SWOX Council considers 2-story design for new municipal office, potential cost $11 million

Debbie Kasman, Post Contributor

At its regular council meeting on Sept. 2, South West Oxford Township (SWOX) council considered a revised concept design for its new municipal office, child care and library located west of Highway 19 on Mount Elgin Road and directed staff to refine the concept designs based on feedback from both council and staff.

The original concept design, considered by council in December, included a child-care facility on the first floor, a municipal office on the second floor, and allowed for other uses on a possible third floor, which included a potential new space for the public library and/or affordable housing and/or apartments for seniors.

The new concept design now reflects revisions for a two-story model with the library located on the north end of the lower level, a daycare on the south end of the lower level, and the municipal office on the second floor. The option for affordable housing and/or apartments for seniors has been removed. Consideration has been given for storage, utilities, and an emergency operations centre.

The library would be lower than the daycare to help with grade changes across the site and would have a higher ceiling so the second story municipal office would be on the same elevation. The council chamber would be located on the north end of the second story.

The building has been shifted further north to create a presence on Mount Elgin

Road and some parking spaces have been shuffled to the south end of the site to accommodate this.

The new proposed design is estimated to cost $10.9 million. This does not include contingency, tariffs, information technology, security systems, furniture, appliances or HST. The estimated cost is a conservative estimate. More accurate pricing will not be known until the project goes to tender because pricing is highly variable at this time.

Council has requested to review the updated concept designs again before proceeding with the preparation of tender documents.