The former Whidbey Island Bank Building on Pioneer Way may be razed to make way for a parking lot.

(Left: Oak Harbor Mayor Scott Dudley stands in a stairway of the Whidbey Island Bank building just after the city purchased it.)

The city officials purchased the 35,000-square-foot building, which once housed JC Penney, for $2.6 million last year. The intent is to use the parking space in back of the building, which is adjacent to Windjammer Park, as the site of the new sewage treatment plant.

The Oak Harbor City Council is scheduled to decide the fate of the building during its Tuesday, May 5 meeting.

THE TWO-story structure was initially considered as a bonus feature that had potential to help revitalize the area.

Many ideas were proposed for the building, from a joint library and city hall to rental space for businesses.

In fact, a Coupeville real estate agent recently approached the city on behalf of a medical business interested in renting space in the building.

City Engineer Joe Stowell, however, laid out the parking problems and possible solutions during a council workshop.

“I’m going to go ahead and pull the Band-Aid off,” he said. “The one that I am kind of favoring, which is we already own property where we can put it. It just happens to have a building on it right now.”

The council had plenty of questions, but nobody expressed strong opinions for or against the idea.

COUNCILMEN Bob Severns and Jim Campbell, who are both running for mayor, said in interviews afterward that they need more information before forming any firm opinions on the subject.

Severns was recused from the decision to purchase the property because he’s a board member of Whidbey Island Bank, which is now Heritage Bank; he was meeting with city staff to discuss the matter this week.

Severns said he hopes that demolishing the building will allow the city to move the treatment plant northward in order to keep it out of Windjammer Park as much as possible.

Campbell said that demolishing the building may be the only way to solve the parking dilemma, but he’s not certain.

“I need more information before I would jump on any bandwagon.”

DURING THE workshop, Stowell explained that the aging structure would need a seismic retrofit if it was going to be used for anything beyond office space.

An engineering firm estimated the cost of the retrofit from $163,000 to $5 million, with a median of $900,000, according to the report by Roberts Engineering.

The assessed value of the property is $5.2 million, according to the Island County Assessor’s online database.

Additional problems with the building were uncovered during the due diligence process. The second floor would need to be reinforced for use as a meeting space, the sprinklers need to be upgraded and the upstairs windows need to be repaired or replaced. In addition, the roof leaks and the elevator is not ADA compliant.

CITY OFFICIALS were aware of all the problems with the building before the purchase and the issues were included in the appraisal of the property, according to the agenda bill for Tuesday’s meeting.

The most urge concern, Stowell explained, is the parking problem.

City leaders knew before the property was purchased that there’s a shared parking and access easement between the bank property and the next-door neighbor, which is the property where Peoples Bank is currently located. The easement encumbers 90 parking spaces between the two property owners.

SINCE THE facility is going to be built on the current parking lot, the city has an obligation to provide parking elsewhere under the easement.

In other words, the city either has to come up with more parking or work out a deal with the neighboring property owner. Stowell explained that the parking issue has to be resolved before the plant can be built.

Also, city code would require the city to have 50 parking spots at the sewage treatment plant if a 200-person meeting room is incorporated into the facility, as has been proposed.

Under the resolution the council will consider Tuesday, city staff would be directed to remove the building upon completion of the treatment plant.