Tempe closing City Council chambers for renovations until 2020

PHOENIX – Tempe government meetings are being relocated until some time next year while the council chambers area at City Hall undergoes $3 million in renovations.

Starting Monday, the City Council is moving its meetings to the Tempe History Museum at Southern Avenue and Rural Road until the renovations are completed, the city said Friday in a press release.

The next City Council meeting is scheduled for July 31.

Board and commission meetings usually held in the council chambers also are being relocated to the museum and other sites. The new locations will be listed when commission and board meetings are announced.

The work will include a new reception area, new public restrooms, improved audio and visual technology, easier access and new audience seating.

There will also be upgrades made to the efficiency of the heating, air conditioning and plumbing systems.

“Our council chambers are the seat of democracy in Tempe,” City Manager Andrew Ching said in the release.

“We want to ensure that they are accessible to everyone, safe and inviting. These renovations are in keeping with those intentions.”

The city didn’t provide an estimated date for the work to be completed other than “early 2020.”

The chambers, which sit underground beneath City Hall’s distinctive inverted pyramid, were last renovated in 1989, the release said.

The building located on Fifth Street just east of Mill Avenue first opened in 1971.

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