Mukilteo City Hall issue heats up again

MUKILTEO – A group of residents is fighting the plan to build a new city hall in Old Town.

The Mukilteo Citizens Network is circulating a petition calling for the City Council’s recent decision to build the new city hall on Third Street to be rescinded and that it be built instead at 47th Place W. in Harbour Pointe.

The petition calls for a ballot measure to resolve the issue.

The group planned to announce its petition drive at 10 a.m. today on the land where it wants the new city hall, at 10600 47th Place W. The group will then move to the city’s planned site on Third Street, next to the Rosehill Community Center at 304 Lincoln Ave.

The group, formed around the city hall issue, has posted the petition on its Web site at www.mukilteo.net.

The land on Third Street is owned by the city. The 12-acre parcel on 47th Place W. is owned by the state and was approved by the Legislature in April for donation to Mukilteo for a city hall, to lease to youth groups for sports fields, or both.

The cost of building a city hall is estimated at $5.5 million.

“There was really no cost estimate done comparing building city hall on Third Street versus 47th,” resident Kevin Stoltz told the City Council this week.

At the time of the vote, city officials expressed concern about uncertainties associated with building at the Harbour Pointe site, which contains a wetland. Each year of delay in building a city hall adds $600,000 to the cost, city manager Rich Leahy told the council.

The city currently pays $150,000 a year to lease a building at 4480 Chennault Beach Road. The lease expires in 2007, the earliest a new building could be built, officials have said.

Other reasons the group gives for circulating the petition are that most of the citizens who have spoken to the council on the issue have supported the 47th Place W. site, and that the council took its 5-2 vote in March without putting it on the agenda beforehand.

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.