Civic Center headed to the ballot?

Taxpayers are likely to decide whether to approve the Chapel Hill City Hall and Library project

The proposed Civic Center campus (highlighted above, in pink) will likely require voter approval in 2022 in order to move forward. Contributed graphic/CoLS.

Six weeks ago, a city-hired consultant presented the Lake Stevens City Council with the stakeholders’ “preferred option” design plan for a combined City Hall and Library complex at Chapel Hill.

A hybrid of three earlier proposals, the preferred option provides a two-story City Hall building, a small cafe and a one story library. The Library and City Hall are connected by public meeting rooms joined in the center by a breezeway with public seating. In total, the project — underwritten together by the City and the Sno-Isle Library District — is estimated to cost in the neighborhood of $23.7 million dollars, but the funding source has yet to be decided.

Both the City and Sno-Isle have stated that no concrete decision has been made as to when an if the project shall move forward. However, according to Council documents, both entities expect that a public vote will be required to “support the majority of the capital expenses associated with the project.”