Fiscal Note
The report presents the results of a study to assess the physical condition of the City-owned property located at 120 S. Fairchild Street and to examine its potential to accommodate other public uses, most notably the provision of emergency shelter and other services to homeless persons in Madison. The report includes preliminary cost estimates for renovations and upgrades that would be required under several program scenarios developed by the consultant, including one which maintains current uses of the facility. No appropriation is required at this time, but it is possible that City agencies could include requests in future budgets for additional funding and/or reallocations of existing funds, subject to approval by the Common Council.
Title
Accepting the 120 South Fairchild Building Study report prepared by Engberg Anderson Architects.
Body
WHEREAS, on July 7, 2015, the Common Council adopted resolution RES-15-00574 (Legistar File #38894), authorizing the Facilities and Sustainability Manager to prepare and release a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) for design and engineering services related to the potential retrofit of City-owned property located at 120 South Fairchild Street; and
WHEREAS, on January 19, 2016, the Common Council adopted Substitute Resolution RES-16-0048 (Legistar File #40937), authorizing a $64,000 purchase of service contract with Engberg Anderson Architects to provide limited professional architectural and engineering design services to include an assessment of the Fairchild property, including its mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure; and preparation of space programming, pre-conceptual designs and cost estimates for use in determining the feasibility of its use for the provision of emergency overnight shelter and other related homeless services, and/or a public restroom; and,
WHEREAS, Engberg Anderson Architects inspected and analyzed the Fairchild property, interviewed the building’s current users and conducted research on homeless shelter and programming models employed in a variety of locations within and outside of Wisconsin for use in developing programming options and corresponding cost estimates; and
WHEREAS, the report lays out a variety of options and preliminary cost estimates associated with potential future use of the property ranging from continuing and maintaining its current uses, to relocating some current uses in order to accommodate an emergency shelter operation, to adding a story to the building in order to increase its capacity to support both current uses and emergency shelter and other homeless services; and
WHEREAS, the purpose of this report is to provide useful information to policy makers regarding the condition of the Fairchild property and the feasibility and range of options associated with at least one potential future use, namely the provision of emergency shelter service;, but not to recommend any one identified option over another.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Common Council accepts the 120 South Fairchild Building Study report.