Edward Booth
Napa Valley Register, Calif.
(TNS)
Mar. 25—Three years ago, in January 2020, the city of Napa was well on its way to constructing replacements for its aging downtown offices and public safety hubs.
That plan — approved by the the Napa City Council 4-1 — involved building an entirely new city hall, firehouse and downtown police station on the same city-owned block where the current buildings are, at an estimated cost of $124 million. There were still several difficult steps before construction could start, such as building design and figuring out how the city would finance the construction. But the basic plan, after several years of work and controversy, was in place, and the city was ready to move forward.
No such forward movement has happened since then. The COVID-19 pandemic arrived just two months after that City Council approval, and staff were thrust into more pressing matters, such as deciding how to make steep budget cuts as they grappled with the abrupt halt of Napa’s tourism industry and the related downturn in tax revenues.
As a result, the building replacement project was put on hold. Any lingering possibility of it being realized faded in March 2021, when the city announced they and Los Angeles-based Plenary Group — the infrastructure investment business that had worked with the city on the project since 2017 — had parted ways.
But now, three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, it won’t be long before the Napa City Council begins to consider potential ways to pursue building replacements once again. The city’s downtown buildings have only continued to age, and the cost to maintain them has only increased with time.
The maintenance costs of the city’s downtown buildings are also significantly higher than they would’ve been had the city not deferred maintenance about 10 years ago when the project for a new city hall was being planned, according to Public Works Director Julie Lucido.
Indeed, the City Council in January recognized the need to respond to the city’s decaying buildings sooner rather than later by making public infrastructure a focus area during the development of the city’s upcoming two-year budget, set to be discussed by the council in June. (The infrastructure category, along with buildings, also includes city streets, sidewalks and other capital improvement projects.)
“When it comes to our buildings, these are 60-year-old buildings,” said Councilmember Liz Alessio at the time. “They don’t meet the needs of our workers of today. We’re going to be homeless as a work force if we have another disaster, another earthquake or something.”
Much of the immediate focus will be on repairing major problems with the city’s current buildings so they’re still usable, according to Lucido.
Proposed work plans will focus on critical facility repairs — such as “failing roofs and electrical systems, repairs to building exteriors and parking structures, and upgrades to security and access,” she said in an email.
“There will be essential repairs to the buildings downtown to ensure we’re able to continue to occupy them,” Lucido wrote. “An example is the need to address roofs on the community services building and city hall to keep water out. There is more need than funding that is available.”
But, Lucido also said that, regardless of the repair efforts, the city will need to figure out future solutions — which will include discussions about potentially replacing the downtown city buildings.
“The city-owned buildings downtown are not suitable to meet the city’s needs into the future due to their age and condition,” Lucido wrote. “A co