be said about any park in the city limits.

“Just look at this as an indoor park, John,” he said.

Parks Director Jessi Bon’s presentation showed total estimated costs for the community and aquatic center project currently sit at $32.3 million — $2.3 above the budgeted cost.

She assured the council BRS is aware costs must not exceed $30 million — $25 million funded by the city and $5 million by the YMCA.

“The first thing we do, is we sharpen our pencils right now as we begin design,” Bon said. “We don’t know the sizes of our spaces, we don’t know the materials, we’re at that stage now. We’re going to be looking at probably scaling back a few spaces.”

The current timeline has construction estimated to begin in June 2014 and continuing through December 2015. The city and YMCA hope to open the 60,000 square-foot facility on the Kellman site, located behind city hall, by January 2016.