Palmdale Picks Downtown Site for New Civic Center

Palmdale officials decided Thursday that the $60-million Civic Center complex they hope to build should be located in the same area as the present City Hall to reclaim the decrepit downtown area and expand facilities to serve a fast-growing population.

By a 5-0 vote, the Palmdale City Council accepted a consultant’s recommendation that a new Civic Center should be developed in the downtown area, not on either of two proposed westside sites that are now vacant.

The council also gave the go-ahead for city officials and consultants to develop more detailed plans for the downtown site at the southeast corner of Palmdale Boulevard and Sierra Highway.

But how the city would raise the needed money, and how soon, remained major questions.

Given the reduction in the city’s income from dwindling development fees, the project may take many years, warned City Administrator Robert Toone.

A city consultant last month recommended that the city proceed with the Civic Center project in three phases. The first, which city officials hope to complete by 1994, would consist of a 125,000-square-foot City Hall and an 11,000-square-foot county fire station.

The report by the ROMA Design Group of San Francisco said those projects and related work, including the demolition of six houses, would cost nearly $30 million. Actual costs are expected to be higher, though, since all the estimates are at 1990 prices.

The second phase would be a new 63,000-square-foot city library and related parking area, costing about $14 million. The $16-million third phase would consist of a town square area, a 66,000-square-foot recreation center and the start of a downtown park. No timetable was set for either phase.

City officials said they need the new facilities to cope with a city population that has grown from 12,277 to 65,357 in the past decade, and is expected to double again to about 125,000 by the year 2000. Palmdale’s current City Hall, library and related facilities were built in the 1970s.

The city’s municipal work force, which expanded from about 182 to 270 employees in the past four years, has already outgrown the current city buildings. Earlier this year the city bought a nearby school building for office space and set up several portable buildings on nearby land.

The new Civic Center project, in addition to displacing the houses and some businesses, would require the demolition of the old county fire station and the city’s planning annex. But the current City Hall, library and Cultural Center could be kept and used for other purposes.

City officials and consultants said the main reason for locating the planned Civic Center on the same downtown site is to try to revitalize the decrepit area, which is plagued by vacant lots, a run-down shopping center and old strip commercial buildings.

“A Civic Center at this location has an excellent potential to create a real Town Center for Palmdale--both as a physical landmark, a gathering place for the community, and a new mixed-use center of activity,” said the consultants in their report to the city.

The city owns about 11 of the 25 acres needed in the area bounded by Palmdale Boulevard, Sierra Highway, 10th Street East and a line north of Avenue R. Buying the remaining 14 acres is expected to cost about $8 million of the $60-million total.

Thursday night’s decision eliminated two alternative sites for the civic center, which would have cost more, the consultants said. The Trakell Corp., developer of the auto mall now being built in Palmdale, had offered a nearby site of 20 to 24 acres on 10th Street West for $9 million to $10 million. Another private owner had offered a 25-acre site on Palmdale Boulevard at 5th Street West for about $14 million.