Moving council back into Calgary's old city hall would cost $400,000

After a small debate, it appears Calgary's city council wants to move back into old city hall when a major renovation of its exterior is done.

There's just one little problem there isn't enough room.

Each city councillor and the mayor have added one staff member since they moved out of the historic building in 2016 into temporary offices in the city's administration building.

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So if council wants to move back, the city is working on a plan to ensure everyone gets a spot.

Councillors had offices on the third and fourth floors of the century-old building. The plan is to move some city support staff out of those areas to the first floor, which was vacated by the city clerk's office.

The mayor's office will also get some additional room on the first floor.

More offices and additional washroom in cards?

Darrel Bell, the acting director of facilities management, told council in a briefing Monday that adding the offices on the ground floorand a new, universally-accessible washroom will cost approximately $400,000.

Even if council approves the plan, the city can't just go ahead with these renovations.

"We do have to get some approvals from the province because it is a federally-provincially-municipally designated building, so I'm not allowed to touch the building without approval, but I don't anticipate at this point that would be a problem," said Bell.

The mayor, councillors and some city staff left old city hall in 2016 when it was closed for the exterior renovations.

Recently, there was some question about whether they'd actually return to the building. The mayor and council were moved to more expansive spaces in the neighbouring administration building.

Coun. Ray Jones said after council was canvassed for its thoughts, the mood of the majority seems to be to go back to the heritage building.

"They figured it's the legislative building so it should have the legislative arm of the city there," said Jones.

He believes the money will likely come from the city's Fiscal Stability Reserve fund.

Some councillors want to find savings to pay for this

Coun. Jeromy Farkas said he'd like to find another source of money to pay for the project.

"I think we have to be able to find ways to accommodate that within the existing budget. I don't think it should have to be a brand new ask," said Farkas.

"To be frank, I think we can do well with being a little less comfortable around here."

Coun. George Chahal, who like Farkas was also elected for the first time last fall and has never worked a day in old city hall, said he's looking forward to having the heritage building as his workplace.

He said perhaps there are ways to find the $400,000 from savings elsewhere. But he also points out that this is the lowest cost option presented.

"If we found another use for it, we'd probably have to spend quite a bit of money to get it to another use," he said.

The $34 million exterior renovations on old city hall are said to be on time and on budget.

That project will be completed in July 2020, at which time council can move back into their workspace.

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