East Wenatchee Hosts Public Hearing on City Hall Campus Expansion

The city of East Wenatchee is inviting residents to a public hearing next Wednesday, November 17, as part of a project to expand the City Hall campus to include a northern adjacent property.

The expansion would require an amendment to the existing conditional use permit and will allow for future construction for an on site public works facility. The hearing will focus on amending the permit and approval of a Master Plan for the expansion.

"The (public works facilities) we have out there are very, very old," said Lori Barnett, community development director. "They've been here since the 40s. They have dirt floors, they weren't built for the vehicles of the size we have today."

According to Barnett, the current East Wenatchee City Hall was built in 1995 with the initial conditional use permit issued in 1993. An amendment was made to the conditional use permit once before because the city purchased adjacent property.

"We hired an architectural firm to look at a Master Plan that would provide enough space to get all the vehicles undercover and all of the equipment stored in secure facilities," said Barnett. "What we're doing now is getting approval to amend the conditional use permit for that Master Plan for the public works department."

The expansion includes a piece of property on Colorado Avenue, roughly .5 acres, which was a halfway renovated home purchased by the city. Habitat for Humanity recovered what could be used and the remainder of the building will be demolished for the public works department.

"Public works is fairly land extensive, you don't have two story buildings with big trucks in them," said Barnett. "The Master Plan shows all of the potential buildings, we decided let's do one of the buildings at this point, but get approval for the Master Plan."

One building for the entire project is planned to be built in 2022.

The hearing starts at 5:30 p.m.