New City Hall Sought for Oceanside : Council Approves Study of Ways to Pay for Complex

The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to seek ways to pay for a new $15-million City Hall and school district office.

They adopted a proposal by city Redevelopment Director Margueretta Gulati, who has written a study indicating that the building project was “definitely doable,” Mayor Larry Bagley said.

City Council members were just as enthusiastic two years ago when a study showed that the city and school district would need about 100,000 square feet of office space by the year 2000, which could be built and financed for a lease cost of about $1.5 million a year.

That survey was shelved in 1983 when local officials could not come up with the city’s share of the yearly payments.

Staff Analysis Authorized

The council’s action Wednesday authorizes the city staff to analyze city general funds, redevelopment tax increment money and city enterprise funds to determine how the three sources may be combined to yield the needed annual payments for the new municipal buildings.

Tax increments are the increased property taxes paid on redeveloped properties, funds which are set aside for other improvement projects. Enterprise funds are earnings from the city’s operation of its sewer, water, airport and waste disposal systems.

The council also ordered further study of a location for the new building, plus its size and scope. The council limited proposed sites to the city’s redevelopment area, which encompasses downtown and surrounding older residential neighborhoods and commercial areas.

The earlier study recommended that the new City Hall should be placed either in the Civic Center--bounded by 3rd, 4th, Ditmar and Nevada streets--or on blocks in city’s downtown core where proposed redevelopment ventures fell through.

School District Plans

Bibs Orr, Oceanside Unified School District trustee, said that the school board is discussing renovation of its administration complex and might be interested in joining the city in planning the new government center.

She urged the city officials to speed up their building efforts because “The city needs something new to entice new business to town, to improve the blighted areas.” Orr said the present school administration offices were “dilapidated, antiquated” and lacked air conditioning.

City offices, many now located in rented buildings outside the Civic Center block, total 68,000 square feet. Rental of the space costs the city about $150,000 a year, City Manager Suzanne Foucault said.

Though previous efforts to build new offices have been thwarted by budget problems, council members learned Tuesday that the city’s financial picture is rosier than it has been for years. Foucault reported that $2 million more than anticipated in revenues has been taken in since July 1, and city expenditures are running below estimates.

Estimate Still Valid

Gulati said that cost estimates made in 1983 of $85 per square foot for office space construction appeared to still be valid. So the price of a new government center should remain about $15.2 million, she said.

That figure would provide for 79,300 square feet of space, including a 5,000-square-foot branch library, 30,000-square-foot school administration office, 365 parking spaces and site clearance, plus architectural and engineering fees.

Not included are financing costs, land--if it must be purchased--or space for the city Fire Department, Police Department and main library, which would not be housed in the new structure.

Gulati reviewed several financing methods, discarding those that require approval by two-thirds of city voters. A method under which an independent agency issues tax-exempt bonds repaid by the governmental agencies’ annual building-lease payments appears to be a “more logical financing vehicle for long-term borrowing,” she said.

But, she warned, “The same opportunities and obstacles facing the city in 1983 face it today--how to pay for its development from our existing and anticipated resources.”