Project Background and Overview
Facility Needs Assessment
In 2009, the City of Hutto commissioned a "Facility Needs Assessment" to review the current status of city owned buildings, sites and structures in the context of Hutto's recent rapid population growth, and their projected growth up to the year 2025. As a part of this work, the design team was directed to create a program for a new City Hall that would be commensurate with the projected population growth. The city also required the design team to create an architectural space plan which would incorporate and facilitate the use of a Service First customer service delivery method.
Lastly, the design team was asked to investigate the potential for use of the City Owned former Hutto Co-op site and structures for the future New City Hall and other city owned buildings. The following is a brief summary of the findings of the study. The full study is available for download here.
Population
population graph for Hutto
(click to enlarge)
With projected population rates of growth exceeding 600%, the City of Hutto will require the addition of City Staff and support space to effectively provide and administer services to its citizens. Over the next 20 years, the City of Hutto is expected to add an average of 10,000 citizens every five years.Based upon the projections for city staff commensurate with population projections made by CAMPO, the Facility Needs Assessment projects that the city will need approximately 110,000 sf for city facilities by 2025.
Budget
have/need/afford diagram
(click to enlarge)
the existing site (click to enlarge)
As a part of the 2010-2019 Capitol Improvements Plan (CIP), the City of Hutto allocated $7M towards to the design and construction of a New City Hall. $6.4M of this amount was allocated for construction costs, and the remainder for professional design fees.
Size
The Hutto Co-op Site consists of 18+ acres of land owned by the City of Hutto. Based upon the projected City budgets, The City of Hutto can currently afford to build a new City Hall facility on this site of approximately 32,000 sf to 35,000 sf. A building of this size will provide an adequate amount of room for the expanding City administrative staff for many years to come. However, other departments such as Public Works, Public Safety, Municipal Courts, etc. will need to be accommodated in new buildings built over a period of time as a part of the Incremental Growth Strategy recommended in the Facility Needs Assessment.
Incremental Growth Strategy
The city’s facilities needs were analyzed up to the year 2025. It quickly became apparent from this analysis that the physical space requirements for the facilities would quickly (within 3 to 5 years after completion) exceed the 32,000 sf that can be constructed within the current CIP budget. Therefore, a growth strategy that would allow the city to build new facilities in phases, as budget would allow, will be required.
Based upon these factors, an Incremental Growth Strategy has been recommended by the design team. The intent of this strategy is to control the pace of capital expenditure, building the New City Hall in increments (i.e. multiple phases and buildings), utilizing existing structures where feasible and deferring infrastructure cost in anticipation of sharing or offsetting these costs with future private development partners.
Type
The repurposed Co-op site will be a new, mixed-use district, blending commercial and residential development with a prominent Civic Block that will house a New City Hall, other civic buildings, and a Civic Green.
a map of Hutto (click to enlarge)
Location
The Co-op site is located across Highway 79 from the current City Hall at the intersection of Short Street. When approaching Downtown Hutto down Highway 79 in years past, the Co-op stood as a distinctive element on the skyline.
Reusing the Structures at the Co-op Site
The existing Co-op structures represent a significant link to the City of Hutto’s agricultural past and rural setting. Where feasible, these structures, in whole or in parts, and the land around them will be incorporated into the future development at the Co-op site.