The Whitefish City Council is settling in for a long meeting tonight, with nine public hearings that culminate with the council making further decisions about the design, cost and construction start date for a new City Hall.

Mosaic Architecture was awarded the design contract for the City Hall and parking garage complex earlier this year; since then a steering committee has been reviewing three designs.

Ben Tintinger of Mosaic Architecture will make a presentation on the recommended conceptual design and discuss the project and costs during a work session from 5:50 to 7 p.m. today.

During the regular meeting, the council will consider recommendations from the committee and information about the costs of the various design options and timing of construction. Council members will decide which conceptual scheme to pursue, what general cost parameters and square footages of the building to pursue and the timing of construction.

The council also must authorize the next phase of architectural design that begins with schematic design.

A total of $11 million in tax-increment revenue has been approved for the project. Adding a third floor and a full half-finished basement, as recommended by the committee, could add another $1 million to the total cost.

The committee also voted to recommend a design scheme with the entry on Second Street, make some changes to the Second Street/Baker Avenue corner and change the entrance off Baker Avenue into City Hall.

Other public hearings on tonight’s agenda range from a conditional-use permit request for an accessory apartment at 444 Columbia Ave. to rezoning parcels along Wisconsin Avenue from low-density multifamily residential to commercial zoning.

One hearing will consider a resolution to establish a new fee for the rezone of properties that accompany a development project and annexation whenever an applicant wishes to rezone property back to what it was zoned before county interim zoning.

The proposal recommends a $500 fee to rezone to a comparable city zone. The current rezoning fee is $2,310 plus $66 per acre for the first 80 acres and $40 per acre beyond 80 acres.

City staff learned that the city of Kalispell, to encourage annexation, has a reduced fee for applicants requesting to rezone to a comparable zone.

“This made some sense to staff to have a reduced fee for development projects that are rezoning to a comparable city zone and annexing as part of their development project,” City Manager Chuck Stearns said in his staff report.

The council will consider strengthening its policy and amending city engineering standards regarding the city’s prohibition of gated communities.

Both the work session and council meeting will be held at Whitefish City Hall.