This week at the city council, the city is trying to nail down the details of their working relationship with the Westside Rotary Club, and there is some new news on the new city hall.

Almost every week this is the "What's on the city council's plate this week" review. I don't cover everything, so if you want the full rundown, read the packet and agenda yourself.

1. It seems like the West Olympia Rotary wants to raise some money for the new park coming to life over on West Bay Drive. Seems like the city needs to review their gift policy, see the staff report here. Here's a description of the new park from the Rotary's newsletter:

Rotary Clubs are working with the City of Olympia to develop a new Park just north of the Fabrication plant on West Bay Drive. Rotary Clubs have asked the city to make it a Legacy Park to honor the contributions of past Rotarians to the life and commerce of the City. The Park will be a passive park intended for families and carefully designed above the high water line, except for a launch site for kayaks. Interpretive signs are planned that will honor the contributions and history of the Tribes in the area, white settlers and Rotary leadership. There will be a fundraising program using bricks. Donations have come from Jeff Glander (a West Olympia Rotarian) for landscape design, Bob Wubbena’s company EES has done the environmental design work, Berschauer Phillips the heavy equipment work with an estimated cost of donations totaling more than $120,000. The City has secured grants, in part because of the contributions and pledges of Rotary members, to purchase the land and Rotary will develop the park. Work with start in July, with completion of the park planned for September 2007 with a dedication planned for October 2007.

2. If the city council says "yes," then we're going to build a new city hall here. I'd assume on the NE corner. In addition to this the Jefferson and State site, the only other site considered by the city is the current city hall location.

Here is the analysis from the staff report:

State & Jefferson Site The Project Team has gathered the following information:

Site v. Project Goals:

The site meets all of the City Council Project Goals (see attachment #1).

Environmental Assessment :

Consultants have completed the Phase 2 environmental site assessment on this site. Phase 2 assessment involves soil borings and placement of groundwater monitoring wells. Preliminary feedback from the Department of Ecology (DOE) indicates a need for the Port to complete the Phase 2 analysis on a larger parcel that encompassed the original veneer plant that occupied this site. The Port is in the process of contracting to complete this work. The environmental consultant does not believe that site cleanup will delay construction from our current schedule.

Port Indemnification:

The City and Port staffs have reached agreement on language to indemnify the City against current or future costs for cleanup of site contaminants that would allow construction of the New City Hall. This language will be included in a written agreement between the City and the Port prior to execution of the Lease/Purchase Agreement with the Port.

Sea Level Rise:

Raising the building or the entire site is technically possible and could be accommodated on this site. Raising the building could protect against damage at high tide combined with sea level rise but the building would be virtually unusable due to lack of access and utilities. Those utilities as well as most of the low areas of downtown will be unusable for extended periods of time. We feel that a more holistic solution for the downtown will be needed rather than creating islands by doing a building by building approach.

Letter of Intent:

We have reached agreement on all of the main points of the Letter of Intent submitted by the Port to the City for development of the State & Jefferson site. This language will be included in a written agreement between the City and the Port prior to execution of the Lease/Purchase Agreement with the Port.

Parking:

The site meets the City’s need for on-site parking for City police vehicles, carpool stalls and customer parking. The current parking allocation is:

Visitors ----------------------- 25
Carpool ----------------------- 30
ADA accessible ------------- 6
Police Fleet -------------------37
Police Guild ------------------20
Total: 118

The existing City Hall site will be utilized for the remaining City fleet vehicles. The project team will continue to look at other options for providing some employee parking to include:

• Use of existing City owned lots in the vicinity,
• Construction of a new structured parking facility,
• Use of a Port of Olympia (Port) owned structured parking facility,
• Use of existing on-street parking available in the vicinity,
• A combination of the above

Risk v. Costs:

We realize that there are still risks associated with moving ahead with site selection at this point since we do not have an approved cleanup plan from DOE. The process to get to approval of the proposed cleanup plan would delay the project until possibly mid-July, 2006. The development team has estimated an increase in construction and development costs of about $200,000 per month for construction delays. We feel that the risk of moving ahead now is less costly than delaying the project until we have an approved cleanup plan in July.

And, the pros and cons from both sites:

Option 1.
Select the State & Jefferson site as the location for the New Olympia City Hall subject to successful completion of due diligence on the property.

Pros
1. Will focus project resources on a single site.
2. Will save about $200,000 per month on increasing construction & development costs over delaying the design.

Cons

1. DOE approved cleanup of the site could prove more extensive that anticipated and delay project schedule.

Option 2.

Wait until the DOE has approved the cleanup plan for the site (July 2007), before making a decision on site selection.

Pros

1. If site cleanup plan causes serious schedule delays, we could elect to use the existing City Hall site and save approximately $140,000 per month in lost design costs for the primary site.

Cons

1. Delay could cost $200,000 per month or $1.2 million increase in construction costs waiting for the DOE to approve cleanup plan before beginning design.