It will likely be at least a year before the Kennewick City Council has the answers it needs to determine next steps for a future city hall.

Council members gave consensus in mid-August to a proposal from city staff to issue a request for proposals, or RFP, to architecture firms to determine the costs and process associated with building a new city hall.

The RFP also will call for a master plan for the civic campus downtown and analysis of potential renovations to the current City Hall to keep it in operation until a new one is built.

“The future of City Hall represents a significant investment in our community’s infrastructure and public service delivery,” city staff wrote in a memo to the council. “By conducting a comprehensive architectural assessment now, we can make informed decisions that will serve our residents effectively for decades to come.”

However, council members still have questions about the process. They also debated whether to narrow the scope of the renovation analysis of the current City Hall, with differences of opinion on whether there is any merit to such a review given potential costs.

“It’s one thing to do a few walk-throughs, it’s another to actually assess do you actually have mold and do you have asbestos and what’s the mitigation for that,” said Mayor Gretl Crawford during an Aug. 12 workshop meeting.

City Hall was built about 60 years ago and is a top priority for replacement by the city. City staffing has reached a point where workers are running out of room in the building, along with needed storage space for files and equipment.

More urgently, the current building has millions of dollars’ worth of needed repairs, from a leaky roof to failing and outdated heating, ventilation and air conditioning and information technology. The city’s data center in particular is facing multiple component replacements and needs updated infrastructure within the next few years.

City Manager Erin Erdman told council members that a feasibility study for a new City Hall, civic campus master plan and renovation analysis of the existing facility would ensure the council has the information it needs to determine the city government’s future home.

“Looking to site City Hall on the civic campus would be a good time to take a deeper dive into what the bigger plan should be,” she said.

Erdman confirmed that the council wouldn’t see final reports until the summer or fall of 2026, given the time needed for the city to receive initial responses to an RFP and then for the selected firm to conduct the work.

The renovation analysis generated the most discussion among the council, from how extensive potential renovations should extend the current building’s life to whether a more extensive renovation could be a better deal for taxpayers.

“In residential, I’ve only once torn down a house rather than renovate,” said Councilman Brad Beauchamp. “Every time we did that cost analysis to demo the house and start all over, it didn’t make sense, we renovated it. I just don’t see buildings get torn down every day.”

Councilman Chuck Torelli advocated for some element of a renovation analysis be included in the RFP. However, he said that buildings do have a shelf life.

“I think it also behooves us to ask how long do we want this building to live for under a remodel,” Torelli said. “Because you’re not going to get another 60 years out of this puppy.”

Erdman said city staff would refine the RFP to seek a more narrow focus on the current City Hall building analysis to identify what would be needed to keep the building functional until a new one is built.

A draft of the RFP will be presented to council at a future meeting for approval before it is issued.