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Council ponders size, cost for new City Hall Tuesday Oct 18, 2016 at 5:39 PM Oct 19, 2016 at 11:09 AM By John Darling for the Tidings What do you do about about the aging, earthquake-vulnerable but historically venerable Ashland City Hall when you need more space for offices and parking but don’t want to subject taxpayers to sticker shock that could run as high as $15 million? City council members Monday pondered a daunting raft of options — and their price tags — in a presentation by ORW Architects of Medford. They expressed fondness for the 125-year old City Hall, but heard that, no matter how much the building is strengthened and added onto, the small size of the site won’t meet the space needs of the growing city government. That news shelved two options for adding Community Development with the offices in the present City Hall on the downtown Plaza. Councilors got a primer in the remaining options, from architect Dana Ing Crawford: Plan 3 would add two stories on the Community Development building at 51 Winburn Way — about a block away from City Hall — with city offices consolidated there. It would get the city within 10 percent of the estimated 23,500 square feet of needed space. It’s a larger “floor plate” than City Hall, and would avoid turning the old building into a “five-story, small tower," including a new basement. The Winburn Way spot isn’t as seismically vulnerable as old City Hall, which could be put to some alternate city use or relinquished to the Helman family, which loaned it to the city long ago. Plan 3 estimated cost: $7.3 million. Plan 4 or the “two-building option” calls for reconstructing old City Hall, adding one floor on top. It calls for a modest reconstruction of the Community Development building. It would have offices at the Community Development building. With preservation of the old City Hall facade and building a new structure inside, the cost is estimated at $6.5 million. With demolition and a rebuild for City Hall, it’s estimated at $7.4 million. The plan could move utility payments to the Winburn Way building, as half of people still deliver payments by hand. Saying utility payment represents 90 percent of residents’ “connectivity with the city,” Mayor John Stromberg suggested that function should be kept in the old City Hall. Plan 5 calls for building a new 26,000-square-foot City Hall atop the city parking lot at Pioneer and Lithia Way, keeping the northernmost two rows of 20 parking spots, but building much of the parking underground. The plan with 50 new underground spots is estimated to cost $12.3 million, while 100 new spots would be $14.9 million. The cost would be reduced by selling the Community Development building for $2.5 million. It would produce a net gain in public parking spots and also would reduce parking demand near the Plaza by removing employees from old City Hall and the Community Development buildings. In a separate interview, City Administrator Dave Kanner said reconstructing City Hall on its current site would be the least expensive option, but possibly not the best long-term solution. “It would be cheaper to tear down old City Hall, but if we get the same square footage, that’s part of the problem," Kanner said. "The footage we have now won’t serve us in the future. Do we go on living in the old City Hall, which has no room to grow and no public meeting space, no storage for archives, or do we say, ‘OK, let’s take care of our space needs?’ “I don’t have a sense they (the council) have chosen any option," Kanner said. "The options need to be left on the table now. There’s no question the Lithia Way option is by far the most expensive. I don’t know if that disqualifies it.” The next step, said Kanner, is to put together some discussion points for the council, then get into the pros and cons of each option and do more financial modeling. The council may want to wait till after Jan. 1, when newly elected members are seated. Correction: This story has been edited to eliminate a reference that the Ashland City Council might put off to an even year a vote on funding City Hall construction to avoid a double-majority requirement for approval. Oregon's double-majority rule was repealed in 2008 with the passage of Ballot Measure 56. John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected].