Poulsbo squares off on city hall

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, October 18, 2006

POULSBO — Unlike the April 19 town hall meeting, which was marked by loud verbal chastisements of the city, Monday’s city hall debate took on a notably more civil tone.

Proponents of the 10th Avenue site and the downtown options for city hall took center stage, presenting their cases to a crowd of more than 100 people at Christ Memorial Church.

“Three of the four said downtown, and the fourth didn’t give an opinion,” said Jan Harrison of the Committee to Build City Hall Downtown. “These are local experts the city hired, and we need to listen to them.”

Four consultants from Parametrix were hired by the city to compare the two city hall options and released their reports in July.

“I feel 10th Avenue is the most efficient use of our funds,” said Bill Lockard of the 10th Avenue group. “We believe the decision was a sound business decision.”

The costs for the 10th Avenue site are known and the design is ready to go, Lockard said.

“With costs escalating at 8 to 12 percent annually, in two to three years, how will the city be able to afford a new city hall?” he asked.

Plus moving city hall out of downtown would free up at least 60 parking spaces for businesses that are in dire need of additional parking, Lockard said.

However, local architect Wayne Lamont countered Lockard’s parking assessment and said that keeping city hall downtown provides an opportunity to remedy the area’s parking problem.

“I believe with underground parking we could increase it by 30 percent,” Lamont said.

If a developer buys the existing city hall property, he could easily eliminate all of the parking, which wouldn’t improve the parking dilemma, Lamont said.

The city’s consultants showed that a downtown city hall could be built for $3 million less than one on 10th Avenue, and a 30,000-square-foot building would fit on the existing city hall site, he said.

“I believe the building we would design would be every bit as nice as the 10th Avenue site,” Lamont said.

Both sides agreed the existing city hall building is inadequate and needs to be replaced, but the 10th Avenue group questioned the location of the downtown site.

“About nine sites were considered before 10th Avenue was chosen,” Lockard said. “There are two options 10th Avenue or on or near downtown city hall site. Is it the existing downtown site or the existing downtown site plus King Olaf?”

Lamont said Poulsbo is down to two options and that the city needs to do something soon.

“To get a 30,000-square-foot building we can build multi-stories and only need a 10,000-square-foot footprint,” Lamont said. “It’s very doable.”

Another point of contention between the two groups was the impact of city hall leaving downtown.

The 10th Avenue group pointed to Gig Harbor as a city that moved its city hall out of downtown with few ill effects.

“Gig Harbor moved their city hall out of downtown and closer to the highway,” Lockard said. “Gig Harbor has seen a dramatic increase in its sales tax revenue since then.”

Gig Harbor has done an outstanding job, but it has had to work very hard at it, Harrison said.

“We’re still a town on the waterfront, and that just makes it that much less attractive,” Harrison said of the idea of city hall leaving downtown.

During the slower seasons, downtown businesses count on government employees to help their businesses survive, Harrison said.

At the end of the debate, both sides made their final pleas summing up more than two hours of discussion.

“This is a way for the people of our city to decide what our future looks like,” Harrison said. “City hall, the center of government activity, should be the foundation.”

For Robert Kellog of the 10th Avenue group, the decision comes down to a sound business decision versus an unknown.

“Let’s not start this process again,” Kellog said. “How long is it going to be before say, ‘Oops, we made a mistake.’”