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1982-08-03 Eagan News Special MailingIIfs �1EAGAN NEWS,,o THE LONE OAK TREE A SYMBOL OF STRENGTH AND GROWTH CITY OF EAGAN 3795 PILOT KNOB ROAD EAGAN, MN 55122 PHONE: 454-8100 Referendum Information CAR—RT BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID ST. PAUL, MN. PERMIT NO.4902 POSTAL CUSTOMER EAGAN, MINNESOTA August 3, 1982 OUR CITY HALL NEEDS ADDITIONAL SPACE! In 1965, the Township of Eagan opened a new City Hall. There were barely seven thousand people in town. There were only part-time employees and city services were contracted out. As any citizen of Eagan knows, everything in town has grown since: The population to more than 25,000, city staff and city services have grown at the same pace. In fact, everything in Eagan since 1968 has grown. Everything, that is, except City Hall. In 1977, the city built the present police building and preplanned that building to allow a second story City Hall addition. Today's effort to provide proper City Hall space is the culmination of the planning work that began in 1977. The city has no debt obligation on the existing City Hall, the 40 acre city Civic Center site, or the pres- ent police building. For that reason, the Eagan City Council has voted unanimously to develop plans for an improved City Hall. That proposal will be offered for your approval in a special bond referendum at the September 14th primary election. Existing City Hall (occupied In 1985 and ex- panded In 1988) Is too small and without suffi- cient land for another expansion. Existing Police Building (occupied in 1978) was pre -planned fora second story City Hall addition which Is being studied forthe Sept. 14,1982 Referendum election. This addition will centralize all City departments for efficient service to Eagan. WHY DOES OUR CITY HALL NEED, ADDITIONAL SPACE? DYNAMIC GROWTH CONTINUES! EAGAN ON THE MOVE... Few communities in the state or nation are ex- panding at the rate of Eagan. From a population of 3,360 in 1960, the community boomed to 10,400 in 1970 -- a g rowth of almost 300 percent! That growth continued unabated in the 70s and 80s with the population to more than 20,0.00 -- another 100 percent increase. Another 50 per- cent increase is expected in the 1980s, with a 1990 population projection of 37,000. By the year 2000, the city's population is expected to be about 50,000. From 1960 to 1980, the city's population in- creased just short of an astounding 700 percent! Or, look at itthis way: If present projections are correct, about 1,700 new people are moving into- -or being born into --Eagan every year. That's five new people a day, one ever four and a half hours. By the time the average Eagan resident drives to and from a full day's work, the city will have grown by two people. The number of houses, condominiums and apart- ments has grown just fast enough to keep pace with the increasing desire of Twin Cities resi- dents to live here. In 1970, there were 2,607 housing units in Eagan. By 1980, there were 7,050. The most recent estimate puts that num- ber at 9,068 now and new estimates indicate there will be about 13,350 housing units in Eagan by 1990. But Eagan's incredible growth has not been limited to population. According tothe Metropol- itan Council, Eagan is carrying a lion's share of the area's economic growth: The Metro Council estimates that the metro area's industrial space increases by about 600 acres a year-- and Eagan accounts for about 60 acres of that each year. I n other words, Eagan is developing a full 10 per- cent of the metro area's industrial growth! The number of people employed within the city is also booming. In 1970, there were less than 6,000 people working within the city. By 1973, there were more than 9,000. By 1980, there were more than 14,000 and estimates are that, by 1990, about 19,000 people will be working within Eagan's city limits. Such growth in housing and industry has led to an enormous jump in the total assessed valuation of property in Eagan. In 1972, the city's total assessed valuation was about $52 million. Today it is almost $160 million. /47 Major office growth visible. Housing starts continues. Eagan's city government has grown apace: In the early 1960's, township government employed only part-time people. Now the city government employs 26 full-time people at the City Hall facility. This number does not include other city employees working in the police, fire and main- tenance departments. Staff projections indicate that the City Hall staff may need to number as many as 42 employees by 1990 and. beyond. And they're housed in a building that was de- signed when the city's full workforce could fit into a compact car!!! The first response of many people to the crowded conditions of City Hall maywell be, "So what? The streets are clean, the sewers work" True, but it isn't always easy. The present City Hall simply wasn't designed for the 1980s and the number of city employees it now holds. And it certainly wasn't designed to make city government work easily in a greatly expanded community. Planning staff competes with storage for work spacel No space for new billing and micro -film equipment to serve financial needs at city) CITY HALL OVERCROWDED... What was an effective building for a township of 7,000 is no longer effective for a city of 25,000 -- and a city expected to grow to 37,000 in the next seven or eight years. A few of the problems: ® The council chambers, intended to facilitate citizen participation in the local government are being whittled away by city employees with no where else to work. At least four city employees have had to set up shop in the back of the council chambers. 0 Four inspectors are squeezed into one of the smallest offices in City Hall. Even though in- spectors have to deal with some of the bulkiest records and documents in city government, they have one of the smallest work spaces. * Let's face it, government depends on paper -- records, documents and files. The present City Hall has far less than adequate storage space for records, YOUR records. Records compete for space with city employees. INADEQUATE CITY HALL SPACE HINDERS SERVICE! Is With Present storage facilities, your records are not just difficult to locate, they're not as secure as they should be. The present City Hall, for example, has no storage areas that are safe enough from fire or other damage. e City services from parks and recreation to inspections and finance are scattered over four different sites. I n Eagan, there's no such thing as "one stop shopping" for citizens with a problem. Compared with other dynamic suburban com- munities in the Twin Cities area, Eagan employees are downright cramped. In order to continue services at the same high level to a growing community, the city hall workforce must expand. Their number could reach 40 by 1990 or soon after. If those 40 city employees were housed in the present City Hall, the square feet per person would be far below that of othercities. Compared with Minnetonka, which is expected to have roughly the same population as Eagan in 1990, employees at Minnetonka would have approxi- mately three times the square feet of office space per employee. Or Bloomington, which has more than two times the square feet per employee. The number of City Hall employees, besides fire and police, in Eagan is on the low side of the metropolitan suburban average of 1.17 city employees per 1,000 residents. In other words, not only are there fewer city employees in Eagan than in our sister communities, but also the space they work in is considerably smaller. Overcrowding forces staff to use council chamber for desk area. LACK OF SPACE HINDERS SERVICE... With cityemployees stacked on top of each other, there's very little chance for privacy in the occasional delicate matters citizens may need to discussfromtimetotime. You maywanttotalkto only one person in City Hall, but in many cases at least three others will have no choice but to overhear your conversation. And the way the present building is designed -- and the extent of the overcrowding -- doesn't help city workers' effic!ency either. You may not need to talk to more than one person, but to get to him, you may end up talking to three or four --even though it's of little benefit to you or them. Obviously, the duty of City Hall is to make city government workforyou. At present, the building itself gets in the way. Ina sense, citizens and city workers HAVE to fight City Hall, because it cer- tainly is fighting them due to lack of proper space! Clerk and secretarial areas Inadequate and overcrowded) Staff space needs inadequate for properwork on service needsl When the city occupied a new police head- quarters in 1978, the city council expected that the present City Hall would have to be replaced. The police department building, centrally located for the entire community, was then specifically designed to accommodate that likelihood. As the Minnesota ValleySun reported on Nov. 15, 1978, the new police building "allows for future construction of a second story. The second story, it was pointed out, may in future be used for administrative offices and city council cham- bers." The city council even took pains to use federal money to buy extra brick to use in the proposed expansion. The city council unanimously decided last winter that the time for that expansion had arrived. It formed a citizen's advisory commission to study the idea, took bids and chose a Minneapolis firm, Boarman Architects, Inc., to design and oversee the project. All building Inspectors jammed Into one rooml Valuable record storage Inadequate, unsafe, unsecured! WHAT'S BEING DONE ABOUT CITY HALL? ARCHITECT PREPARES PLANS... In the last couple of months, the city council has studidd three different plans for the expansion prepared by the architects, ICity officials have narrowed those choices, but there is consid- erable room left for change and citizen input. For example, the council and the architect are now developing more specific information on the exact nature of the design. They are also de- veloping more specific information on the construction and financing costs and the likely costs to individual taxpayers. They are also considering proposals for the best use of the present City Hall if the expansion of the police building is approved: CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE COUNCIL TO GUIDE STAFF ON THE REFERENDUM ISSUE TO ADD CITY HALL SPACE........ These are yourfriends and neighbors who are working with city staff to solve the space problems at the City Hall. Give them a call with your thoughts. David G. Ashfeld Gerry Chapdelaine Karen Flood Roger W. Fredlund Paul Gooding John Gustin Arlene Hoffman Howard Johnson Bernie Joyce Elaine Karel Vincent J. Kennedy Sannee Klein Thomas R. Kniefel Marilyn Lancette Charlotte McPherson William J. Rydrych Gordon E. Schramm Win K. Scott Loren Spande Paul Uselmann Lois Van Dyke Fran Winkel PUBLIC MEETING PLANNED... The city council plans a series of public meetings in the next several weeks to consider the design for the new City Hall. Eagan residents can have significant input into the final project, not just a "yes" or "no" vote on whether to approve the bonds to pay for the addition. Attend those meetings. Afterall, the real purpose behind the expansion is to make Eagan gov- ernment more responsive to you, the residents. The improved City Hall, as one city official put it, will "facilitate community involvement in govern- ment" Get involved. And when it comes time to vote, vote to guarantee that city government in Eagan remains as responsive and efficient as you have every right to expect. AUGUST 10th TOWN HALL MEETING... To facilitate citizen input, the city will hold a town meeting from 7:30 to 9:30 the night of Aug. 10. City officials, members of the citizens advisory committee and the architects will be available for comment and questions. Please attend. TOUR CITY HALL...AUG. 10th SEE PROBLEM ... AUG. 14th Before and after that meeting, there will be time to tour the present City Hall, so you can see the overcrowded conditions for yourself. If you can't tourCity Hall that night, you can alsotake the tour on Aug. 14, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. CALL THE MAYOR OR COUNCIL WITH YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS ISSUE.......... CITY OF EAGAN ELECTED OFFICIALS Mayor Bea Blomquist Councilmembers Thomas Egan James Smith Jerry Thomas Ted Wachter CALL CITY HALL ON THE REFERENDUM LINE... ----- 454-8112 ---- FOR COMMENTS ON THE CITY HALL REFERENDUM ON AUG. 31 st & SEPT. 2 THE CITY PLANS TO HOLD TWO PUBLIC HEARINGS PRIOR TO REFERENDUM ON SEPT. 14, 1982. There will also be two public hearings on the proposal. They are scheduled for the nights of Aug. 31 and Sept. 2 at City Hall from 7:30 to 9:30. All of these meetings are open to -- and scheduled specifically for -- the public. Please attend and bring your comments and questions to the attention of your city officials. The referendum on the proposal wi" be held at the primary election Sept. 14.