Dan Kulin

Thu, Dec 11, 2003 (11:24 a.m.)

After the new $41.8 million addition to Henderson City Hall opens Monday, city officials expect a one-stop shop for building and zoning permits will become a popular feature. But some residents say they are most looking forward to the return of a drive-through window to pay utility bills on Jan. 5.

"I think it's great," Henderson resident Sharon McLemore said about the City Hall expansion. "The Hendersonites are moving into a new era here. We need it especially with the growth, and the drive-through, I think it's excellent, especially in the heat in the summertime."

The new five-story building, which is attached to the existing City Hall on Water Street, is almost three times larger than today's City Hall. Once the addition and renovation of the old building are complete, there will be space for about 750 offices or cubicles, about 310 of which will not be filled immediately.

"This building was planned so it's not filled," Henderson City Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said. "There's room to grow."

Henderson is not alone in creating more space for city staff.

Las Vegas opened a City Hall expansion and new parking garage just over a year ago in October 2002. The city Human Resources, Business Development and Video Services offices moved in to the almost $20 million, seven-story structure, that is connected to City Hall by a pedestrian bridge.

And this fiscal year, Las Vegas is set to spend $1 million on the design of a new office tower for the Development Services offices.

In North Las Vegas ground was broken on the new $29.7 million Justice Facility in October, and the new courthouse is expected to open in February 2005. The new and existing municipal courthouses are on the North Las Vegas City Hall campus on Civic Center Drive, and once the move is made city employees from City Hall may move in to the old courthouse building.

North Las Vegas city spokeswoman Brenda Johnson said the city is commissioning a space study to see what should go in the existing courthouse building.

"It's common sense that we'll use it. We're hurting for space," Johnson said. About two years ago the city Human Resources office was moved to a rented office across the street from City Hall.

In Henderson, officials and residents said the need for more space is obvious. Over the years, four city division have moved into temporary modular buildings around City Hall. About 110 city employees will move from those temporary spots into the addition or renovated City Hall.

In departments that stayed in City Hall, conference and storage rooms were shrunk to make room for cubicles. The building was designed to provide space for 193 employees, but today about 300 city staff work out of City Hall.

"Every few years we had to figure out how to make more space for our employees," said Community Development Director Mary Kay Peck, whose office conference room was made smaller to free up room for four desks a few years ago.

But when talking about the new City Hall, city officials start and end by explaining how the building is designed to make it easier to do business with the city, largely by putting the most heavily visited departments all together on the first floor. The addition also brings City Hall staff and visitors right up to the new parking garage.

Outside the new front door to the City Hall addition on Basic Road sits the new drive-up window for utility bill payments.

In the middle of the 220,000-square-foot building is a four-story open atrium with the busiest department counters around a long, narrow open space with the city seal painted on the floor. The offices in the so-called one-stop shop will include permitting, business licensing, community development, development plan checking, and code enforcement. This area is expected to be fully open to the public on Dec. 22.

Sara Koepnick, a Henderson resident and owner of a permit expediting business, said the new building will be a blessing. Now, sometimes Koepnick has to go to several offices on different floors in City Hall to take care of permitting and plan submittal work. She also commented on the relatively small waiting areas in the different planning offices.

"Sometimes it's standing-room only here," Koepnick said while waiting Monday in the Development Services office.

Koepnick said that as a resident she also sees the need for the expensive new addition.

"I think they definitely need more floor space and more staff," she said. "We're one of the fastest growing cities."

Henderson has about 220,000 residents and has been growing by about 12,000 people a year for the past 10 years, city spokeswoman Vicki Taylor said. When the existing City Hall building opened in 1989, the city had about 58,700 residents.

The size of the city staff has also more than tripled since the 1989 opening. Then there were 402 full-time and 102 part-time city employees. As of last month, Henderson had 1,453 full-time and 1,233 part-time city employees.

The City Hall addition is the biggest piece of Henderson's $72.3 million City Hall expansion project, which also includes the $1.6 million renovation of the existing City Hall, about $4.5 million in new furnishings and equipment.

Work on the City Hall addition began in January 2002. City officials had predicted earlier finish dates, but scheduling problems delayed some work. Still the addition is opening about six weeks ahead of schedule.

"It's gone real well," city Construction Manager John Simmons said. "We had our challenges, but you expect that with a building of this size."

The $1.6 million renovation of the existing City Hall is scheduled to begin around Jan. 9 and take about six months to finish. Because of the renovation, City Council meetings will be held at the Henderson Convention Center beginning with the Jan. 6 meeting.

Beginning Friday, a first group of departments will have their packed boxes moved to their new desks. The offices of the City Attorney, City Manager, Community Development, Economic Development, Neighborhood Services, Property Management, Construction Management and the Fire Department will open in the new addition on Monday.

This routine will be copied by seven more departments over the following four weeks, although there will be no moves Christmas week, until the existing building is empty by the end of the day on Jan. 9.

"Moving is not fun for anyone," Cyphers said. "But this has been a long time coming."

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