OCTOBER 27 UPDATE:

The Sparks City Council has unanimously approved a measure to start design work and construction on a new city hall campus near the Sparks Marina.

The move came at a City Council meeting on Monday.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

On Monday, the Sparks Redevelopment Agency met to discuss the possible purchase of a 7.8-acre piece of land near the Sparks Marina.

The $10-million decision was approved unanimously by the members and will make the plot the new campus of Sparks City Hall. 

During the meeting, the members discussed the issues with their current facilities.

They are experiencing problems with A/C and heating, issues with maintenance, employee and service vehicle parking which also effects delivery services, and overburdened offices/meeting places. 

Councilmember and redevelopment chair of the project, Donald Abbott, spoke on some of the current problems.

"The whole place is aging," he said. "This place was built back in 1969. I think we were serving around 25,000 people in our population, and now we're about 115,000. So, we're just, you know, we're busting on the seams as far as places for staff to even be to provide services to the community."

The members believe this new campus will allow for them to serve the community in more efficient ways, as well as aid in the current climate of the area.

This new site will support civic infrastructure, protect key land, and prevent it from private purchasing, which could open up the land to the possibility of price gouging.

It will also see more daily foot traffic in the area, boosting local businesses as well as creating jobs, both in the short-term employment of construction jobs and long-term positions. 

The funding of the project was also highlighted as this purchase has no impact to the City's general fund.

Abbott tells us the money lies in a Redevelopment Fund that must be spent on that land redevelopment.

"We can't use it to buy more police officers or firefighters," he said. "And so, the dollars that are in there cannot go to the general fund."

Discussions about the purchase also included the timeliness of the decision - as the city is getting this land below market value, with the current state of the market is seen as a huge victory for a new city hall campus.Â