FAIR OAKS RANCH – After many starts and stops, City Council is trying again to get a new civic center off the ground again, approving $300,000 for a new architect firm June 15.
City council approved $299,440.90 to enter an agreement with Lopez Salas Architects, Inc. for design services of a new civic center.
A new civic center was in the works for years after the old city council space was converted to more office space for City Hall staff. The project came to a halt in 2020 due to COVID restrictions and increased production and material costs.
After reviewing five proposals from architectural design firms for the civic center, the city’s finance department landed on Lopez Salas Architects, Inc.
“It’s a very qualified firm that can definitely handle the project,” Procurement Manager Clayton Hoelscher said.
Hoelscher and his team proposed that $299,440.90 be allocated to officially contract the architectural firm’s services to the council during a June 15 meeting.
He broke down the amount into two categories: a services fee of $272,219, which was negotiated with the firm, and a 10% contingency of $27,221.90.
Place 4 Councilman Laura Koerner brought up questions about conceptual designs and basic floor plans drawn up in 2020 with a different architectural firm.
Construction on the civic center came to a halt in 2021 when construction bids came back at twice the $1.2 million amount city officials approved to fund both a civic center and the city council chamber's conversion to office space.
However, city officials bifurcated the two projects, completing the office-space conversion and putting the civic center – previously set to be between 3,000 and 4,000 square feet with city council chambers, a kitchen facility and a public center – on hold.
A stop-work order was issued to S Architekts in 20201 when construction bids came in at around $2.7 to $2.8 million.
Koerner asked if those plans could be used by Lopez Salas Architects, Inc. to cut costs from the negotiated fee. “We never had a problem with the product,” Koerner said about the 2020 designs. “We just didn’t go forward with them.”
Hoelscher assured council the negotiated fee with the new architectural firm was based on the estimated hours and personnel needed to complete the seven phases of the civic center project: facility planning, four design phases, bidding and procurement and construction administration.
The motion to dedicate $299,440.90 to work with Lopez Salas Architects, Inc. was unanimously approved by council.
City leaders want a new 3,000-5,000 square- foot community civic center to “provide flexible, highly functional meeting and event space.”
Hoelscher said there would be several public meetings and forums for citizens and stakeholders to provide feedback on what they would like to see in the new public building and to determine the purpose of the building.
The overall budget to
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