UPDATE: Where is City Hall Headed Now?

Last September, the City and Sno-Isle announced plans for a shared civic center at Chapel Hill - the result of a two year public process. However, the City may prefer it own internal plans.

The “preferred alternative” for a new city hall and library campus at Chapel Hill is highlighted in pink in documentation released by the City Sept. 18, 2021 marking the end of a multi-year public process that resulted in a shared Civic Center concept between the City of Lake Stevens and Sno-Isle Libraries.

UPDATE: 7:00 pm Thursday — Mayor Brett Gailey confirmed today that the shared civic center plan is dead… but stated that the City hasn’t selected a new location for City Hall… and that further, the Council had eliminated the South Lake Stevens/police station site.

Original story:

Just months after winding up a two year public process that resulted in a shared Civic Center concept announced by the City on September 18, the City quietly began exploring other less public options for going it alone on a new city hall location.

Now, with the shared civic center concept in doubt (The J425 details the back-and-forth with Sno-Isle over the new library in a parallel piece published today. You can read that here.) the city may be eyeing a Tom Thumb-area City Hall — a choice that could displace local businesses, deliver a semi-permanent solution at best and (according to staff documentation) require the City to consider purchasing area residential property to flesh out their office space needs.