The Sunnyvale City Council is preparing to narrow down options for a new, modern civic center and based on the feedback from a recent meeting, some members may be leaning toward a campus-style civic center with buildings closer together and room for expansive green space.
The council looked at eight possible designs for the civic center modernization project during a special study session on Nov. 17. About 40 members of the public stopped by for the meeting at city hall to get a look at the design options, which were tacked up for easier viewing and took up two walls in the council chambers.
The plans have been created using input from several community outreach meetings, with collaboration from city staff and Anderson Brulé Architects. The council is expected to narrow down options to just three during a public hearing on Dec. 15.
The civic center in Sunnyvale spans 24 acres and is home to the city hall, the library, the department of public safety, various city offices and open space. The entire complex is about 50 years old, and there has been talk about remodeling or updating the space for the past 20 years, but disagreements on financing, cost and what exactly to do with the space have stopped previous efforts from moving forward.
Forming the different design options and narrowing them down has been the closest the city has come to making the updated civic center a reality.
Some common themes of several of the plans include keeping the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety headquarters where it is and having buildings moved closer to Mathilda Avenue and El Camino Real to give the civic center more presence on those streets.
There was also a preference for leaving the community gardens where they are and adding some art visible from Mathilda Avenue to make the civic center a more inviting place.
The meeting saw council members and residents share their thoughts on what components of the eight plans they liked or did not. Many were in favor of clustering the different civic buildings together to create a greater sense of unity and convenience and to create a larger green space.
“I tend toward clusters of uses so the buildings that are adjacent,” said Vice Mayor Tara Martin-Milius, adding that a campus configuration with buildings closer together would make it more efficient for employees from different departments to speak in person.
Councilman Glenn Hendricks said he liked a concept that put the Department of Public Safety, city hall and the NOVA job center closer together and another design that put all of the buildings in a cluster. However, he was concerned with the price of extensive underground parking in the design.
Mayor Jim Griffith expressed preference for a civic center with a campus design that would entice residents to discover other city buildings like the library after visiting city hall or elsewhere.
“I don’t like the notion of these independent buildings that don’t have any connection,” Griffith said. “People drive here and park, and there’s 10 buildings in 10 directions. That doesn’t encourage engagement in city hall.”
The most radical design presented also seems to be one of the least likely to come to fruition. One design calls for many of the civic center buildings to be rebuilt on land that is already inhabited by a Santa Clara County courthouse. Moving the buildings to that area would leave the rest of the land available for open space.
While the idea was appealing to the council and some residents, several council members commented that the plan was expensive and potentially difficult given that the land is owned by the county and is not currently for sale.
“I love it, but it would be so massively expensive,” Griffith said.
For more information about the city’s work on a new civic center and future council meetings, visit sunnyvale.ca.gov.
