Six years after San Jose voters approved the concept of a Downtown City Hall and despite delays from a lawsuit filed by a former city mayor and price tag that has risen from approximately $180 million to its current $343 million, council members approved the project designed by renowned architect Richard Meier, best known for designing the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
City officials plan to break ground this summer on the 530,000-sf project, which includes a seven-story rotunda. When completed in 2005 City Hall and adjacent plaza will stretch over two city blocks, between Fourth and Sixth streets, along Santa Clara Street.
The new building could save the city approximately $180 million over the next 50 years by consolidating city offices in one location. San Jose currently leases approximately 300,000 square feet of office space at various locations at an annual cost of $12 million.
City leaders have been searching for an alternative to the currently overcrowded City Hall for more than half a decade.
San Jose voters approved an advisory measure, Measure I, in 1996 that permitted construction of a downtown City Hall only if it saved the city money by consolidating city offices and services and did not require additional taxes or taking money from other city programs.
Former Mayor Al Ruffo filed a lawsuit in 1998 seeking to derail the current project, saying that the project violated the law in part by using funds from the city's redevelopment agency to cover part of the project's cost.
After a California appellate court agreed with Ruffo on several key issues in August, work was halted on the project while city officials negotiated a settlement with the man who served on the City Council from 1944 to 1952 and as mayor from 1946 to 1948, when the current City Hall was approved. Ruffo settled his lawsuit last month.
San Jose's current City Hall, opened in 1958, is located on the corner of First and Mission streets, approximately 1 1/2 miles north of the downtown core.
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