At the Spokane Valley City Council meeting Tuesday evening, city manager Mike Jackson told the council that construction of the new city hall may be more expensive than expected.

The construction budget is $14.4 million but now that the architect is designing the building, some items have turned up pricier than expected.

Jackson said one of the biggest decisions is whether to add a basement to the building.

"That adds to the cost of the building," Jackson said. "We are coming in $1.2 or $1.3 million over what we budgeted."

However, nothing is set in stone yet.

Jackson said staff is just a few weeks away from presenting a city hall construction plan.

At that time, city council will have to look at some building features and decide whether to include them.

“I’m just letting the council know that hey, this is what we are hearing," Jackson said, "we can have the discussion about the building here in a couple of weeks.”

Council member Arne Woodard said he was concerned about this "creep in cost" which brings the project closer to the $20 million price tag that put on a previous city hall construction project.

Council member Ed Pace wants to set a budget and build to that, "Let's aim for the lower cost," Pace said.

Council member Rod Higgins suggested everyone cool their engines and wait for the actual bid process to begin.

"I think we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here," Higgins said. 

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