The Herald recently published an article about Mountlake Terrace’s city services moving out of the nearly 50-year-old existing City Hall building at 232nd and 58th. You probably remember nearly a year ago when part of the ceiling collapsed in the City Council Chamber of the deteriorating building. Since then, the City Council has mostly been meeting in teh library. In the next couple months the City will complete the relocation of City services to a location just north of 220th. The city has signed a 5-year lease for the space at a price of 2.2 million dollars.

The City has ambitious plans to redevelop the existing City Hall site into more of a civic campus which would include the civic center, community center and plenty of open space for use by the public. The hope is that this $40 million project would spur on private development of the Town Center. Looking through the conceptual design plans is pretty exciting, but it is far from a reality. With the economy the way it is, it may be to tough to convince voters to pay for a project of this scale.

This summary from the conceptual design plans really sums up what this project is all about and I hope that some day it would ring true.

“Mountlake Terrace is poised to serve as a regional example of sustainable design and development. Building a Civic Campus that retains the Library and Fire Station, integrates a new Civic Center and Community Center, and engages public spaces will address current and future needs, improve community services, strengthen the community character and identity, and stimulate private reinvestment in the emerging Town Center. With exemplary buildings and attractive public spaces, the Town Center and Civic Campus will become regional references for sustainable community and economic development. Mountlake Terrace will remain a place that citizens are proud to call home, while becoming a destination new businesses are attracted to, as well as a community visitors take delight in visiting.”