After weighing public input about possible sites for a new Whitefish City Hall, the City Council on Tuesday will hold a public hearing to consider a resolution that calls for rebuilding City Hall at its current site.

A steering committee tasked with researching alternative locations held five meetings before recommending that the council keep the current location at the northeast corner of Baker Avenue and Second Street for the future construction of a new City Hall.

A town meeting in October 2011 kicked off the search effort, allowing citizens to cast votes for a preferred site via interactive electronic response cards.

Five sites were considered.

A location at the intersection of Spokane Avenue and Third Street, where the Block 46 mixed-use development once was proposed, was the most expensive option with an estimated price tag of $7.8 million.

City property north of the Whitefish Community Library that has been talked about for years as a potential City Hall site was in the mix of options and would cost about $5.6 million.

Property along Baker Avenue where Calvary Church and a professional office building are located — across the street from the Whitefish Post Office — also was considered. Construction and property purchase on that site are estimated at $6.7 million.

The least expensive of the five options would be retrofitting the Mountain West Bank building on Spokane Avenue for about $4.2 million.

The current City Hall site could be developed with a modern building for about $5.5 million. That includes the Coldwell Banker building the city bought some time ago for $750,000 to give the city an entire half block of property.

The current City Hall, built in 1917 from soft bricks, has no structural stability for earthquakes and has outlived its usefulness, city officials have determined.

The city added the former Whitefish Credit Union and another building adjacent to the City Hall complex for office space several years ago.

Even so, the facility is too small to accommodate the planning and building and parks and recreation departments, which now are housed at the former Park Side Federal Credit Union building at Depot Park. The fire and police departments, along with the municipal court, were relocated last year to the new Emergency Services Center on Baker Avenue.

Among the attributes listed for the current City Hall site were the fact that the property already is paid for; it’s centrally located and highly visible; the public is accustomed to City Hall at that location; and the city can build to suit.

IN OTHER business Tuesday, the council will vote on a resolution adjusting the cash-in-lieu payment in connection with affordable housing from $11,000 to $8,000 per unit, as recommended by the Whitefish Housing Authority.

The council will vote on a 4.7 percent user rate increase for sewer and water, effective Oct. 1. Earlier resolutions called for rates to be adjusted on Oct. 1 each year, but last year the City Council indicated a preference to forgo the annual increase in those years when cash reserves are sufficient to cover the increase changes for contract hauling.

City Manager Chuck Stearns advised the council in his report for Tuesday’s meeting that the cash reserve fund has adequate reserves to forgo the 3 percent user rate increase, but that reserve will increase at a slower rate if tapped to accommodate the rate increase.

The Consumer Price Index for water, sewer and trash collection services for 2011 was 4.7 percent, Stearns said. Indexing helps the city avoid abrupt rate increases, he said.

A 4.7 percent increase equates to about $3.75 more per month for an average homeowner.

The meeting begins at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday at Whitefish City Hall.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.