PROPERTY MATTERS:
The Municipal Master Accommodation Plan
DOWNLOADS
Read the April 2009 Report to Council on moving forward with the Municipal Accommodation Strategy.
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PDF
38KB]
Read "Property Matters: Transitioning From Today To Tomorrow," containing the recommendations of the Administration Accommodations Ad-Hoc Committee.
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PDF
108KB]
PDF HELP
The freely available Adobe Reader software can be used to view the PDF documents on the City of Kingston Web site.
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Download]
On July 2, 2009, the City issued a Request for Proposals (see download at right) seeking options for an City Administration Centre in Kingston's downtown core in accordance with the Municipal Master Accommodation Plan. The Administrative Centre would house City staff from departments now located at a number of locations downtown. The Mayor, Council, CAO, Commissioners, Legal and City Clerk's offices will remain in City Hall.
The former Police Station at 11 Queen St. is identified in the RFP as the only suitable city-owned site available on which to develop the Administrative Centre, but downtown property owners are also invited to submit proposals regarding a suggested appropriate site. The team chosen through the RFP process will be put forward to Council for approval in November.
The Municipal Master Accommodation Plan (MAP) has been described as a "blueprint for future City of Kingston office space requirements." Specifically, the MAP envisions City Hall repurposed with a public and governance focus supported by a new administrative centre in the downtown core, using a social service campus solution at Montreal Street. John Counter Boulevard would remain, for the time being as Utilities Kingston prime location.
In April, 2009, Council voted to accept the recommendation outlined in a Report to Council [PDF 38KB] to move forward to evaluate whether or not to proceed now to implement the recommendations of the MAP, which called for an administrative centre owned by the city to be secured in the downtown core within a short distance of City Hall. The MAP recommends that in order to fill all medium to long term space requirements, the city pursue ownership space options rather than conventional lease arrangements.
MAP DETAILS
After a comprehensive analysis, the Administration Accommodations Ad-Hoc Committee reported and recommended the following to City Council: [You can dowload the Administration Accommodations Ad-Hoc Committee Recommendations PDF 108KB]
(Note: Since the following "Property Matters" recommendations were developed in 2004, the City's Customer Service call centre has been moved to an alternative City location and City staff have been moved out of the Midland Avenue offices.)
- City Hall be retained and repurposed to accommodate uses more in keeping with its design and original use, namely governance and meeting/public use.
- Governance functions and all municipal department administrative functions be centralized to the greatest degree possible.
- An administrative centre (approximately 60,000 sq ft.) owned by the City be secured in the downtown core within a short walking distance of City Hall. Having an administrative centre within a short walk of City Hall would support the centralized administrative function recommendation. A downtown core administrative centre would further support the corporate strategic direction regarding downtown revitalization. Through a Request For Information process various opportunities could be considered that may or may not include all of the Queen Street property currently owned by the City.
- Social Service functions are centralized to create a campus approach for service delivery. The Montreal Street location should be retained and additional office space (approximately 19,000 sq ft.) acquired or created to address urgent and immediate space supply/demand issues.
- The John Counter Boulevard property should be retained. Its core purpose to support of all Utilities Kingston functions combined with a satellite client service centre to support the City of Kingston's services requiring citizen interaction, namely call centre and bill payment functions. A further review of this property will be required as the Division Street property is programmed for Operations use.
- A short term space solution be implemented at the Midland Avenue location, suitable to address 18-24 month need and that the Midland Avenue property be readied for sale.
- To fill all medium to long term space requirements that the City of Kingston pursue ownership space options in favour of conventional lease arrangements.
