What’s going on now: 2023 City Council Majority Proposes a New, Luxury City Hall Plan.
The 2023 city council majority (Hung Wei, Sheila Mohan, JR Fruen) is proposing a new city hall with a staggering price tag that could drive Cupertino into significant debt. The luxury amenities are unnecessary and unlikely to be valued by most taxpayers. It’s time to hold the new majority accountable for their campaign promises of fiscal responsibility and prioritizing smart, essential spending.
History of Cupertino’s new City Hall Plans
The current city hall contains 25,000 square feet. The need for seismic upgrades to city hall and the emergency response center were identified in 2005.
— Developer supported council majority in 2015 —
In July 2015, after two years of outreach and conceptual designs, Out of three options, including a lower cost renovation-only option, the 2015 council approved the most expensive option for a Civic Center. The option included a new city hall and library expansion, with an estimated cost of $70M. The council item to pursue a $60M loan without voter approval was a Consent item (no public hearing) the following month. Fortunately, alert residents pulled the item off Consent to request the City to identify funding sources before proceeding. Though the new City Hall plan was pushed by Mayor Rod Sinks and Councilmember Gilbert Wong, the vice-Mayor Barry Chang switched his position last minute and aligned with Darcy Paul to opposed the high cost plan. So, the council gave staff direction to study how to reduce the cost of city hall development plan. In November 2015, the council dropped the plan because the staff could not reduce the cost to under $40M as requested. The 2015 Council did not consider the renovation-only option to reduce cost and to address earthquake safety first.
— Residents supported council majority from 2019 —
The 2019 Council split the Civic Center plan into two projects so that library expansion could move forward ASAP. Cupertino Library was the only County library without any space for community use for library programs, classes, and events. The library expansion completed on time and within budget in 2022.
In 2021, the Council addressed the other part of the Civic Center plan. To address the need for additional space, the City purchased a building just across Torre Ave as the City Hall Annex to have 3000 square space and additional parking. The purchase also strengthens the city’s real estate portfolio. The Annex will house the Planning and Permit Center with conference rooms and the new emergency operation center (EOC), which requires a higher earthquake safety standard. If the EOC were located at the city hall, the cost for renovating the city hall would be higher because the entire building would need to adhere to the EOC standard.
The 2021 City Council gave direction to move forward with renovating the city hall, including retrofitting for today’s earthquake standards.. The staff brought back a plan in 2022 to expand the city hall to 36,000 sqft (40% increase) with a 3-story parking garage with a price tag of $75M for construction alone. The Council formed a subcommittee to work with the staff to examine options. In November 2022, the Council approved the $27.5M plan to renovate the City Hall with completion estimated in 2026 . The renovation option requires no outreach or architecture design, as would be required by a new city hall.
— Developer supported council majority from 2023 —
The 2023 council majority (Wei, Mohan, Fruen. Who won by a thin margin of less than 1% voe casted in November 2022) proposed a new city hall that is larger and more expensive than the 2022 staff proposal. The 2023 proposal is larger (80,000 s.f. for city hall) (3.2 times of the current space) and adds a 500-person event center that would increase the size further. In 1Q 2023, the cost has not yet been estimated.
(Change to The new Council majority are pursuing an irresponsible plan for a new city hall. They have moved to consider a brand new city hall that is more than three times the size of the current city hall and in addition contains a 500-person event space. The plan includes seismic protection in excess of what is required.)??? working on it!
The 2023 WMF Council Majority have rescinded the $27.5M City Hall Renovation plan, which will delay the much needed earthquake retrofit (found in 2005) two more years. Will we spend another two years paying consultants to come up with a plan and then decide that we cannot afford a shiny new city hall with all the bells and whistles?
The City has added ?? square foot of event space through the Library Expansion project and the City has added 3,000 square feet of office space through the City Hall Annex Project. Moving the EOC and equipment to the Annex will free up space in the renovated city hall. Do we still need to build a new city hall?
De Anza College already has a 600-person Performing Art Center and will construct another center to accommodate 1000 people, which was already funded by the taxpayers via a $989M (check number) voter-approved bond measure.
Any money spent to build a shiny new city hall will be paid by Cupertino taxpayers. A new city hall might not be put before the voters for approval.
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List of previous council meetings on this project, including the financing options they explored.
- July 7, 2015 – Council adopted the Civic Center Master Plan, which includes a new city hall with added space and underground garage. The estimated cost is $70M.
- August 18, 2015 – Council did not approve the $65M loan or the $5M item to start architectural design. Council asked the staff to come back with financing options.
- November 17, 2015 – Council directed the staff to come back with a creative solution to keep the cost lower than $40M
- December 10, 2015 – The staff report concludes “Because we were not successful in our attempts to discover a project delivery process that could develop a $70 million estimated cost project for less than the maximum $40 million authorized by Council, we will not be bringing the project for further consideration unless so directed by City Council.“
- April 3, 2018 – Agenda Item is titled “City Hall Renovation Project”: “the proposed capital improvement plan for 2018-19 would include a budget for design costs of $2.1 million, followed by a budget in 2019-20 of approximately $18.9 million for construction (including staff relocations, temporary facilities, project management, contingencies, etc.)”
REFERENCE:
CIVIC CENTER MASTER PLAN ARCHIVE https://www.cupertino.org/our-city/departments/public-works/capital-improvement-program-projects/civic-center-master-plan-archive