Council Moves Toward Centre City East Site for City Hall, Library

In what Mayor Maureen O’Connor described as a “bold step” for San Diego’s future, the City Council voted Tuesday to concentrate its attention on a Centre City East site as the location for a monumental “Capitol on the Hill” complex consisting of a new City Hall and central library that will cost $319 million.

Although the 7-2 decision is not final, it is the first step taken by the council to move from its inadequate Civic Center facilities on C Street to the new site, consisting of several blocks on East Broadway just south of City College and across the street from the new police headquarters building on 14th Street.

The one thing that could derail the proposal, according to comments by council members, is financing.

Savings Claim

Although City Manager John Lockwood and the city’s private consultant say the cost of building the massive facility--including 1 million square feet of city office space--is less than what the city would pay for rebuilding and renovating City Hall, some council members and downtown business groups want more analysis comparing the two.

San Diegans Inc., a venerable private and nonprofit group composed of downtown business leaders, earlier this month said that, according to its own study, the city could save $50 million to $100 million by keeping City Hall where it is and making changes at that location.

But, on Tuesday, San Diegans Inc., while still raising questions about the cost, wasn’t as adamant in its position. Robert J. Lichter, a San Diegans Inc. vice president as well as president and chief executive officer of John Burnham & Co., explained that, after consulting with the city manager, the group concluded that the cost difference is probably not as great as his group first estimated.

Lichter, however, said there are still questions “about what the real numbers are” and added that some of the assumptions made by the city in favor of the Centre City East site “don’t work.”

To help clarify the two viewpoints, the City Council ordered the city manager’s office to work with San Diegans Inc. and the San Diego County Taxpayers Assn. over the next 30 days to both compare and further analyze the economic assumptions made by the city and the two groups.

As proposed by Lockwood, the cost of building the new City Hall would be about $241 million, with another $78 million need to construct a 375,000-square-foot central library, including parking.

Lockwood says the money to build the City Hall would come from a variety of sources, including leasing the existing City Hall-Community Concourse buildings to private businesses and using that money, together with millions saved each year from the city no longer having to rent extra office space, to help pay off the debt. The city wouldn’t have to raise taxes to pay for the new City Hall, Lockwood says.

Opposition Votes

The vote by the City Council, opposed by Abbe Wolfsheimer and Judy McCarty, means the city will spend at least $200,000 to further refine Centre City East project, including preparing an environmental impact report, hiring a program adviser for an architectural design competition, hiring a consultant to study in detail the reuse of the existing City Hall-Community Concourse, hiring of a financial adviser and starting initial negotiations with property owners who will have to be relocated.

In fact, the latter may prove to be a problem. The Salvation Army operates its Adult Rehabilitation Center and Thrift Store on two blocks in the heart of the proposed City Hall complex. The Salvation Army moved there less than 10 years ago, under a land swap arranged by the city, when it was kicked out to make room for Horton Plaza.

Salvation Army officials said the land-swap contract between the organization and the city specifies that the Salvation Army remain on its new property for 25 years. If the city presses ahead, the Salvation Army may take the city to court, according to the organization’s lawyer.