Live where the mayor works? Fort Lauderdale may add workforce housing to new city hall

Affordable apartments are hard to come by in Fort Lauderdale, where the median rent is $3,000, according to Zillow. With that in mind, residents have asked for affordable and workforce housing to be added to construction plans for Fort Lauderdale’s new city hall.

A year ago, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission agreed to relocate government operations after heavy storms last spring caused extensive damage to the existing City Hall building, located at 100 N. Andrews Ave. The building, built in the 1960s, had extensive damage to the electrical and HVAC systems, the Miami Herald previously reported.

Since then, city employees have been spread across two buildings downtown, with the city commission working out of a building at the corner of Andrews Street and East Broward Boulevard, and city workers in the former Uniform Advantage building on Northeast Third Avenue.

For the past five months, the city’s Infrastructure Task Force Advisory Committee has solicited feedback from city employees and residents on what they envision for the new city hall, which has a proposed budget of $200 million. The sessions yielded various recommendations, including wanting city hall to stay downtown and to include an affordable housing component.

While it would be a new concept in South Florida, other municipalities in the state and elsewhere have discussed or moved forward with plans to build housing for government workers on site. Last week, Sarasota approved a $7 million land purchase across from City Hall to build two 12-story towers with 192 workforce units, WFLA reported.

Other cities outside of Florida have taken similar steps. In Georgia, developers are building workforce housing near Atlanta City Hall, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Last year, residents in Rossland, British Columbia, moved into affordable housing that sits atop the city’s new municipal headquarters, CBC News reported.

Small business owner Norby Belz, a candidate running for District 1 commissioner, said he wants Fort Lauderdale to consider workforce housing for employees who can’t afford to live in the city.

“It’s very expensive to live in Fort Lauderdale. When we’re looking at building a new city hall, we need to consider how we can bring the employees, who are the heart and soul of our city and help our city function, to live in the city where they work,” he said.

Yvette Matthews, assistant director of the office of management and budget, said while the city has seen other examples of city halls incorporating affordable housing, Fort Lauderdale has a space issue that must be considered.

“One of the challenges in the city of Fort Lauderdale is that we’re not as spread out as some other municipalities, and so the availability of land does play a role in that, but because we haven’t gotten to specific design, really everything’s on the table,” Matthews said.

Marilyn Mammano, chair of the Infrastructure Task Force Advisory Committee, said there is a “general thirst” for affordable housing, but building it as part of city hall may not address the overall need.

“If you took the whole city hall and you just built affordable housing, you wouldn’t be making a dent in the problem,” she said. “Affordable housing is a bigger problem than reimagining City Hall. And what I’m getting ... is just these comments are heartfelt and are indicative of how extreme the situation is.”

While a timeline on design and construction for the building has not been set, Mammano said city officials seem intent to move forward. “I am surmising, by the amount of urgency they have placed on this and the amount of resources they have devoted to it, that sooner is better than later,” she said.

With no firm plans about the future city hall, including location and amenities, Mammano urged residents who were unable to attend the previous sessions to attend upcoming committee meetings to give their input at the May 6, May 20 and June 3 meetings held at 2 p.m. in the Red Tails Conference Room at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, 6000 NW 21st Ave.

Residents can read about the committee’s findings from the workshops by visiting fortlauderdale.civilspace.io/en/projects/reimagining-city-hall.