Report shows city hall locations are alike

Published 6:00 am Saturday, July 29, 2006

POULSBO — The numbers are in and with a mere $1.6 million separating a downtown city hall and a 10th Avenue location, voters will be asked Nov. 7 to decide where it should go.

City council approved the $30,000 study that delved into costs, economic impacts and a qualitative comparison between the 10th Avenue location and downtown alternative after being bombarded with support for the downtown site at an April 19 town hall meeting. In the study, conducted by consultants from Parametrix, senior planner Eric Toews states, “Based upon a purely qualitative, versus quantitative analysis of the alternatives … it is not possible to arrive at any definitive recommendation favoring one location over the other.”

The criteria for the study included total cost, site features and suitability, accessibility, environmental impacts and land use compatibility and community character.

The total development costs for both sites are likely to be equal and both are reasonably accessible to the entire community, Toews wrote.

Development of the 10th Avenue site would result in more environmental impacts than downtown, but those impacts could be effectively mitigated, he wrote.

The estimated costs were prepared by Parametrix consultant Don Owen who placed the total cost for 10th Avenue at $15.1 million and $13.6 million for downtown.

“Finally, the decision about where to locate a new city hall will markedly shape the future character of the community — and cannot be reached through detached, rational analysis alone,” Toews wrote.

During discussions that led to the Nov. 16, 2005 decision to purchase the 10th Avenue property for the city hall location, former Public Works Director Jeff Lincoln said the proposed location was the unanimous choice of both city staff and the city council.

The Electronic Data Systems building in Poulsbo Village was floated as an option in August 2005, but sank after Lincoln’s cost analysis of the building and the council’s consensus for new construction for city hall in September 2005.

After former Councilwoman Kathryn Quade took the mayoral reins in January, the Creekside Center on 7th Avenue was also mentioned as a possibility, and Quade appointed a blue ribbon committee to provide an “apples-to-apples” comparison of the two sites.

However, when that comparison was presented at the April 19 meeting, local Realtor Craig Steinlicht, who served on the committee, said the numbers presented weren’t the ones agreed upon by the committee.

At the July 19 city council meeting, Mayor Quade presented the consultants’ reports to the full council as she unveiled the city’s visioning effort, Project Poulsbo.

“It’s actually $1.5 million less to build downtown,” she said, noting that the report stated the cost to build the same 30,000-square-foot building on both sites and included the temporary relocation costs for the downtown option.

The economic impact report showed that neither downtown or 10th Avenue would benefit greatly or be harmed by city hall’s being in either location, she said.

“Whether we stay or go downtown won’t be dramatically impacted,” she said.

With the facts provided by unbiased consultants, the challenge for the city will be to maintain that integrity in informing the voting public, Quade said.

Councilman Dale Rudolph, who assisted city staff in developing the scope of work for the consultants, said he was pleased with the final results.

“This is as close to ‘apples to apples’ as you’re going to get,” Rudolph said. “This is the same interior space on both locations.”

While the same structural building will fit on both sites, the amenities such as an esplanade or courtyard will differ and add to the potential costs for each site, he said.

“It will fit both places,” Rudolph said. “It’s just a matter of what do you want with it.”

The downtown parking issue will be explored in the Aug. 2 edition of the Herald as Mayor Quade and council members speak out about Councilman Ed Stern’s call for an immediate parking study prior to the Nov. 7 election.