DuPont tackles ‘facility crisis’

DuPont has nearly tripled in population since 2000 and now plans to catch up by paying $16.7 million for a new city hall and fire-police station.

If the City Council approves a project developer Tuesday night, as expected, construction on a road and utilities would start in August. Buildings would be ready in early 2009.

Population growth in the South Pierce County city has caused a “facility crisis” and drives the new construction plans, said City Administrator Bill McDonald.

DuPont has come a long way since it was the site of Fort Nisqually, the first trading post on Puget Sound in 1833.

City government offices were designed to serve a village of 592 people in 1990. It had 2,452 people a decade later and by this year has more than 7,000.

“We’re bursting at the seams,” said City Councilwoman Jennifer Crouse.

But DuPont officials ruled out going to the ballot to pay for their new buildings; they figured not enough voters would say yes.

Instead, they went with a nontraditional financing partnership with a private developer, using a method the state Treasurer’s Office says it doesn’t use.

“And the capital costs more than with municipal bonds,” said Allan Martin, assistant state treasurer.

DuPont officials have chosen a project developer, Panattoni Corp. of California, out of 10 applicants. They say their public safety and other employees need more room.

The Police Department’s 10 full-time officers are in an 1,800-square-foot mobile home and the Fire Department’s 11 full-timers are in an old house and trailer of 2,100 square feet.

The fire engines can’t be kept at the station; they are in the public works yard nearby.

About 20 City Hall workers are stuffed into small work spaces in 4,500 square feet and a small trailer.

The new city hall will have 10,000 square feet and the fire-police public safety building will have 30,000 square feet.

City population grew because Northwest Landing, a large residential-business complex, was built, and construction continues in the once-small town of forests, marshes and lakes.

To finance the civic center project, the city could have proposed a bond issue to voters and raised property taxes if it passed. But the bond would require a 60 percent supermajority, which some officials said would be hard to get at a time when property taxes keep going up.

Instead the city has proposed a “lease-lease back” arrangement, McDonald said.

The city owns the seven acres upon which city hall and the public safety building would be built off Center Drive. It would lease the land to the developer at below-market cost, and the developer would fund construction of the two buildings. The city would occupy the buildings, secure 30-year financing and pay the developer.

The deal relieves the city of construction risk, but the cost of financing will be slightly higher than if the city did a traditional bond issue, officials said.

The same developer will construct commercial buildings containing up to 80,000 square feet on 5 acres of contiguous city-owned land. The city will use the lease payments from that land, real estate excise tax revenues and fire impact fee revenues to pay off the two buildings.

Lorraine Overmyer, a DuPont resident who served on the City Council for 16 years until the early 1990s, said she supports the plan.

“With the growth of Northwest Landing, all the services have had to expand,” she said.

City Councilwomen Penny Coffey said the city’s been working on the project for three years. She and Crouse said voters aren’t being asked to approve a tax hike now, but they may be asked to do so next year to help pay for parks.

DuPont is wrapping up construction of a large park, and the city has more than 1,000 acres of open spaces to maintain in the Northwest Landing development alone, Coffey said.

Build it?

What: The DuPont City Council discusses whether to authorize construction of a new city hall and public safety building.

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: City Hall, 303 Barksdale Ave.

More information: www.ci.dupont.wa.us