Vista residents are invited tonight to the first of three public workshops to tell city officials what they want in the way of design and amenities in a $50 million civic center that will replace City Hall.
“That's why we're holding the public forums,” Deputy City Manager Patrick Johnson said yesterday.
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The civic center is one of several projects – including two fire stations, a sports park and upgrades at Moonlight Amphitheatre – that will be built with revenue from a voter-approved 30-year, half-cent sales tax increase that began in April.
A preliminary layout has been completed for a complex that would replace the aging City Hall at Escondido Avenue a block south of East Vista Way. Built as a school in 1953, the City Hall complex has deteriorated over the years and has leaky roofs and rodent problems.
“We've really focused on the layout and how the buildings will sit on the site,” Johnson said. “We'll talk about the process that led up until now.”
Tonight's meeting is scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Wildwood Community Center, 651 E. Vista Way. Two more meetings are planned for the same time and place on Oct. 10 and Oct. 29, with the last meeting offering an update on the previous two.
The city has hired the architects Carrier Johnson – for $3.9 million – to design the civic center. The firm, which has offices in San Diego and three other cities in the state, worked on Chula Vista's police headquarters; the Yuma, Ariz., town hall; and the Hall of Justice courthouse in San Diego.
The preliminary layout for Vista's civic center shows three buildings. The main building would be three stories and include city offices and the City Council chambers. Johnson said the building would be about 90,000 square feet, and portions of it would be terraced down to one and two stories.
A separate emergency operations building also would serve as a community room. A third building would house things such as a boiler and an emergency generator. The site also includes a 4-acre park.
The civic center would replace City Hall's six buildings and seven trailers, Johnson said.
Overall, the three civic center buildings would be about 100,000 square feet – doubling the size of the current City Hall. Plans show that parking lots would be placed on each side of the $50 million civic center. A parking lot on Eucalyptus Avenue is designed to allow for future buildings and a possible parking structure.
Johnson said officials plan to begin construction by August 2008 and finish by July 2010.
The Planning Commission was expected to discuss the project last night and make recommendations to the City Council.
Matthew Rodriguez: (760) 476-8239;
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