A new $120 million city hall complex is one step closer to becoming a reality, leaving the decision to seven City Council members to approve a bond instead of the 158,000 residents in Denton who will have to pay for it.
The council is seeking a certificate of obligation bond, which doesn’t require voter approval — simply a council majority vote.
In the fiscal year 2022-23, the city had nearly $2 billion in debt via certificate obligation bonds and general obligation bonds, according to the city’s website.
In June, the city issued another $84.7 million that the council approved via a certificate of obligation to help pay for Denton’s contractual obligations, which include “renovating, constructing, expanding, improving and equipping existing municipal service center building.” The city expects to pay $113.9 million with interest.
In addition, another $177.6 million debt via a certificate of obligation was issued in June for the water system, wastewater system and electric system projects. The principal and interest required to pay back the bond is $277.8 million.
“Repayment for the Utility System debt ranges from 20-30 years while the General Government debt ranges from 5-20 years depending on the project,” Dustin Sternbeck, a city spokesperson, wrote in a Wednesday afternoon email to the Denton Record-Chronicle. “Due to the longer repayment term, there is more interest owed on the Utility System.”
Both bonds must be paid by Feb. 15, 2054, according to the notice of intention to issue the certificate of obligations.
“The City reasonably expects to pay self-supporting debt obligations from revenue sources other than ad valorem taxes, provided, however, that in the event such self supporting revenue sources are insufficient to pay debt service, the City is obligated to levy ad valorem taxes to pay such debt obligations,” City Secretary Jesus Salazar wrote in the public notice for the certificates of obligation posted earlier this summer to the city’s website.
The City Council will be discussing the funding mechanisms for the proposed $120 million city hall project, which could include a public-private partnership, during budget talks later this month, according to the city’s latest Friday staff report.
In a Monday afternoon email to the Denton Record-Chronicle, Sternbeck wrote, “The City is in the final phase of procurement and negotiating a City Hall concept and design professional services. … We anticipate having the contract ready for Council review by mid to late October.”
Sternbeck pointed out that the estimated $120 million cost includes a parking garage and was presented last year to the bond committee.
In November, Sternbeck said there were three potential sites for the complex: the vacant lot across the street from City Hall, the parking lot next to City Hall and the Civic Center parking lot.
DRC file photo
It will be part of the new Downtown Area Plan that the city’s Development Services staff has been in the process of implementing. The plan will expand the boundaries of downtown and could recommend future land-use zoning changes, as the other area plans have done for northeast and Southeast Denton.
But last year the citizen bond committee, which included 40 residents, rejected the new city hall project as part of the November bond package, in part because they were already asking voters to approve nearly $300 million in bonds, the largest municipal bond package to come before Denton voters.
Shortly after the committee removed it from the package in August 2023, Mayor Gerard Hudspeth was adamant that voters should decide whether a new city hall is needed and did his best to include it in the November bond package. Hudspeth, like City Manager Sara Hensley, said a new city hall is needed because the current facility is at capacity as Denton hires more staffers.
Hudspeth wanted the council to include at least $50 million in the bond for a new city hall.
“All I’m asking from my peers is to let the voters decide,” Hudspeth told council members in August 2023. “That’s all I’m asking for.”
Then-council member Chris Watts, as well as other council members, stressed that it was important for Hudspeth to listen to the citizen bond committee.
But then Watts suggested they use a council-approved bond instead of allowing voters to decide and possibly deny a new city hall via the bond election.
A voter denial would mean they would have to wait five years to get debt funding to pay for it.
In September 2023, a council majority approved $100,000 from the general fund budget to pay for a city hall concept plan for council discussion.
DRC file photo
Critics have said that a new city hall complex would be a threat to the historic O’Neil Ford-designed civic complex, where the current City Hall is located, as well as the nearby City Hall West. Some wondered why the city didn’t utilize the space available at City Hall West, as it had in the past.
Ford, a mid-20th-century architect who spent some of his formative years in Denton, was known as the godfather of Texas modernism and endeavored to build structures that would last.
Randy Hunt with Historic Denton suggested that the city build the additional four stories Ford envisioned for the current City Hall.
Local historian Mike Cochran, a former council member, pointed out in a Facebook group called Friends of the O’Neil Ford Civic Complex, that Ford planned for City Hall “to be one story, but he drew the 4-story addition as a concept plan. He was always thinking ahead.”
Courtesy art
Hunt said the City Hall building designed by Ford is recognized by the Texas Historical Commission and the National Park Service and argued that “the focus is only on ‘new,’ with a lack of respect and appreciation for historical buildings owned by the city.”
“What is going on now with the idea of a new City Hall is exactly the same as what occurred with the past three SAPs (small area plans) and the disrespect of the City Hall West Commission,” Hunt wrote in Tuesday night email. “The expectation is that residents will be involved in making decisions, but city employees hire their consultant and end results do not represent these expectations.”
Emanda Johnson, one of the members of O’Neil Ford Civic Complex group, told the Record-Chronicle in May 2023 that Ford’s architecture is treasured around the state and his civic complex is iconic to Denton. Johnson said the group was concerned about the city’s plans for City Hall if a new one is built and wanted to keep it from falling into disrepair, especially given what has happened to City Hall West, a 1927 Spanish Renaissance revival-style building and a Texas Historic Landmark.
“We know that the old City Hall is not as useful as a new city hall would be,” Johnson said in 2023. “But it is an integral part of the whole complex of the municipal park.”
City Hall West was renovated in the 1960s as a fire station, in 1984 as a police station and in 1995 to house the Planning and Development Department.
Planning and Development moved out of the building in 2016. In June 2015, staff said only half of City Hall West’s 24,700 square feet could be used for offices.
In November 2017, the City Hall West Commission was formed with 24 people and spent over a year examining ideas. Hunt said three council members, including Hudspeth, were also appointed to the committee but were not supportive of new ideas.
“The result is that one of these three was elected Mayor, and the CHW approved plans were buried as funds were used to build out Developer Services,” Hunt wrote in his email.
Hudspeth said he had planned to look into the issue but was unable to meet the deadline since he was working.
“I will remind you that we had a world wide pandemic in 2020 (1st year as Mayor) and budgets were affected,” he said in an email Wednesday.
City officials had put the nearly $7 million restoration project for City Hall West on hold in early 2021 for what appeared to be the second time in a year, Stuart Birdseye, a former spokesperson for City Hall, said in a 2022 email to the Record-Chronicle.
“Early in 2020, the City considered a debt issuance related to the City Hall West Project. This project was ultimately put on hold and debt was not issued for that purpose in 2020,” Birdseye wrote in the email in November 2022. “In 2020, the City made a separate decision to issue debt to purchase the former Daybreak facility for a new Development Services Center.”
Birdseye said the city issued $700,000 in funding in 2021 to address repairs to City Hall West and initial architectural services but used only $479,770 of that money to do so.
In August 2023, staff said it would cost $17 million to continue renovations to City Hall West.
A few months later, Denton voters declined to approve a proposed $18.2 million bond for City Hall West as part of the bond package.
In an email Wednesday, Cochran wrote that the language for the $18.2 million bond proposal for City Hall West made it seem like a less attractive option for voters, sounding more like “fluff rather than something serious.” He called the failed vote a “smoke screen” that will be used to justify a new city hall complex.
Cochran claimed that City Hall West seemed to work fine as city staff office space, yet staff complained about it. He was also critical of using a “public-private partnership” to build a new city hall.
“This is not a magic word that automatically results in public benefits,” Cochran wrote. “... But this faith in private developers to accomplish public goals fails to account for the fact that these entities have conflicting goals: Maximize profits V. Serving the public.”
