CITY STUDIES OFFICE SHIFT TO SILER.

Byline: TOM SHARPE 

What city-government functions should relocate to a new service center on Siler Road?

Which should stay downtown?

Those are among the questions a design team of city contractors would like Santa Fe residents to answer at a public meeting this evening at City Hall.

Alexander Dzurec of the Autotroph architecture firm said he is part of a team looking at consolidating city offices now in leased spaces downtown into an expanded City Hall or into a new service center on Siler Road.

"We're in the pre-design phase -- what programs go where," Dzurec said. "What we want to do now is to solicit input from the public in terms of what the public's needs may be on these two facilities, so we can factor that into our pre-design work before we go ahead and move on to a master plan."

A 2007 study recommended building a new city service center on city property on Siler Road, where residents can obtain building permits or business licenses or pay water and other city bills. The study estimated the total redevelopment costs at $29 million. It also suggested selling the city complex at 2151 Siringo Road for at least $3.4 million and expanding City Hall at 200 Lincoln Ave.

City Hall was built as a high school in the 1930s, converted to a junior high in the 1960s and finally was transferred to city government for use as its main administrative headquarters in the 1970s, when the previous City Hall at the corner of Marcy Street and Washington Avenue became the Main Library.

The city owns 54 acres of land on the southwest side of town where its Streets and Drainage Division, Parks Division and the Solid Waste Department have their main offices fronting Siler Road and the Santa Fe Trails headquarters on Rufina Street. The new service center's exact location on the tract has yet to be determined.

City officials say the Land Use Department, which now occupies the west side of City Hall, nearest the new Santa Fe Community Convention Center, is likely to be moved to the new service center to alleviate parking difficulties downtown.

"The idea ... is a one-stop shop for residents for their interface with day-to-day stuff with the city," Dzurec said. "You can do it all at one location that's easy to get to on Siler, and presumably we'll have ample parking as well, whereas City Hall will remain the seat of government, but the divisions and the departments located there will be primarily related to the administrative functions of the city."

The design team, also made up of Pamela Owen Adams and Isilay Civan of HOK Advance Strategies, will begin today's hearing with a display of site diagrams and other information at 5 p.m., with the public discussion to begin at 6 p.m.

Input is sought in the following areas:

u How to provide better interface between residents and city government for public meeting spaces and signage that directs the public to and around the area.

u What the face of city government should look like in terms of architecture.

u The potential for integrating public art into city buildings.

u Sustainable design elements.

Dzurec said the resulting master plan for the Siler Road/Rufina Street property might also propose a new park, open space or other landscaped areas where city employees might eat lunch. The 2007 study also suggested building a new homeless shelter there.