City Hall design plans move forward

Whitefish City Council continued to spar last week over preliminary designs for the new City Hall building, but ultimately gave the go ahead for its architect to move to the next design phase.

Councilors earlier this month split on how heavily to rely on input from consulting firm Crandall Arambula on the preliminary building designs created by Mosaic Architecture. Because only four councilors were present at the meeting, a decision was delayed.

Council on Nov. 17 unanimously approved extending Mosaic’s contract to the schematic design and development phase for $318,000. Councilor Andy Feury was absent from the meeting.

However, councilors continued to feud about how much input to draw from Crandall Arambula.

The Portland-Ore.-based planning consultant was hired by the city to update the downtown master plan. The firm previously provided the city with a critique of the conceptual designs created by Mosaic Architecture, the Helena-based architectural firm hired by the city to design a new City Hall and parking structure.

Councilor Jen Frandsen said she has concerns about extending the contract and would like to see multiple schematic designs in the next phase.

“I want them to provide multiple design options — to respond to Crandall Arambula comments,” she said. “This needs to be a coordinated effort between Mosaic and Crandall Arambula.”

Councilor Frank Sweeney disagreed, saying the process has come through a few design options and it’s ready to move to the next step.

“We haven’t paid Crandall Arambula to be a co-architect,” he said. “Just because Crandall Arambula speaks, they are not infallible. We’re still the client, and we have the right to say we think a little differently.”

Councilor Richard Hildner made a motion to approve the contract amendment to proceed to the schematic design and development phase. The motion was seconded by Sweeney.

However, Frandsen offered a friendly amendment to the motion to direct Mosaic to provide alternative designs that address Crandall Arambula comments and have the City Hall committee look at those alternatives. Councilor John Anderson seconded the amendment.

“This isn’t a majority rules all the time,” she said. “This is a collaborative process.”

Hildner disagreed with the amendment.

“Are we asking Crandall Arambula to design the same building we are asking Mosaic to design,” he said.

Mayor John Muhlfeld weighed in, saying some people would like to see more of a historic design to the building that is consistent with the downtown architecture, and Crandall Arambula have provided input on what that might look like.

“I know there are people that feel we just haven’t been given that opportunity to see that,” he said. “Mosaic has done a good job of responding to comments, but we need that opportunity.”

Eventually Hildner relented, saying he was willing to entertain other design ideas.

“As long as we can tell the architect to go forward with schematic design,” he said. “I don’t want to slow down the progress, but I do want the right product.”

Cost estimates for the combined City Hall and parking structure are about $14.6 million for a three-story building with a full basement.

Earlier in the meeting, council approved using the conceptual design referred to as scheme 1.5. The scheme is a blend of two preliminary design options presented by Mosaic Architecture.

Council had split at its previous meeting unable to come to a consensus about whether scheme 1.5 was acceptable as a conceptual design to base the next design phase on to create the schematic designs. Last week, however, scheme 1.5 was approved while council asked for more conceptual design options.

“I think now is the time,” Hildner said. “I think it’s important that we go ahead to the next phase.”

Frandsen, who expressed concerns about approving the scheme, said she was ready to move forward with the design. She qualified that by saying as long as, “Crandall Arambula comments get addressed in later phases.”

Council also voted to extend the tenure of the City Hall committee. The original resolution creating the ad hoc committee terminated the committee in January 2015, but the extension will allow the committee to operate through January 2016 or until the design is completed.

In addition, the resolution added two council members to the City Hall committee. Muhlfeld appointed Frandsen and Anderson.

Council approved the boundaries for a proposed Special Improvement District to provide $750,000 of funding toward the construction of the parking structure.

The boundaries will create two assessment tiers for the district. About 190 properties are inside the assessment area and those closest to City Hall will likely pay a higher assessment.

The first tier forms a square around City Hall of what’s considered the core business district. The northern boundary line is Depot Street and the southern line East Fourth Street. Properties between O’Brien Avenue and Spokane Avenue would be included.

The second tier forms a square surrounding the first tier. The northern boundary is the BNSF railroad tracks and the southern boundary line is Fifth Street. Properties that are not inside the inner tier, but are between Kalispell and Miles Avenue to the east and west would be included.

If approved, the 20-year SID is expected to result in an average yearly assessment for businesses of about $375.