The City of Paso Robles is moving forward with the purchase of a multi-million dollar property near the airport.
The city council just gave the green light to purchase the property for $6.1 million. It'll serve as the new City Hall Annex and Corporation Yard.
If all goes as planned, it's where you'll pay your water bill or apply for a business license. The city will also store its maintenance equipment there.
"The city is working to save money on its operations by relocating certain city functions to a different location," said Mayor Steve Martin.
Located in the eastern part of town, one resident who was dropping off her water bill at the current City Hall Annex on Thursday afternoon said the new potential location is out of the way, and she questioned where the city is getting the funds.
Right now, City Hall Annex is on Pine Street and the Corporation Yard is on Riverside Avenue.
The city shells out $114,000 a year in lease payments for one and $124,500 for the other.
Longtime Paso Robles resident Tina Nichols was shocked to hear the rent amounts.
"It was just like, you know, in a year's rent, two years, you could have purchased property for cheaper than that," Nichols said.
By purchasing the new property, the city says it'll save the general fund $238,500 a year. The city clarifies, however, that the general fund will not be touched for the purchase.
"That's been a big point of conversation because our general fund is so compromised by the pandemic and this will not impact the general fund," Mayor Martin said.
The money will instead come from a $1.5 million sale of the Corporate Maintenance Yard property on Riverside, plus General Government Development Impact Fees in the amount of $3.7 million, $377,000 in Airport Funds, and Facility Repair and Replacement money which equates to $1.3 million.
That's nearly $7 million with the extra money going toward site improvements.
If the sale goes through, the city says it plans to lease a portion of the property to generate around $165,000 in General and Airport Funds. This would include one office complex and two airplane hangars.
