Council accepts campus plan recommendations
The city bought 30 acres of land along Lancaster Road with the eventual goal of building a city hall campus facility along with other amenities. The location is directly across from the North Idaho College Parker Center.
MATTHEW STEPHENS/Press
RATHDRUM — The Rathdrum City Council is moving forward with plans for a city hall campus facility project.
City Administrator Leon Duce told the council Wednesday there are two main options for finishing the design plan.
He said they could go through a "design, bid, build" process that would require the city to hire an architect. Duce said the main advantage of this is to save time.
The route Duce recommended is called a "design, build" process because he said he wants to be as transparent as possible with the project. Duce said the city has close to $5 million saved for the project.
"This is creating a team that includes architects, engineers and construction professionals," Duce said. "With that, there are also team members that will work on the conceptual design, realistic terms, performance requirements, early schedule and budget."
This means that everybody involved gets to offer input on the design, he said.
"There are several advantages to this," Duce said. "Collaboration, cost and quality, risk mitigation, transparency and flexibility."
Duce said the disadvantage is this method takes longer.
"But then you solve a lot of problems throughout the design process," he said.
The plan includes a three-part campus to house city facilities, the police department and council chambers. Duce said this concept ties into the local geography and the campus map may be loosely modeled after the nearby mountains.
But, given this plan is just a concept, that idea can change, he said.
Duce said it may take another year or maybe two before plans are finalized.
Public input is another factor the council needs to consider.
"Which one of these methods would incorporate maximum public input?" asked Councilmember John Hodgkins. "The more transparency we have the better."
"The more community involvement we have the better, so it sounds like the one you're recommending is the one I would advocate," he added.
The city bought 30 acres in 2015. In October, the council approved a conceptual design for the acreage.