POULSBO — On a night that many community members eagerly awaited, more than 200 people gathered at First Lutheran Church and one message rang clear: the majority of those in attendance were opposed to the current municipal campus location.

In the two weeks since Mayor Kathryn Quade announced a town hall meeting to discuss the $16.8 million municipal campus project, supporters and critics of the proposal rallied around the opportunity to be heard.

“I thank the council for the diligence on this project with one exception: you forgot the people,” said Courtesy Auto Group owner John Hern. “You didn’t have forum groups … if you had, maybe we wouldn’t be here tonight.”

Admitting that from the beginning he knew city hall would never be on Viking Avenue, Hern said the city’s best bet would be the Creekside Center on 7th Avenue.

“I think it’s a good building and I hope in the future this is the way we do things and do business in Poulsbo,” Hern said.

Local architect Malcom Campbell presented the Creekside Center option and said the actual cost of the proposal is $8.8 million and not the $17.1 million used by the city in its ads in the Herald and Bremerton Sun and on the city’s Web site.

“Lots of people worked long and hard to make this work but the case for the 10th Avenue site has not been made,” Campbell said.

While not opposed to the downtown proposal, Campbell said city hall should be closer to downtown than 10th Avenue.

“It is set apart from Poulsbo itself and it will never be regarded as the heart of the city,” he said of the 10th Avenue location.

The Creekside Center is a Class A building and offers 12,000 square feet more than the current proposal for city hall, Campbell said.

Another local architect Wayne LaMont presented a proposal for building a new city hall, police station and a 275-space parking garage on the current city hall site.

“The reality is the existing building is terrible and needs to be torn down,” LaMont said. “We also realized there is a severe parking problem downtown.”

By having the parking garage sandwiched between a city hall building on Front Street and police station on Jensen Way, the parking structure would be hidden from view and the new buildings would offer exceptional views for visitors coming into downtown, he said.

“I want to say this proposal isn’t a finished drawing but is one possibility for city hall,” LaMont said.

One of the Northwest College of Art students who is working with Mayor Quade on the municipal campus art committee, James Martin noted the difficulty in finding art that reflects Poulsbo’s heritage.

“It would be easier to bring the building down to the waterfront,” Martin said.

Bight of Poulsbo founder Bill Austin told the council that it should follow the lead of Gig Harbor, Bainbridge Island and other cities that have reinvested in their downtowns.

“We need to maintain and enhance the economic viability of our downtown core,” Austin said. “Let’s not abandon the spirit of the Moes, Rangvalds and Iversons.”

As she presented the current 10th Avenue proposal, Finance Director Nanci Lien said site has been the preferred location since January 2005 when staff unanimously recommended it to the council at its retreat.

“In November 2005 after we determined the project was affordable as we scoped it, council approved a four-point motion by a 5-2 vote,” Lien said.

The reason much of the discussion was done behind closed doors is because the city wanted to try to keep the purchasing price down as much as possible, Lien explained.

In voicing her support for the 10th Avenue location, municipal campus planning committee member Muriel Williams asked why those opposed to the project didn’t voice their opinions during the two open houses held for the project.

“The 10th Avenue site is not the center of Poulsbo, but in 50 years it will be,” Williams said.

Jim Turner joined Williams in supporting the 10th Avenue location said the city has changed tremendously in the last 75 years.

“The heart of Poulsbo is not the center, it’s the waterfront, but Poulsbo is growing,” Turner said.

As the public comment period came to an end, Victor Schiovone presented the results of a straw poll that he took as people arrived for the meeting.

One-hundred and five people were against the 10th Avenue site, 19 were for it and 29 were undecided, Schiavone reported.

His group has also been gathering signatures on a petition to stop the current 10th Avenue project, Schiavone added.

“We turned in 780 signatures and we found that if we talked to 10 people one was for 10th Avenue and nine were against it,” Schiavone said. “What we’re finding is the people of Poulsbo don’t want this building on 10th Avenue and we hope you’re hearing that.”