City plan includes $23.5 million for civic center

City leaders are busy drafting up a capital improvement plan, which will dictate how, when and on what the city will spend money.

The plan maps out spending in detail from fiscal year 2009 through 2014 and provides estimates of cost to projects to be completed from 2015 to 2029. One of the first and largest projects on the list is a civic center complex.

The plan commits $23.5 million for the land purchase, design and construction of the complex that would include a City Hall, police headquarters and other government facilities.

Currently, city staff is operating out of a temporary facility on leased land.

“That $23.5 million is a rough number right now, and I hope to reduce it by 10 percent before it goes in front of council,” said City Manager Kevin Evans.

Evans added that when the city first started looking at the cost of building the civic complex, the number it came back with was in the neighborhood of $40 million.

The funding for the plaza is scheduled to come out of the $30 million the city has available in reserves, which were built up through the collection of development impact fees and are regulated to being spent on certain projects.

Other projects and purchases the capital improvement plan slates for this year include a skate park, dust prevention program and a multitude of road improvements.

All of these projects will each need to receive individual approval from the City Council before they can begin.

Evans said he expects the council to take action on the civic plaza in March.