CC Minutes - 09/20/06 Work Session

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move out and back in. She said the Butterfly Lot was a good site but was concerned about impacts on the Farmers Market during construction. Ms. Bettman observed that some forum participants viewed the City Hall as a mixed-use development and re-emphasized that mixed-use did not have to happen all in the same building or even all in the same block; it just needed to be in proximity. She did not believe the City as a public entity should be creating an unfair competitive field for the businesses that were in downtown and would likely benefit by the public investment by creating more competition that was publicly subsidized. She was opposed to commercial space within City Hall. Mr. Papé commended the design team for its work. He hoped that media representatives at the work session would digest the agenda materials and get word out to the community that there was objective documented evidence to support pursuing specific options. He was not ready to eliminate the Sears site and asked whether the current City Hall site or the Sears site was more ready for development. Mr. Penwell said that site preparation was a very small percentage of the overall project cost and not a significant factor. Mr. Papé asserted his interest in continuing to consider the Sears site as an option because of its location. Mr. Hacker commented that work of the design team suggested that private mixed-use development was easier and more attractive on sites that were very close to central public transportation. He said the library also made the Sears site more attractive for housing than the current City Hall site. He said keeping the Sears site as an active option could potentially scare away private developers, which the City wanted to avoid, but he favored retaining it as a possibility if the proposed development did not happen. The design team believed the Sears site was better as a private development than as a public development because it would provide a mix of urban activities in off-hours and weekends that a public facility would not. He felt the City would benefit more from private development of the Sears site. Mr. Papé asked if any public entity had entered into an “air space” arrangement where a block was developed with mixed-use on the ground floor and public offices such as City Hall above that. Mr. Hacker replied that public entities had done that but he was not aware of any projects that included a city hall. City Manager Taylor and Mr. Cohen offered examples of that type of development with a library as the public function. In response to a question from Mayor Piercy, Mr. Hacker said that the Sears site could be added for consideration at a later date if the council wished to move the two recommended sites to the conceptual design phase. He explained that conceptual design was a vehicle to identify the various issues and understand their implications for both full block and half block sites. He said that would not prevent the council from choosing an entirely different site either for study or for the city hall. He said a full schematic design process would follow the conceptual design. Ms. Taylor asked if conceptual designs for full and half blocks could be done without specific sites. Mr. Hacker replied that conceptual design was not completely abstract and it was necessary to understand street direction and capacities, public access and other factors as related to a particular site. He said an entirely abstract process would not teach the kinds of things the design team and council needed to know. He said the assumption was that Site 8 or Site 9, or possibly the Sears site if private development did not occur, would be the eventual site of the new City Hall and the conceptual design would assist the council in making the final site selection. MINUTES—City Council September 20, 2006 Page 4 Work Session