City of Solvang Addresses Crescendo Of City Hall Conversation
Jarrod Zinn
SOLVANG, Calif. (KEYT) – Discussion has been opened for fixing up older city buildings in Solvang.
The costs are in the millions.
This is the beginning of a larger conversation for the city.
At Solvang’s municipal building, a portion of city administration shares space with the fire department.
Other departments are housed in completely separate buildings.
Solvang is now discussing a multi-million dollar project to update some of its older municipal buildings.
“Longer term, you know, we could see envision a the city core city center here,” says Randy Murphy, Solvang’s City Manager. “Like she said, we have a monopoly. We own all four corners of this intersection. And what it ultimately becomes is limited by our financials in our own imagination, I guess.”
City manager Randy Murphy is working on a campaign to address what he calls inefficiencies and constraints from working in these buildings, some of which are over half a century old.
“One of the challenges is cost,” says Murphy. “Eight and a half to $10 million is a rough order of magnitude for the estimate to construct a new building. And we already own the property.”
City leaders say some updates are needed just to bring these buildings up to current safety code.
“The building is not up to date in terms of code and maybe work work product for productivity, you know, ideal setting for a staff that’s grown since we’ve come out of COVID,” says Elizabeth Orona, Solvang City Council Member.
Members of city council are acknowledging high cost for construction, wanting to make sure the needs are strong enough to warrant a rebuilding project.
“We’re operating at peak staff and at peak productivity, really, because we’ve finally gotten to deliver on a lot of the projects, both operational and capital projects that we wanted to achieve,” says Orona.
City leaders tell me staff members are doing great work with the resources they have.
This first came up for discussion about a month ago, and there will be more conversation about it in future city council meetings.
The Latest Breaking News, Weather Alerts, Sports and More Anytime On Our Mobile Apps. Keep Up With The Latest Articles by Signing Up for the News Channel 3-12 Newsletter.