SEQUIM — In an effort to craft a police and City Hall civic center proposal that voters will support, the City Council asked project planners to write into the council’s vision the importance of being fiscally responsible on the proposal.
“We have to have a convincing proposal for the entire civic center,” said Mayor Ken Hays.
“We want to make sure we are not building a Taj Mahal.”
The council took no action on the draft of its vision and goals for a civic center facility Monday night.
The council will meet with Rich Murakami — Murakami, a partner in the Seattle architecture firm Arai Jackson Ellison Murakami, is the city’s consultant on the proposed project — at its next meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, May 14, in its chambers at Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St., said Hays after the meeting.
It will then consider final approval of the project vision and goals, Hays said, and will schedule a work session before then to discuss it.
The council is in the preliminary architectural programming phase of the civic center project, “and we want to inform the public on the public safety tax,” Hays said.
$12 million project
Proposed is a $12 million project of 30,000 to 35,000 square feet on West Cedar Street on land the city acquired late last year to house police and all city offices under one roof.
The council has placed a one-tenth-of-1 percent sales tax increase on the Aug. 7 ballot to raise revenue for a new Sequim police station.
City Manager Steve Burkett said $240,000 in additional sales tax revenue certainly would help the city in building a new police station as part of the project, and all under one roof.
Burkett has said the city now rents additional space for police and the public works, planning and building departments in two different locations, costing the city about $200,000 a year that could be going toward a mortgage payment for a new civic center.
The city owns the existing City Hall at 152 W. Cedar St., and the council most recently approved purchasing about 22,000 square feet of land east of the building to North Sequim Avenue.
Council members already have looked at civic center projects in other cities of comparable size or approach, including Bothell, Shoreline, Kenmore and Woodinville.
Hays said the time was right for the project.
Low interest rates
“Interest rates are very low, and prices are very low,” he said.
In the draft of the council’s proposed civic center facility, its elected members said they planned to “lead by example” and “become the vision of the downtown plan.”
The council vision is to become the “center” within the city center by creating a physical presence as well as becoming a hub for community activities.
The civic center vision should embody the character of Sequim — “small-town, personalized customer service and humble hospitality,” the city has said.
A civic center facility should “activate connections to the immediate context, including the transit center, Washington Street and Sequim Avenue,” the proposed vision and goals states.
It also should be an outdoor public gathering place with acoustic properties, council members have said.
Other considerations should be underground parking and storage and possibly sharing space with the Sequim Public Library.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2390 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
