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Mr. Penwell reported on the City’s most recent attempts to relocate certain public safety services out of the <br />current City Hall building including the 911 call center, the property and forensics section of the EPD, and <br />the downtown fire station and the fire marshal’s office. <br />Mr. Penwell continued to describe the current City Hall’s failing building systems, including the deteriorat- <br />ing state of the building’s electrical and heating/ventilation systems. In addition to various other energy <br />inefficiencies endemic to the current City Hall building, Mr. Penwell noted that the use of steam heat for <br />the building would be discontinued by EWEB within the next three to five years. <br />Mr. Penwell described that, although the current City Hall building had won several design awards since its <br />completion in the 1960’s, the structure had not aged well and currently represented an inefficient and <br />inwardly-focused design aesthetic that did not correspond with the City’s urban development planning <br />strategies. <br />Mr. Penwell expressed that one of the main reasons for the investigation for a new city hall facility was that <br />the City divisions had become spread out over too wide an area downtown. <br />Mr. Penwell presented information regarding the proposed police facility building at 300 Country Club <br />Road and reviewed several of that building’s features for the benefit of the council. <br />Mr. Penwell stated that, should the City choose to relocate the EPD headquarters to the Country Club Road <br />building, a downtown public safety station would be established in conjunction with regular car and bike <br />patrols in order to maintain a police presence in the downtown area. <br />Mr. Penwell briefly described the projected costs associated with a new police facility including those <br />associated with a new patrol facility as well as the relocation of the EPD into the Country Club Road <br />building. Mr. Penwell described the current status of the facility reserves for the benefit of the council. <br />Mr. Penwell presented information regarding the City’s Civic Campus Concept and noted that staff was <br />currently recommending that the City utilize its development partnerships with Beam and WG in order to <br />consolidate a number of City offices into their respective development projects. <br />Mr. Penwell noted that, with respect to the plans for the current City Hall building, a variety of public <br />outreach and community involvement opportunities would be provided in order to determine the best <br />possible plans for the site. <br />Mr. Piercy thanked Mr. Penwell for his presentation and appreciated that he had restated much of the <br />information for the benefit of those members of the public watching the council webcast. <br />Ms. Piercy found it hard to believe, in light of the current City Hall’s significant structural and design <br />problems, that it was possible to continue the discussion of the building as a viable public service facility. <br />She appreciated that the building had at one time been a valuable and important facet of the City but felt <br />that the current information indicated that it would be best to discontinue the use of the building. <br />Mr. Zelenka supported the City’s efforts to move out of the current City Hall facility and noted that he was <br />in favor of soliciting public feedback and input regarding the future use of the current building. He agreed <br />that while it might be better to have the EPD based downtown there were currently no viable spaces <br />available and that the Country Club Road building represented the best course of action. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 29, 2009 Page 4 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />