TIMELINE:City Hall timeline

1945: City Hall is relocated to 3300 Newport Blvd. from an old schoolhouse just east of the Newport Pier.

1945-1960: Old police department and jail — today, buildings D and E — are constructed.

1971: A $6.9-million bond issue to relocate City Hall to Newport Center fails at the polls.

1975: New council chambers are built, partly to pacify critics of the bond issue.

1985: The newest of the City Hall complex structures, the professional/technical building (C), is put up.

2003: City officials begin to talk about City Hall’s deficiencies — lack of space, and failure to meet standards for earthquakes and disabled visitors. Roger Torriero of Griffin Advisors is hired to do a study on the city’s facility needs.

2003-2005: Rumblings begin about rebuilding City Hall at the Newport Boulevard site. In February 2005, then-Mayor Steve Bromberg calls the facilities “embarrassing and archaic.”

Spring 2005: The city hires Griffin Structures in February to draw up preliminary designs. Public workshops are in March and April.

Torriero presents three plans for rebuilding at the current site, but some say the building design is ugly.

April 2005: Some residents begin grumbling about whether a new city hall is needed and why other sites weren’t considered. A new citizens’ group, Newporters for Responsible Government, calls for a public vote on the project, claiming it could cost up to $100 million by the time it’s paid off.

November 2005: City Council votes to have a committee study alternate locations for a city hall.

December 2005 The 12.8-acre site slated to become Newport Center Park, on Avocado Avenue, is pulled from the list of sites the committee will study.

May 2006: The committee narrows options to two: the location on Newport Boulevard and a parcel owned by the Irvine Co. in Newport Center. The Orange County Registrar of Voters rejects a city hall funding ballot measure from Newporters for Responsible Government because the group didn’t get enough valid signatures.

June 2006: Council members decide to let architect Bill Ficker present his idea for a city hall on the park parcel. But in July, they vote to take the site off the table again, their second vote on the issue.

The Irvine Co. tells the city it won’t sell the Newport Center parcel, so that site is off the list also.

November 2006: Council members say they’re in talks with property owners about the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club parcel, and the specter of eminent domain is raised. But within two months, the council’s interest has fizzled because some property owners are reluctant.

February 2007: In a speech at the annual mayor’s dinner, Mayor Steve Rosansky asks people to consider a combination park/city hall at the Avocado Avenue site. But later that month, the council splits 4-3 on going ahead with the park — the third vote on the question of park versus city hall.

March 2007: The council reconsiders its last vote and sends a design for Newport Center Park back to the parks and recreation commission, after learning parks commissioner Debra Allen — who actively lobbied for development of the park — lives close enough to the site to have a potential conflict of interest.

April 2007: The Orange County Transportation Authority’s park-and-ride station in Newport Center, less than a mile from the park parcel, becomes the council’s new preferred site. A study is commissioned.

May 2007: After a poll commissioned by Ficker shows his plan could get 60% of the vote, the architect files papers for a ballot measure. Environmental group Stop Polluting Our Newport declares its opposition in June.

July 2007: The council gets a report showing it will cost about $65 million to build on the OCTA parcel, compared with about $55 million at the park site. Council members vote against the park site and in favor of the OCTA parcel — the fourth vote on the issue.