Renovation at Old City Hall Complex to Start Aug. 1

THOUSAND OAKS — A $1.86-million renovation to half of the old City Hall complex should begin about Aug. 1, according to city officials who said the work finalizes a deal that will allow Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area employees to move in this fall.

The 18,000-square-foot building, used recently as a haven for teenagers who left behind trash and empty beer cans, will have its first professional occupant in nine years.

The recreation area’s 72 administrators, biologists, park rangers and as many as 15 interns will move from their Agoura Hills office to the West Hillcrest Drive building upon completion of the renovations.

“We’ll be moving into the new headquarters in the fall--late October or early November,” said Jean Bray, public information officer.

Plans for a headquarters and visitors center were signed off last week by Arthur Eck, superintendent of the recreation area.

The City Council approved spending $1.86 million from the city’s general fund in March for the smaller of the two structures, known as the “south building.”

The General Services Administration, the federal government’s purchasing arm, will pay the city $411,840 annually under its lease agreement, which calls for a five-year commitment, with GSA holding another three-year option.

“The lease revenue over the life of the lease pays [the $1.8 million] back,” said Ed Johnduff, the city’s special projects manager.

Renovations include installing electricity, lighting, heating and air-conditioning, new carpeting, a handicapped-accessible elevator, as well as replacing shattered windows and fixing the ceiling. Workers will also construct a 2,000-square-foot addition.

Councilwoman Linda Parks is happy that the building will soon have a proper use, but she believes that it would be more economically feasible to renovate both buildings simultaneously. She wants the elevator to be in the middle of the two buildings--servicing both and reducing future costs--instead of on the outside middle of the south building.

“I think there’s a cheaper way of going about it,” she said.

However, Johnduff said the council already decided to work on only the south building because there is no tenant for the 36,000-square-foot north building. That structure is now used as a storage facility for city property, such as surplus furniture, he said.

Furthermore, placing an elevator between the buildings is impossible, Johnduff said, because they are about 150 feet apart.

“All you do is inconvenience both buildings,” he said.

City Manager Grant Brimhall said he had originally hoped to adopt Parks’ plan.

“Besides, that was one of the requirements of the tenants,” he said. “They wanted an elevator to serve [only] the building they are going to be in.”

The recreation area office, part of the National Parks Service, oversees management of the federal holdings of the recreation area--about 22,000 of the 150,000-square-mile area, which stretches from the eastern edge of Griffith Park in Los Angeles to the Point Mugu naval base.

Constructed in 1974, the two buildings were vacated 14 years later due to a space shortage.

The new City Hall, located in the Civic Arts Plaza, is 86,000 square feet as opposed to the old buildings, which are a combined 54,000 square feet.

The old buildings were also rife with asbestos, which was removed shortly after they were vacated, Johnduff said.