The city of Hill Country Village is working with national architecture firm LPA Design Studios to help determine what repairs and improvements should be made as part of an effort to modernize the City Hall building at 116 Aspen Lane.

City Council voted March 23 to accept LPA’s proposal, which includes the architectural team revisiting a 2016 city-developed master plan for the municipal complex, which houses council chambers as well as courtroom and administrative offices.

According to city officials, staffers are encountering spacing, safety, security and infrastructure challenges at the 5,210-square-foot facility, which was been used as City Hall since the early 1980s.

In 2022, local leaders pondered multiple options, including possibly relocating the municipal complex to part of a city-owned 14-acre tract at Tower Drive and West Bitters Road. But after pushback from some residents, the council decided in January against relocating in favor of upgrading the existing City Hall structure.

The city has been consulting with LPA on potential City Hall improvements. Sara Flowers, the director of LPA's San Antonio office, said her team will help to develop a master site plan and preliminary design based upon an assessment of existing conditions at City Hall and input from local officials, staff and a citizens committee.

“The purpose of this study is to understand what the needs of the community are,” Flowers said, adding LPA plans to charge the city $48,000 for preplanning City Hall improvements.

Flowers and city officials said once a master site plan and preliminary design are developed, they will have a better sense of how much it will cost to construct the upgrades.

“This is about shaping the building. We can’t get a construction cost until we get a shape and size of the building,” said Mayor Gabriel Durand-Hollis, who is also an architect by trade.