CC Minutes - 09/08/10 Work Session

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B. WORK SESSION: Next Steps in City Space Planning The council was joined by Central Services Director Kristi Hammitt and Facilities Manager Mike Penwell. Ms. Hammitt led the council through a PowerPoint presentation that laid out a long -term roadmap for City Hall space planning. She proposed to use the existing full block City Hall site to build a new 100,000 square foot facility. The building size was based on past master planning documents adjusted for the move of the police facility to Country Club Road. She estimated the structure could be built at a cost of $40 million to $50 million. Ms. Hammitt shared a draft timeline for the planning, transition, and construction phases and anticipated staff would return in spring 2011 with a concept plan and funding strategy. She invited questions. Mayor Piercy believed that City Hall was an expression of the community and she did not find the current structure to be satisfactory in that regard. She liked the idea of a City Hall that was modest, functional, and architecturally interesting. She wanted City Hall to be "green." She thought the council needed to think of the role the facility played in creating the downtown that the council desired to see. Mayor Piercy thought the council was at a pivotal moment. While she acknowledged the need to proceed cautiously, Mayor Piercy said the community needed to keep in mind the building was not safe. Mr. Clark agreed with the mayor's remarks. Mr. Clark did not think the council had an adequate discussion of locating City Hall at the EWEB site and said it had yet to hear a presentation on the details of that approach. He wanted to look at more options. He expressed concern about the timing of a bond measure given the competition it would have from other government initiatives. He suggested the council needed a "Plan B" and recommended that it explore other options before committing itself to a site. Ms. Taylor acknowledged that the current City Hall was deteriorated but that deterioration was caused by neglect and could be fixed. She said if the building was not safe, she did not understand why the council had not acted to address that. Ms. Taylor pointed out the existing City Hall had unused space and more space would be available when the Police Department left. She thought the City would put the vacated Fire Department space to use, which had not happened. Ms. Taylor said she had expected to see details about the cost of rehabilitating City Hall but that was not provided; she also asked for information on space the City was renting and had yet to see that information. Mr. Brown also wanted to look at all the options, although he preferred the existing City Hall site over the EWEB site. He said the cost of buying and renovating the EWEB site was close to the cost of a new building. However, it was a credible option that the council needed to examine. He also thought that Ms. Taylor was correct, and he did not want to discard the option of remodeling City Hall. Mr. Brown asked Mr. Penwel l if City Hall could be modified with additional stories. Mr. Penwell said the building was designed for the north wing to be added to, but the Building Code had changed and the structure was considered a high risk seismically. While he liked the EWEB site, it was in the floodplain and was less centrally located than the current City Hall site, and he did not want to move additional City functions out of downtown. Mr. Pryor was willing to support Mr. Clark's desire to explore the details of the EWEB site in the spirit of open mindedness. However, he believed that the current site was the best site given it was already owned by the City, was a full block, and was centrally located. He thought the City would have to spend an enormous amount to rehabilitate City Hall but that would result only in an old building with improved MINUTES— Eugene City Council September 8, 2010 Page 5 Work Session