The Oldsmar City Council recently agreed to demolish the 30-year-old building at 100 State Street as part of its planned downtown development.
The planned redevelopment of downtown Oldsmar has been going on for so long it has rendered the aging City Hall building at 100 State Street obsolete, according to officials.
During a Jan 10 public work session to discuss the pending Request for Proposals for the 10-acre parcel known as the City Hall site, City Manager Felicia Donnelly noted by the time the mixed-use developments around the building are complete, City Hall would be obsolete.
“The building is an aging product,” Donnelly said, noting the 30-plus-year-old, 16,000 square foot facility needs nearly $2 million in deferred maintenance work, including a complete reconstruction of the parking lot, new HVAC units and generators and more repairs.
Donnelly also said the city currently does not have a facility sufficient for emergency operations services that are critical during hurricane season, stating, “we have a need for a hardened local structure that’s out of the flood zone for emergencies,” something that was obvious during Hurricane Ian last September.
Council members Andrew Knapp and Steve Graber agreed.
“When I think about the state of the current building and what we went just through (with Hurricane Ian), the building is not prepared for the worst,” Knapp said, with Graber noting, “the front of the building is made out of glass, and it faces the water. It’s just not safe.” When asked how staff would handle having to relocate during the time when City Hall is torn down and a new one is built, Donnelly said she’s “not overly concerned about where we might go as City Hall is being constructed,” noting they are accustomed to working remotely due to the pandemic.
“We’re a resilient bunch,” she said.
Ultimately the five council members unanimously agreed to include the construction of a new City Hall building as part of the RFP, which Donnelly said would be sent to the five respondents to the original Letter of Interest, with a pair of public meetings planned to discuss the results.
“After the proposals are received, the City will host community open houses where the public can learn about the specific proposals and provide their comments,” Donnelly said via email. “City Council will set another public work session to further review the request details before sending the final request to the developers.”
Less than 30 minutes after the town hall meeting concluded, officials held another workshop around the corner at the Oldsmar Public Library for the St. Petersburg Drive project, a planned mixed-use development from local architect John Bews that’s still in the planning stages.
Donnelly explained the session was designed to introduce some minor yet important changes to the project, which features 82 three-story residential town homes units and 18 live-work units on a 7-acre parcel on the corner of St. Pete drive and State Street. The changes include tripling the amount of greenspace, adding another exit, and making sure all the units have ample parking.
“On January 17, the City Council agreed to move forward with the next step in the process by directing the City Attorney to create a development agreement,” the city wrote in a Jan. 19 Facebook post, which noted “the project received an overall supportive rating, with 71.43% agreeing or strongly agreeing that the proposal should move forward and 80.96% agreeing or strongly agreeing that the conceptual plan will be an asset to the City of Oldsmar.” The post stated the DA will next be presented to the Planning Board and two additional public hearings will be held before final approval is considered.
For more information on these downtown developments, visit this section of the city’s website.
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