LEAGUE CITY — The city’s public library, police station and city hall — plagued with leaky roofs and outdated equipment — are too small to handle the population spike the city is expecting in the next 15 years, architects say.
PBK Architects, hired by the city to study the possibility of replacing the city complex on Walker Street, has suggested the city build a $289 million town center that would sprawl out over the existing complex and the 25 acres of empty city-owned land across the street. The town hall center would contain a central plaza, a new library, city hall, a police and EMS station attached to a new municipal courthouse, a recreation center with a swimming pool and a civic center.
The plan — the result of a yearlong facilities study commissioned by the city in 2007 — calls for the construction of a city hall complex big enough to serve a city with a population of 150,000, the expectation for League City by 2025.
Replacing the existing city hall complex with all new buildings and infrastructure would be a tough sell to League City residents, said Tommy Cones, council member.
The buildings are only about 40 years old and the police station was last renovated in 2003, according to the study.
“I think it would be a difficult task to sell knocking down every city facility you have and rebuilding all of them,” Cones said.
But, it could cost up to $73 million to renovate the city’s existing facilities, said Ray Montalbano, principal of PBK Architects.
And those buildings badly need renovation, Montalbano said.
The city hall, built in 1969, is overcrowded, the heating and air-conditioning system needs to be replaced, the envelope of building is deteriorating and the roof is falling apart, according to the study. It has never been renovated, the study found.
The city’s public safety building, last renovated six years ago, has deficient jail equipment (some is actually rusting, the study found), a lack of storage and parking, a deteriorating building envelope and a bad roof, according to the firm. The city does not have an emergency operations center where city employees can bunk during a hurricane or other disaster.
The library, last renovated in 1988, has an insufficient work area, poor acoustics, a lack of parking, a leaking roof and an outdated air-conditioning and heating system, Montalbano said.
Renovating the facilities as-is doesn’t address the planned population growth, Montalbano said.
Tearing down the existing complex and rebuilding a town hall would create a pedestrian-oriented city center that could one day be augmented with shops, cafes and offices, he said.
Cities such as Sugar Land that have been successful in creating pedestrian-friendly town centers did so with public-private partnerships, said Doug Frazior, economic development coordinator.
“A lot of cities don’t have to carry a lot of long-term debt,” he said. “They let developers do it.”
The town center concept has also been proven to generate tax revenue for cities, Frazior said, pointing to Winter Park, Fl., where the town center increased the tax rolls by $425,000 in one year.
“These are economic development generators,” he said.
Council members plan to discuss the issue in future workshops.
