Moving city hall to Historic Downtown? Pocatello puts out call for study to determine feasibility
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POCATELLO – The Gate City is exploring the feasibility of relocating City Hall to a historic and culturally significant building.
On Sept. 24, the city of Pocatello officially put out a “Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Pocatello City Hall Architectural Services.” This calls for submissions from licensed architectural firms to conduct a feasibility analysis on the prospect of relocating City Hall from its current location to the Historic Federal Building, located at 150 South Arthur Avenue.
This is just one step in a long process that started with conversations between city officials, community leaders and residents about the merits of moving City Hall to the area that has historically been Pocatello’s downtown.
“We feel like the downtown area is where City Hall should be. It will make it a more vibrant area and a more vibrant place for our community,” said Mayor Brian Blad. “And so what we’re really trying to do is find out … if it’s feasible.”
According to Jim Anglesey, long-range city planner, moving City Hall began to be seriously discussed in 2018. Four years later, the idea was included in the “Pocatello Downtown Development Plan,” which was adopted by the Pocatello City Council on March 17, 2022.
The downtown plan features an envisioned city square, situated to the west of the Marshall Public Library and to the east of the proposed City Hall. This conceptual vision also features an additional building adjacent to the library, as well as a section connecting the federal building to the Valentine building next door, which could potentially become part of city hall.
Currently, the city is only considering the prospect of relocating to the federal building. The goal of the feasibility study is to determine whether it would be realistic for the city to relocate there by identifying improvements and renovations that would need to be made, as well as how much the move would cost.
Anglesey said the study will find out, “What does the building need? Are there any issues with the structure or its materials that need to be improved? Is the roof okay? What pieces of the building can be used for office space?”
The RFQ calls on qualified architects to submit their firms’ qualifications to the city before Nov. 7 at 3 p.m. Once the city has evaluated these submissions, it will select a firm to begin negotiating a contract.
“The awarded firm must have substantive experience with building designs including the preservation/adaptive reuse of historic buildings, building environmental review, building safety review, permitting processes, and the preparation of building documents that comply with local, state, and federal requirements,” reads the RFQ.
Also on Sept. 24, Pocatello For Accountable Government Entities (P.A.G.E.) made a post on Facebook raising a series of concerns, most notably about the potential cost of moving City Hall.
“Sources tell us very preliminary cost estimates are $35 million ($15 million for the acquisition/renovation of the buildings and another estimated $20M for acquisition, potential demolition and a parking garage),” reads the post.
EastIdahoNews.com asked to be connected with these sources, telling P.A.G.E. they could interview anonymously. As of Friday, we have not been contacted by these sources.
When asked about this claim, Blad explained where he believes it came from.
“That is just a number that’s been pulled out of the sky,” Blad said. “We don’t believe that’s correct. There’s nobody who has given them that kind of a number from City Hall, that’s for sure.”
On top of that, he added that the current owner is excited and wants City Hall to move to the building.
“The owner is being more than generous and is not interested in going and destroying the city and all of that stuff. This is going to be kind of a legacy for him as well,” Blad said.
While P.A.G.E. specified that its objections shouldn’t be, “construed as advocating for one decision over another,” the post also criticized a lack of transparency over the potential move.
Anglesey pushed back on this, pointing out that in addition to the downtown development plan’s information, the city’s “Comprehensive Plan 2040,” approved the following year, included relocating City Hall as a strategy to promote economic growth in the downtown. A draft of the downtown development plan was sent out to the public for comment, and the city held multiple open houses and a survey on the comprehensive plan.
“We started writing this in 2018. So at least since then we’ve been talking about the federal building. And there’s no secret, we have it in an adopted plan available to the public,” Anglesey said.
In a statement sent to EastIdahoNews.com, P.A.G.E. said, “At a minimum, the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for architectural services to design/engineer a NEW CITY HALL FACILITY in the historic Federal building should have been placed on an agenda for council discussion and deliberation followed closely by a public hearing for community input.”
Blad wanted to make it clear that nothing about putting out an RFQ binds the city to moving City Hall.
“Once you get moving forward, it will come in front of the City Council as an opportunity for them to either say yes or no. Council could say, ‘No, we’re not moving City Hall. This is it,’” Blad said.
Blad also pointed out that the city has been setting aside money for this project, with approximately $9 million in its “excess reserves.” If the feasibility study shows that costs would exceed that amount, the council would have a number of options for how to proceed, including waiting and continuing to save money, cancelling the project outright if costs are unrealistic or calling for a bond.
“If we went out for a bond, then we would have a number of public hearings and public comments,” Blad said.
Click here to read the full Downtown Development Plan.
Click here to read the full Comprehensive Plan 2040.