Douglasville leaders set demolition enabling work and zoning steps for new City Hall; abatement expected after Memorial Day

Douglasville — City staff briefed the council at the May 14 legislative work session on several interlinked steps toward constructing a new City Hall: budget reallocations, a request to proceed with enabling demolition work, and city‑initiated rezoning of three Church Street parcels to accommodate the building.

Karen Callen, the city’s chief financial officer and assistant city manager, said the proposed third amendment to the FY25–26 general fund budget would reallocate excess revenues and grant funds and establish a $1.2 million reserve to fund City Hall construction. She also said the amendment would increase the contingency line by $103,000 and adjust department lines to cover health‑insurance premium distributions.

Chelsea Jackson, deputy city manager, introduced a component guaranteed maximum price (GMP) amendment to allow Winter Construction Company LLC to begin abatement and demolition enabling work before the full GMP for the project is finalized. Jacob Adams, the project manager for CPS, described the enabling work as limited to abatement and demolition so other long‑lead and enabling tasks can proceed while the full GMP is vetted.

“Currently we are reviewing the GMP documents…branching this part of work now allows us to go ahead and start that enabling work prior to actually getting into the footings for the building,” Adams said.

Adams and staff said asbestos was found at the site and an abatement protocol is required; they estimated that abatement will take roughly three to four weeks after the Memorial Day holiday and that demolition mobilization will follow. Staff said major utility work is expected around August and that they will provide advance notices and temporary‑easement agreements to affected downtown businesses. Councilmembers asked staff to coordinate staging to minimize impacts to Church Street and to avoid disrupting planned events such as the Fourth of July parade.

Planning staff also conducted public hearings on three city‑owned Church Street parcels (6709, 6713 and 6717 Church St.) and said the planning commission recommended rezoning those parcels from CBD (Central Business District) to PSP (Public/Semi‑Public) to permit the City Hall use; the items were scheduled for formal consideration at the May 18 voting meeting. Staff also confirmed that the city purchased additional parcels on Church Street to assemble the project site.

The component GMP, the budget amendment and the rezoning items were presented as staff recommendations and were placed on the May 18 consent agenda for final action; no binding votes were taken during the work session.