Big plans could be coming to fruition at the Sunnyvale Civic Center later this year, and the city wants residents to speak up on what they would like to see happen to the city’s 50 year-old home for local government, public safety and its library.
After years of discussion on the issue, the Sunnyvale City Council approved an outreach plan and specifics on what will happen to the existing civic center at a Feb. 24 meeting. Possible changes include extensive renovations or even demolishing and rebuilding some of the buildings.
The library could either be expanded or completely rebuilt. The project specifies that building a library smaller than the existing one is not an option.
One option on the table for community input is relocating the library to the Sunnyvale Community Center. In the past, there was talk of relocating city hall to a big building downtown, but the idea has seen little traction recently.
City hall and its associated buildings could be combined into one larger building to accommodate space needs. The other option is to construct a modern addition to house records, offices and other needs.
The DPS structure is the newest civic center building slated for modernization, having been constructed in 1985, and has had improvements made over the years. The range of plans for the building goes from doing nothing at all to building an entirely new building, with options in between, based on community feedback and decisions by the city council.
The council’s plan for community engagement includes an online survey and forums designed to let residents voice their opinions and concerns.
As far as the other buildings on the premises–the south annex, Sunnyvale office center and garden conference room–demolition and reconstruction could be in order. Councilman Dave Whittum suggested adding room for a teen center and considering energy-efficiency efforts for new buildings.
Councilmember Glenn Hendricks was enthusiastic about the project but wondered about the best way to get the word out to the community. He also mentioned picking and choosing the most important projects and starting there.
“We may have to make trade-offs on the must-haves list,” he said.
Otherwise, the council was generally optimistic about the proposed plan and will discuss it further at study sessions starting in June. The issue comes back to the council in November.
Reporter Alia Wilson contributed to this report.