NEW TOWN HALL

Since the Town Council has voted to purchase the property on the west side of the town hall, it is time to begin a discussion. The requirement for a new town hall is in our current comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan will be amended over the next 18 months. The State requires that this be done periodically. One of the Council responsibilities is to plan for the future. The requirement for a new town hall will most certainly stay in the plan. The general standard for town hall size is one square foot per resident. Malabar will have a build out population of eight to nine thousand. The existing town hall is about 3000 square feet. That is almost adequate for today, but not for the future.

SOME HISTORY

I was elected to the Town Council in 1995. During my six years service until termed out in 2001, a new town hall was rarely mentioned. Even though the council was aware of the comprehensive plan requirement, no serious discussion took place. It was generally felt that Malabar could not afford a new town hall at the time. A new Town Administrator was hired in 2003. One of his goals was to move forward with a new town hall. A town hall site committee was established to identify possible locations. The committee's first choice was EEL's property just to the east of the fire station. The State owns the land and it is under the management of the Brevard County EEL's. I was in attendance at one of the meetings and the committee asked me, as the Mayor, to contact the State and investigate the possibility of Malabar obtaining 15 acres fronting on Malabar Road. I discussed this with Representative Mitch Needleman and he said when he got back to Tallahassee he would contact the Department of Environmental Protection to see what could be done. In March of 2007, I met with three people from DEP in Mitch's office in Tallahassee. They were receptive to the transfer of the land to the Town of Malabar if there were no environmental restrictions. About three weeks later DEP sent three people, one of them was a biologist, to Malabar to inspect the land. I met them at Town Hall and we all went over and walked the 15 acres. The decision from DEP was that the land was disturbed and the State would approve transfer to Malabar for a new Town Hall site. However, it would require approval from EEL's. Subsequently, the Town Council appointed Councilwoman Borton as liaison for the EEL's so I became uninvolved due to possible sunshine law conflicts. It is my understanding that Councilwoman Borton along with the Town Administrator have had a couple of meetings with Mike Knight, the EEL's program manager. They have failed to reach an agreement and my perception is the Town has abandoned the effort to procure this 15 acres. The town has gone through the bid and selection process and the Council has chosen an architectural firm to design a new town hall.

MY POSITION

Malabar could use expanded Town Hall facilities now. The town is currently renting a trailer facility for the Building Department at a cost of about one thousand dollars per month.  The town hall is fully occupied except for a small conference room and one office. There is not enough room in the town hall for the engineer, the building official, two building dept. employees and all the files and plans.
I have never been a supporter of spending three to four million dollars on a new town hall. With the stalemate on the EEL's land, you can add another half million or so to purchase a site.
I approve the Council's decision to purchase the land immediately to the west of the town hall only if it will be used for future town hall expansion. This is the lowest cost option. I see no benefit to the town buying any more land in the block with the possible exception of the small 49 ft wide lot between the new acquisition and town property to the west if it could be shown as beneficial. I also believe it is necessary to hear from the people. It could be that the majority wants a brand new town hall somewhere other than the current location. We should have a town meeting like we had for the MSTU to hear the desires of the people.