Staff and officials of San Juan Capistrano, California, will soon move out of its current city hall—which has been functioning for decades as a temporary location—because the current 2.2-acre site will soon be demolished to pave way for a new city hall and an affordable-housing complex.
The city is selling 1.2 acres for $8.75 million to Jamboree Housing—a nonprofit developer in Orange County—to build a three-story apartment building with 50 units and a new two-story city hall.
On Nov. 18, city staffers will move to a temporary building on Rancho Viejo Road, where they will conduct the city’s business until January 2025, when the new city hall is expected to open.
During the Nov. 1 city council meeting, where staff provided a project update, Mayor Derek Reeve said the discussion of the rebuilding “has been going on for decades.”
Reeve said he remembered 12 years ago when he and Councilman John Taylor raised discussions to initiate the project but couldn’t find a funding source.
“It’s going to be amazing,” Taylor said at the meeting. “I’m super excited to be a part of this historic event. I can’t even believe it is going through.”
The new city hall will be about 16,300 square feet, which is bigger than the current 15,000. The building design is still underway but, according to city officials, will have a Spanish Colonial architectural style, which matches that of the rest of the town.
Due to limited space and parking, the new building won’t include a chamber for city council meetings, which will be permanently relocated to the community center on Camino Del Avion, The center will undergo renovation to add new audio and visual technology and space for seating.
Before that renovation is completed, meetings will be held temporarily at a location on El Horno Street.
According to city officials, the city hall project will cost about $5.27 million—$3 million for the new building, $1.75 million for the temporary relocation, and $450,000 for the lease of the temporary office space—mainly funded by the city’s reserve, budget surpluses expected from the 2022–2023 fiscal year, city facilities operation funds, and American Rescue Plan Act funds—the federal economic stimulus funding to support recovery from COVID-19 and ongoing economic struggles.
The city is in a strong fiscal position to complete the project at a time when many other cities in Orange County are struggling financially amid the ongoing recession, thanks to the city council’s prudent decisions, Assistant City Manager Matisse Reischl told The Epoch Times.
She said the project will replace the current 50-year-old facility that was “intended to be a temporary space” and eliminate the significant cost required to maintain the aging facility. It also “provides greater value to the City and taxpayers” as a more economical option than purchasing a new building or shouldering the full cost of construction.
