Southold Town officials have settled on a plan for reorganizing Town Hall and the Town Hall Annex, clearing the way for design work on a major renovation of the annex that is expected to be carried out in phases over several years.
Town Engineer Michael Collins told the Town Board Wednesday morning that determining where each department will ultimately be located was necessary before the town could commission detailed plans for the project.
“Before we can move forward with trying to get plans and specs done for the complete renovation of this building, we have to agree and lock where departments are going to be at the end of this renovation process,” Collins said.
Under the plan, the former bank portion of the annex would be completely renovated to accommodate the Town Clerk’s Office, records management and a new office for the town trustees. Moving the clerk and records operation out of Town Hall would in turn free space there for other departments.
The Town Attorney’s Office, currently divided between two locations, would be consolidated in the space vacated by the clerk. Code enforcement would move from the second floor of the annex into the current records-management space at Town Hall.
The Zoning Board of Appeals would move from its first-floor annex office into the Town Attorney’s current main office on the second floor, roughly doubling the ZBA’s space. The Building Department would then expand into the first-floor space vacated by the ZBA and trustees, providing offices for part-time employees who Collins said are currently “floating around the annex.”
The Comptroller’s Office would also expand into an adjacent office currently used by the Town Attorney’s Office.
No moves are planned for the Planning Department or Land Preservation Department, whose staff indicated they were satisfied with their existing space and layout, Collins said. The town historian would also remain in place. Space vacated by code enforcement on the annex’s second floor has not yet been assigned and could be retained as flexible office space.
The reorganization is only one component of what Collins described as a comprehensive renovation.
The project is expected to include a complete overhaul of the building’s heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, along with electrical work and potentially upgrades to the septic system and elevator depending on what is identified during the design and code-review process.
Climate-controlled areas would be created for town records. Collins said the annex basement already provides substantial storage space and that additional space now occupied by Police Department files will become available once the town’s new police headquarters is completed.
The former bank area would also include additional meeting rooms and a staff break area. Some of the meeting space could initially serve as temporary offices, allowing departments to move within the building as different portions are renovated.
That sequencing is a key part of the new approach.
Rather than simply renovating the bank area, moving the clerk there and addressing the remainder of the building afterward, the town intends to have the entire project designed at once and then determine the most efficient order in which to complete individual phases.
Collins said his next step will be to have revised conceptual drawings prepared for an RFP seeking comprehensive design, engineering and permitting services for the entire building.
“It’s going to be an RFP for a soup-to-nuts design and engineering, permitting, all of that for the whole building, including laying out the stages — what happens when, who moves when,” Collins said. “It’s going to be like a five-year plan, and then you can work in pieces.”
The approach would allow the town, for example, to determine whether renovation of the former bank and portions of the HVAC work can proceed simultaneously or should be undertaken separately.
Board members expressed support for the proposed department layout Wednesday, allowing Collins to begin moving the project toward the design phase. Collins said resolutions advancing the process could come before the board at its next meeting. The town also plans to address parking around the annex as work moves forward.
Southold purchased the annex building about nine years ago. The latest plan represents the culmination of numerous configurations considered over the years; Collins told the board that the drawings accumulated during the process amounted to a “hodgepodge of about 150 different scenarios.”
