Inside Ferndale’s City Hall is a large metal safe and other remnants from the bank that was housed in the building before city staff moved in.
Down the street, Ferndale Municipal Court and City Council meet in a refurbished fire station.
For decades, the retrofitted buildings have worked for Ferndale. But with the city quickly outgrowing the facilities, and ongoing security concerns and constraints in the Municipal Court, Mayor Greg Hansen has spearheaded an effort to create a Ferndale Civic Campus to house city administration, the court and city council, and turn over the existing city hall to community services organizations.
The nearly 19,000-square foot structure will be built on the parking lot between the existing city hall and the Ferndale library and replace what city staff call the “pizza annex,” a former pizza shop that the city hasn’t used for several years.
According to city documents, the new building will be designed to “accommodate a variety of municipal functions” in one place, with open floor plans in several areas. The building will include conference rooms set up for virtual or hybrid meetings and screens in all three lobbies to display upcoming events and meetings and city news. The administration lobby will also include a “self help kiosk” to allow residents to pay utility bills and access information.
While staff face space constraints and strange setups leftover from the current City Hall’s bank days, the “Annex,” where the Municipal Court is located has its own issues — even the Washington State Supreme Court agreed.
Several years ago, Hansen said, the Supreme Court sent the city a list of security concerns regarding the municipal court, and following some upgrades, the court now meets 60-75% of the the needed security protocols. But the remaining upgrades would have been expensive, and Hansen said the city and the court judge decided it would be better to put the money toward the new project.
The new building will go “beyond state requirements” on security, Hansen said, including adding a sallyport in the garage on the ground level bottom floor and a secure elevator to transport prisoners.
“As opposed to you know what happened at the Court recently where somebody was able to … make a run for it,” Hansen said, referring to an incident in 2022 when an inmate left the building through a side door before being detained a few blocks away. “They got him, there was nothing too worrisome about that situation, but this will absolutely alleviate all of that.”
The existing buildings will be repurposed — the old City Hall will become a “community services hub,” Hansen said. Ferndale Community Services, the domestic violence advocates, the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce and the Ferndale Downtown Association will get space in the building, with more leftover. The plan for the Annex is still unclear and will be determined further into the project, Hansen said.
Communications Officer Megan Juenemann said she often hears people coming into city hall asking for court services and city staff having to redirect people.
“That’s an equitable hurdle for people,” Juenemann said. “So, to be able to send someone to come and get all of the services they need, without having to drive all over town or going to Bellingham, that’s a huge benefit for our community.”
The project is 85% through the design phase, Hansen said, and is close to being fully financed. The city has set aside nearly $4 million for the project and received several state and federal grants. The city still needs $6.25 million in grant money, but Hansen said there are “irons in the fire” to secure those grants. The last $6 million will come in through councilmanic bonds, which cities can take out when normal revenues can cover the payments. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen secured $1 million for the project’s construction.
All in all, the $15-$20 million civic campus will be built without asking for more money from Ferndale taxpayers.
“In order to be able to build this essential piece of infrastructure for our community, in my opinion, we needed to be a little bit more creative about how we financed it,” Hansen said. “So that was why we set about trying to seek grant funding in a variety of different places, but in order to offset what the ultimate costs will be to the community.”
Hansen said he’s proud of the work city staff have put into this project and the process.
“We’re going to be able to complete this really important piece of infrastructure and do it in a way that imposes very little cost on the community,” he said. “… This is not a big, beautiful building with clock towers and fountains and all that. It’s a very, very utilitarian building and done in a very, very cost-effective way.”
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
