Almost six months after unveiling ideas at public forums, Vision 2020 organizers haven’t made much progress on a proposed site for a new community recreation center.

Vision 2020 is still negotiating with Austin Utilities to potentially purchase the former downtown power plant, according to Vision 2020 Director of Vision Creation Laura Helle.

“We’re still working on it, and we remain hopeful,” Helle said.

The downtown plant site is the preferred site for the Vision 2020 Community Recreation Center Committee. If the downtown plant doesn’t work out, volunteers will look into purchasing land in the post office district in southeast Austin.

While volunteers have worked on other things related to the center, such as refining the center’s proposed amenities and creating a community fundraising campaign, that work can’t continue until Vision 2020 announces a rec center site.

Yet the stalled negotiations are also affecting other plans in the community. Though the Austin ArtWorks Festival is set for Aug. 27 and 28 in 2016, festival organizers don’t know where the weekend events will be held. If the power plant is sold to Vision 2020, the festival will have to relocate.

“We’re not quite sure what will happen,” said Jennie Knoebel, executive director of the Austin Area Commission for the Arts, during this year’s festival.

The group has made strides since Vision 2020 formed in 2012. Committee members have gathered research, done a feasibility study on the community’s recreation needs and narrowed a list of 24 potential recreation center sites in the area down to two possible downtown locations.

The feasibility study, performed by Anderson, Niebuhr & Associates Inc. of the Twin Cities, found 58 percent of Austin and nearby residents would either definitely, probably or maybe join a new YMCA/rec center, 90 percent of current members would continue at an upgraded facility, and 41 percent of residents who wouldn’t join the Y would at some point use a pay-per-use portion of the rec center.

The $54,000 study used in-depth phone interviews with 21 “influential community members,” a focus group of Hispanic families and parents with young children, and surveys with 100 current Austin YMCA members, 350 Austin residents and 50 Mower County residents near Austin. It was accurate within plus or minus 10 percentage points for YMCA members and plus or minus 5 percentage points for residents, and assumed a Y membership would be $45 monthly for individuals and $65 for families.

Yet the group found renewed interest last fall after Vision 2020 and Austin Public Schools announced a $5.2 million dome and artificial turf project to renovate Wescott Field. In addition, organizers held a public forum in March to share details on the center with the community.

The committee has researched other rec centers in communities like Andover, Minnesota, where cities share the rec center space with a local YMCA. Big changes could take place if the YMCA chooses to help run a rec center in Austin, but committee members say they hoped to make a rec center affordable and keep membership costs where they are currently.

The new rec center could have more amenities such as a large fitness space with a track for walking and running, an aquatic center featuring multiple pools, therapeutic sauna and whirlpool, and more.

It’s unknown how long negotiations will continue, but volunteers are anxious to move forward on the center, according to Helle.