Hill Country Village officials are moving forward with a proposal to rebuild the existing municipal complex in its footprint.
What happened?
A consensus of City Council members meeting in a special June 14 meeting agreed to advance one of three site plans pitched by LPA Design Studios.
Going forward, the chosen site plan—called “heritage” by LPA representatives—calls for replacing the existing City Hall structure with a larger, modern building, which has exterior features that fit into its surroundings.
Project architect Michelyn Smith said benefits of the heritage site plan include keeping in place a facility that is familiar to residents and visible from nearby Tower Drive, and the new building would connect to existing drainage and infrastructure.
Smith also said with the heritage plan, more trees will be preserved, and space will be created for community gatherings.
The main drawback with the heritage plan, according to Smith, is that administrative, public works and police department employees all will have to relocate for an estimated 18 to 24 months while the new municipal complex is built.
Smith said the construction of the replacement City Hall is estimated to cost $3.75 million to $4.25 million, not including the temporary staff relocation costs.
Two other site plans called for relocating the municipal complex slightly southward or northward of the existing building with one plan proposing keeping the current structure as a storage facility.
The big picture
Council members discussed pros and cons of each site plan, as well as estimated costs. The proposal to move City Hall to the south would cost $3.5 million to $4 million, whereas the plan to shift the building north and keep the existing structure for storage would cost $3 million to $3.5 million, Smith said.
City officials and their project consultants still have much work to do as LPA proceeds with detailed schematics while local leaders mull how best to finance the project.
According to city officials, a City Hall overhaul could be funded with various sources, such as unspent money remaining from the town’s 2019 street improvement bond, reserves, and proceeds from a possible sale of the city’s undeveloped tract at Tower Drive and West Avenue.
Local officials said the city has until a state deadline of Aug. 21 to set November special election ballot items, in which voters could be asked to allow the town to repurpose the 2019 road bond proceeds, and to sell the undeveloped tract for residential use.
What they’re saying
Hearing input from attendees of a June 8 meeting, Council Member Matthew Acock said he felt many residents want the existing City Hall to stay put and have it simply replaced.
“There’s a lot of interest in staying here,” Acock said of the current City Hall footprint.
Council members also said it is important to go with a fiscally responsible City Hall plan.
“We need to do the right thing,” Mayor Gabriel Durand-Hollis said.
