Due to a 2023 space evaluation study, the Iowa City City Council recently decided to upgrade the City Hall space.
The council discussed plans to upgrade the City Hall in a formal meeting on Sept. 19.
The council is working in tandem with architects and design specialists at various firms, such as OPN Architects in Iowa City, to assess and plan renovations to the City Hall structure that has “well exceeded its intended capacity,” according to the city’s plan.
The space evaluation project launched a year ago in August. In that time, multiple plans have been drafted, and the city has settled on one.
The City Hall building currently houses the City Hall as well as the police and fire department headquarters. The city is considering a tentative renovation plan that would be completed in 10 years and create new spaces for the police and fire department headquarters.
The existing police and fire headquarters on the west side of City Hall would be demolished and replaced with a three-story expansion to allow more room for city employees.
Assistant City Manager Kirk Lehmann said the city’s staff is expanding consistently, but their workspace has not grown at a similar rate.
“We’ve been having issues accommodating that growth,” he said. “So, over the past 10 to 15 years, we’ve made some space adjustments to try and improve our space utilization.”
Lehmann said the city has already revamped some of City Hall. However, with new staff additions, such as new members to the housing authority, non-office space will need to be converted into office space. These and other room-use issues are motivating the city to pursue changes.
He said the city hired OPN Architects and Design Engineers MEP to evaluate the structure. The city has several priorities, such as department workflow and public interaction. The space evaluations handled these issues, and, from multiple devised plans, the city chose their current plan.
Lehmann said, however, that the plan is preliminary and cannot move forward until the police and fire department facilities are planned, constructed, and occupied by their respective departments.
Iowa City Police Department Chief Dustin Liston said the police department outgrew its current allotted space years ago.
“We have just under 14,000 square footage and after the study, we’d likely need about 38,000,” Liston said. “To compare that to neighboring agencies, North Liberty built a new department in 2020 which is 16,000 square feet and we have twice the staff.”
He said, like other departments in City Hall, the police department has had to rearrange space to fit new desk workers.
“We’ve converted every space we can. We’ve even converted small broom closets to offices,” Liston said.
Liston said the likeliest concept for the new police station would be at the site of the current Iowa City Transit headquarters, which is also looking to relocate in the next several years.
The existing transit structure would be demolished and replaced with a new police department structure. Liston said the concept he is most excited about is the prospect of a joint law enforcement facility designed to house the Iowa City Police Department and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
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“Many of our services could be combined,” he said. “We could share locker rooms and a front desk. There would be an opportunity for shared space.”
Liston said the proposed joint facility would still need to be assessed and voted on, but he believes it is a realistic opportunity for the city to pursue.
“I think that’s pretty exciting and the most realistic path forward,” he said.
The Johnson County Jail also has issues with outdated infrastructure in an ongoing space needs situation that has affected the county for some time.
In its Oct. 1 work session, the City Council discussed some initial priorities with the project, considering the rest of the timeline subject to early success.
City Manager Geoff Fruin said in the meeting that one priority city employees are already working on is finding land for Fire Station One. This would be the main fire department in the city, located centrally for fast response time.
Fruin said another issue, besides the fire and police departments, is to find temporary space for current and future city employees who no longer have suitable space in City Hall. These space needs will last several years as the project and eventual construction are underway.