Panel approves scaled-down plan for Capitol wings

BOISE – The Capitol’s wings are clipped but still flying.

The Idaho Capitol Commission on Tuesday endorsed a plan to build a pair of single-story, underground extensions at the 100-year-old building – an expansion only half the size of the previous proposal.

The smaller package is part of a deal struck Friday by Gov. Butch Otter, a wings foe, and proponents in the state Senate and House. It ends an impasse that began Jan. 12 when Otter ordered work stopped on the $130 million Capitol expansion and renovation project.

There’s no state estimate for the cost of the smaller wings, which will add 50,000 square feet of space. However, officials said it’s unlikely to be just half of the $45 million estimate of the original plan for two-story wings totaling 100,000 square feet.

“There are a number of details that still need to be worked out,” said Keith Johnson, Department of Administration director and a member of the Capitol Commission, which oversees work on the historic building.

Otter opposed the larger wings as frivolous and emblematic of big government. He argued the money would be better spent on refurbishing the old Ada County Courthouse and Borah Post Office buildings, located across the street.

Lawmakers say the wings are needed to provide more space for hearings. In the existing Capitol, members of the public often have nowhere to sit or stand during high-profile meetings. Wings advocates say they would also focus government activity at one site, rather than forcing the action elsewhere.

“The object of the Legislature has been very clear,” Senate President Pro Tem Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs, told the nine-member Capitol Commission. “To allow the Capitol to remain a working Capitol, and not to turn it into a museum.”

Last year, a proposal to build one-story wings totaling 66,000 square feet had been estimated at $24 million.

Lawmakers eventually discarded it for the two-story plan, contending the larger space would be more economical when planning for long-term government growth over the next century.

Sen. John Andreason, a retired director of the legislative budget office, told the commission that scaling back the wings is the same mistake past lawmakers made when they trimmed the Len B. Jordan Building to three stories from five, dumped one of two planned towers from another state building, and clipped two floors from the state parking garage.

“Those weren’t great compromises,” Andreason said, arguing that building larger wings now will be cheaper than eventually renting more space. Idaho now pays about $12.9 million annually to rent 900,000 square feet of office space.

Sen. Chuck Coiner, R-Twin Falls, also told the commission it was moving ahead too quickly, without first having a firm grasp of evolving financial details.

“I think it’s imperative before we go on to know what the costs of redoing this are,” Coiner said. “I feel strongly that needs to be looked at, before we march down that road toward a political compromise.”

Architects, construction companies and state officials began meeting after Tuesday’s session to discuss how the more modest single-story wings will affect the design of the overall project, which includes renovation of the existing Capitol building.

A new master plan could be complete by the end of February, said Tim Mason, the state’s public works director.

“We have to figure out the internal configuration these wings are going to have. The Legislature is going to have to tell us that,” Mason said. Architects won’t be starting from scratch, but “everything that gets redesigned costs money,” he said.