Franklin City Hall is housed in a 1970s shopping mall on the historic Public Square in downtown Franklin. The mall closed in the early 1980s, leading to the purchase of the site for city hall. The building has held city government offices since that time, operating within an inefficient department store mall layout. The current building has minimal windows, a repetitively leaking roof, and inefficient working spaces, which create a less than ideal configuration. The current building lacks the welcomeness and prominence that a public City Hall should offer its citizens and it detracts from the historic architecture found on the Square. For more information on the need for a new City Hall, watch this video. 

Franklin built its very first official City Hall on the Public Square around 1868. Through a couple of fires and three City Hall buildings, City Hall stayed on the Square through until 1959, when operations outgrew the historic 1892 building.

In 1979, there was an opportunity for city hall to return to the Square. It was controversial because of the cost, and the decision was ultimately voted on by the citizens through a bond referendum. The majority wanted City Hall to be located on the Square again, so the City purchased the failed shopping mall site and began to convert the interior into the City Hall offices you see today. After 40 years, the old mall building is failing, so this will be the first modern-era purpose-built City Hall since 1892.

Franklin citizens and stakeholders have discussed the future of the old mall for many years, as well as the importance of maintaining downtown as the heart of the community as a civic and institutional center. Citizen input indicates the community desire for City Hall to stay on the Square, per the Central Franklin Area Plan dating back to 2004.

Envision Franklin, our adopted long-range plan of today, continues that sentiment and states that “Significant civic institutions, such as City Hall, should be located in downtown.”

These policies are in our plans because civic centers are anchors for a community. They provide an economic base that benefits historic downtowns. Civic buildings set the tone for the community. They should create a memorable public realm and be an open and inviting place for citizen engagement and local government to operate and serve its citizenry.

Traditional land planning design principles recommend that civic buildings be located in central, prominent locations within a community. They should be gathering places for citizens. They are where a community makes decisions about its future. As the County seat, the Public Square has held the Williamson County Courthouse and City Hall for most of Franklin’s history.

The property on the Square holds the 2nd Avenue parking garage, which serves City Hall and also the downtown. Other properties have been mentioned by citizens for possible use as City Hall, such as Bicentennial Park and the Hill Property on 5th Avenue North. Both of these sites are either located within or have their access through the 100-year floodplain/floodway. From a safety perspective, government operations at City Hall should be continuous, and siting City Hall in floodplain would not allow safe access to these sites during storm events.

The Master Plan will serve as the road map for the future design and development of the entire City Hall site. The vision of the Master Plan is the result of an extensive process of research and information gathering, case study investigation, and City Hall employee and public outreach that began in 2020. It  provides the conceptual design that will be used to achieve a new building and open spaces that fit contextually in the Downtown Franklin historic district.

Engagement focused on gathering important feedback on key elements for a successful City Hall to help inform the creation of the master plan. The consultant team conducted employee and community surveys, held Department Director interviews, and held two City Hall employee meetings that provided input into the desired working.

City-wide engagement opportunities included a dedicated website, social media posts and videos, small stakeholder meetings with downtown civic leaders and downtown residents, and a virtual public meeting.

Public meetings were held with Design Professionals, the Design Review Committee of the Historic Zoning Commission, the Franklin Public Arts Commission, the Sustainability Commission, and the Franklin Municipal Planning Commission, and BOMA Joint Conceptual Workshops.
This thorough engagement process helped build consensus on a broad vision for City Hall and this quadrant of the Public Square. Perspectives on function and form were gathered during the input phase and were used to design the preliminary master plan, and feedback was also gathered following the release of the master plan to refine the overall design direction.

City Hall is where decisions are made that guide the future of the city. Many public meetings take place at City Hall, including those with the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, the Franklin Municipal Planning Commission, the Historic Zoning Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Franklin Public Arts Commission, the Sustainability Commission, and the Civil War Historical Commission, among others. It is a place where citizens can gather and find out what is happening in the city or participate in the public process.

City Hall operations include a range of services for the public, including paying utility bills for the City’s water district, getting a garage sale permit, obtaining a building permit or grading permit, visiting development services, or finding out how to participate in the public process or attend a public meeting. City Administration, Revenues and Purchasing, Finance, Information Technology, Fire Administration, Planning & Sustainability, Building & Neighborhood Services, Engineering, City Courts, and Human Resources operate in City Hall. City Hall employs more than 200 full-time employees.

As part of the visioning process, the City surveyed citizens as to why they have visited City Hall, and most respondents (of 650 people) indicated they visited City Hall for services with City Departments (40%), to attend board or commission meetings (34%), use public restrooms (25%), and to pay bills (21%). Numbers don’t add to 100% because people visit City Hall for more than one purpose.

Serve the community

Provide an efficient, flexible facility to support exceptional delivery of services to the citizens of Franklin that speaks to the mission and key principals of Franklin.

Welcome the community

Promote citizen engagement by inspiring pride in the community and providing a wide range of indoor and outdoor services and amenities for Franklin’s diverse community.

Lead the community

Be a model for responsible development that responds to the rich fabric of downtown Franklin while implementing fiscal and environmentally sustainable strategies.

IMPROVED QUALITY OF SERVICES TO THE CITIZEN OF FRANKLIN

1. Implement effective security measures without sacrificing a welcoming and accessible City Hall for the citizens
2. Further enhance the level of City services
3. Flexibility in systems and design to allow for change and growth over time
4. Use technology to improve efficiency and expand capabilities

SHOW FISCAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

1. Implement sustainable strategies that are proven to be energy efficient thereby reducing life cycle costs of the building
2. Balance state of the art systems with initial construction and ongoing maintenance costs
3. Demonstrate strategic use of the site and resources

ENCOURAGE COMMUNITY AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

1. Improve access to city services and activities
2. Provide flexible and adaptable spaces for community use
3. Provide cultural and community resources such as educational opportunities and public art by local artists

ENHANCE FRANKLIN’S UNIQUE DOWNTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD

1. Provide open space that responds to the surrounding context and provides enjoyable outdoor spaces for gathering and respite
2. Provide additional amenities for the community such as meeting space and parking
3. A building design that is respectful to the height, massing, and scale of the surrounding built environment
4. A building design that is Civic in nature but blends with the historic character of Franklin's unique downtown fabric
5. Complete the Southeast quadrant of Franklin's Public Square with a City Hall that is both inviting and timeless

Below are the top ten highlights heard consistently from City Hall employee and community input during the employee and public engagement process:

1. Anchor the Square with a strong Civic building presence that complements the Williamson County Courthouse.
2. Design the building to reflect traditional architecture style, which should complement and blend seamlessly in downtown.
3. Face the prominent city hall entrance onto the Square.
4. Create a secure, safe, healthy working environment for employees, with daylight and views, a good service/customer interface, and a variety of working and meeting room options.
5. Provide additional parking and locate that parking underground.
6. Transition in character down 3rd Avenue to reflect the residential character.
7. Create a welcoming environment that reflects the character of Franklin.
8. Include a welcome center that may include general information and the history of Franklin and indoor community meeting spaces.
9. Include historic markers/memorials and outdoor seating and furnishings.
10. Include flexible spaces that allow the City to adapt to future growth and changes.

The full Master Plan includes a new City Hall facility with 115,700 square feet, with the potential to add an additional 10,000 square feet. It contains government office space and public meeting spaces, along with open spaces, plazas, and public art opportunities. The plan also provides over 200 parking spaces in a subgrade parking level below the building. The new spaces plus those in the existing 2nd Avenue parking garage will provide over 500 parking spaces on the site.  For more information on the master plan, please watch this video. 

The link to the full Masterplan Booklet is here: https://web.franklintn.gov/flippingbook/2022cityhallmasterplan/

Following the release of the preliminary master plan last summer, the City asked for feedback to gauge the design direction of City Hall. Survey results found strong support for the new City Hall master plan, including the proposed form, massing, and scale of the civic building, the inclusion of subgrade parking and public restrooms, and the incorporation of sustainable elements to achieve LEED Silver. Over 90 percent of second survey respondents indicated they were very satisfied or satisfied with the direction the new City Hall is headed.

The current City Hall is dysfunctional in its physical layout and does not reflect modern office user functionality, whereas the new City Hall will support more efficient city government operations, which inherently benefits residents/taxpayers. City Hall is a place where citizens gather and can become involved in city government and the new city hall will provide much better community meeting spaces. It will also provide a much better customer user interface for services that City Hall provides to citizens when they come to City Hall, ranging from obtaining a building permit, getting a yard sale permit, or paying a water utility bill. There’s also intrinsic value in having a building that represents a civic use and contributes to the fabric of the historic character on the Public Square in the very heart of downtown Franklin.

Yes, the underground parking will be protected from flooding.  A geotechnical study at the City Hall site measured groundwater levels between 17 and 22 feet below grade depending on rainfall events, well below the level of the underground one-story parking garage.  In the event of more extreme weather, the underground parking will be protected with robust waterproofing construction, an underground pump system, and redundant backup pump system.

The next phase of the project is Phase 2, Schematic Design, where architecture and further design of the interior building spaces takes place. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) is also requesting a market analysis for commercial uses and a reprogramming effort to study a phased construction of City Hall. This will provide information to help the BOMA make a decision as to whether to proceed with constructing the first phase of the building, or to construct the larger building with a portion used as City Hall and additional leasable square footage to help offset the construction costs of the larger building. The market analysis is expected to be completed by late summer 2022.