Senoia’s rapid growth is causing a space crunch at City Hall.

During last Friday’s work session at the city’s park, the City Council got an overview on how the city could proceed to alleviate the situation.

Sergeant Michael Resmondo said the police department currently has files sitting on the floor and there is no real security in the building.

“There’s no heat or air in the evidence room,” he said.

One of the options would be to refurbish the building, but Resmondo said it would not accommodate the city’s future needs. Another option he outlined would be to use the existing City Hall and add another story on the facility to give the department nearly 8,000 sq.ft.

“We could use the existing vault as a secure evidence room,” he said.

The existing City Hall is housed in the old Farmers and Merchants Bank building.

The police department could also build a new building, but land costs could be prohibitive. The final option would be housing the department and City Hall in a historic building just off Main Street.

City Administrator Richard Ferry said City hall is facing a tight squeeze.

“We have no storage and if you’ve ever been here for court, you know how crowded it gets,” Ferry said.

The city could build a new structure in the parking lot adjacent to City Hall and use portable units until it’s completed. But Ferry added, the police department is in a far tighter crunch now.

Mayor Robert Belisle said he wanted assessments done of the existing City Hall and the historic structure to see if they could house the city’s needs for the next 20 years. There is some money in impact fees and Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax accounts, but the city would still need to seek outside funding sources.

City attorney Drew Whalen said the city could float bonds for the outside financing through the Georgia Municipal Association.

Belisle asked for Ferry to come up with requests for proposals for architectural assessments and present the requests to the city in a timely fashion.

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