Some long-planned projects at City Hall will remain that way due to a budget shortfall, City Council members learned Monday.
The draft spending plan for the city?s wish list of improvements has been pared down and some big-ticket items, such as new fire and police stations, will be delayed, officials said.
?Your revenues are not keeping up with your project needs,? City Manager John Brown told the council, explaining that a weak bond market and declining property tax revenues have combined to limit what the city can build in the next year.
?What we had to do to make sure we can live within our means was to take out a number of projects,? Brown said.
A new fire station on Petaluma Boulevard South ? originally estimated to cost $11 million and be finished a year from now ? is now pegged at $13 million, with the bulk of construction happening in 2009-2010.
That wasn?t welcome news for the council.
?What I?m hearing from our city manager is, we don?t have the same amount of money to plug into these projects, because of the times we?re in,? Mayor Pamela Torliatt said. ?I wish we did.?
Councilmember Samantha Freitas said the delay in completing the fire station and other projects, such as new paving around downtown streets, is frustrating.
?I?m incredibly disheartened,? she said. ?With the best of intentions, we want to do $75 million of projects and now we?re being told we don?t have the bonding capacity and the tax increment to move forward.?
Last year, the city?s redevelopment agency floated a $34 million bond for a wide array of projects, including the fire station and a new police station at a location to be determined.
The agency was able to secure favorable interest rates in spring 2007, but the economic picture has changed since then, and an identical bond expected to fund the completion of several projects won?t bring in as much money, officials said.
The most the city now expects to receive is $24 million in a second bond.
?That?s representative of the state of the economy at this point,? Brown said. New redevelopment bonds ?don?t go far enough into the future to cover big-ticket items.?
About two thirds of the city?s $75 million five-year capital improvements plan is slated for five projects, Brown said.
Those are the fire and police stations, the Rainier crosstown connector and the city?s share of two other interchange projects, at East Washington Street and Old Redwood Highway.
?If those aren?t coming out, there?s not a lot of room to spare,? Brown said of the capital improvements budget.
The proposed fire station would replace the existing D Street station, built in 1938. The city has spent $3.5 million so far on design and land costs for the project and would spend $3.9 million in the next year to start construction.
It will take more than a year to build the station, so the bulk of the construction costs will be paid in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the city said.
But Councilmember Mike O?Brien said delaying construction into 2010 will likely make the project more expensive.
?It is never cheaper to build it tomorrow; it is always cheaper to build it today,? O?Brien said.
A remodeling or relocation of the undersized police station has also been pushed back, with the bulk of the estimated $30 million work also planned for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
The council hasn?t decided whether the station will be expanded, rebuilt in its same location or moved to a new building.
The capital improvements budget for the next year totals $18 million and there are several long-planned projects that will be wrapped up with that money, the city estimates.
Those include the Petaluma River Trail connection across Lakeville Street and a new pedestrian bridge to North Water Street, bike lanes along Petaluma Boulevard North and new streetlights, benches and sidewalk repairs downtown.
The draft city budget will have its final review at Monday?s meeting.
(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)
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