Architect Presentation on New City Hall/Community Centeer/Emergency Operations Center
For the past three months, the design detail task team, brought together by our Interim City Manager, has been working with our architects to flesh out the community’s preferred design, and express that design on the site designated by the City Council (the American Legion Site).
During the July 13th council meeting, ARC Architects will be reviewing the results of that work with the city council in detail. The City Council will be voting to formalize the boundaries of the expanded Tolt Commons to include the existing commons (the small triangle of land with the hitching posts next to Pete’s Club), the empty lot next to the Motorcycle shop, the whole of Bird Street from Tolt Avenue to Stossel, the new city hall location, and the market shelter and grass area.
There have been a number of preliminary drawings and ideas put forward over the years for this area, and none of them represent a finalized plan for the Tolt Commons block. A number of options have been drawn for the express purpose of making sure none of the options would be rendered impossible by the finalized design of city hall. Once the council designates the area as “Tolt Commons”, the goal will be to work with the community and landscape architects to decide what we want our town center to look like, and to design and build a Tolt Commons that works in tandem with our new city hall to promote the commons as a gathering place while also improving parking and pedestrian safety downtown.
In keeping with the Council’s longstanding commitment to expand the Tolt Commons, the City Council has directed the Interim City Manager to acquire the vacant lot next door to the motorcycle shop on Tolt Avenue. The city has made an offer on the property and is moving forward with negotiations.
The July 20th council meeting will have another presentation with an opportunity for members of the public to comment on the finalized design for our city hall/community center/emergency operations center.
The City encourages everyone to join both meetings to hear in detail the design process, the decisions and tradeoffs that have been made, and the path forward to getting this new building built.
This is a process that is just getting started, and the City looks forward to getting to work with our community to design the heart of our town. We hope you will listen in to the meeting on July 13th and participate during the public comment period on July 20th!