Questions Rising about Plans for New City Hall
By Nels Westman, CVRA Vice President
Many Capitola residents and the Capitola Village Residents’ Association (CVRA) Board were surprised to learn the City Council agenda on Oct 9th included an item for the City to execute an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Lawlor/French LLC, a private land developer, to develop approximately 7 acres which include the current city hall site and all of the land currently used for parking lots 1 and 2. This development would include the sale of the current city hall property, demolition of city hall and construction of an 80-room hotel on the site.
It would also include a large, new city hall and police department complex at the upper end of the gulch and a parking structure at least three levels high. Although no estimated costs were included in the item, knowledgeable observers believe the costs of building a new city hall complex, a parking structure, leasing a temporary city hall and all associated moving and occupancy expenses could easily exceed $30 million.
Most of the public’s written and oral communications to the Council questioned how a project of this size and cost could advance to this point with no public awareness or participation. They complained that the cart has gotten way too far ahead of the horse and that transparency has been lacking. Many questioned if the Capitola community wants a third hotel project in the Village area since two other proposed hotel projects are currently on hold. Others questioned the need for an expensive new city hall. Still others questioned the wisdom of putting a private hotel developer in charge of planning the largest and most expensive public works project in the history of Capitola.
Ultimately the Council voted to not execute the ENA. They instructed the City staff to present a plan for the City to reach out to the community and explain in detail what is being proposed. In this way, hopefully, the Council will learn if the community even supports the concept of this large and expensive development, much less the specific details.
The CVRA Board has communicated with the City Manager regarding our concerns about the impacts of this large project on adjacent residential neighborhoods. We have requested to be involved in any outreach effort once it has been formulated. In the meantime we await the staff report back to the Council.
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