Plans are under way for a 3,200-square-foot addition that will almost double the size of the current Oakwood City Hall on Walnut Circle.

Oakwood City Manager Stan Brown said construction on the new office suite could begin in April and should be completed in September.

The addition will house the city’s planning department, public works supervisor and building inspector, who are currently operating from a mobile home across the street from City Hall.

The new office suite will contain a conference room and a vacant office, potentially available for a city engineer, and will create more storage space for files and records.

"We need this in order to respond to the growth we see in our community, with the development of the community and growth of the city — both geographically and population-wise," Brown said.

The city has allocated $900,000 to construct and furnish the City Hall expansion project, which will include new technology information systems to enhance city officials’ access to site plans, permits and maps, Brown said.

Rosser International will serve as the construction manager for the project, while the city of Oakwood is the general contractor for the project. The city has already begun the bidding process for subcontracting projects for the city hall addition.

The new office suite will be built alongside the current City Council chamber and will match the architectural style of the existing City Hall, which was completed in 2003.

"It was understood when (the new City Hall) was built there was a site for future expansion. This is really phase two," Brown said.

Oakwood Public Works Supervisor Jason Spencer has been working from the mobile home in the public works yard across from City Hall for the past two years, and Oakwood City Planner Larry Sparks joined him in the trailer a month ago when a new administrative assistant moved into Sparks’ former office.

"We’re kind of excited about it," Sparks said. "You need it pretty bad when you’re using a mobile home unit as an office."

Sparks said the addition will create a centralized location for all Oakwood operations that will allow departments to coordinate better.

"Now we’re back and forth a lot," he said. "But we will have administrative offices on one side of the building and planning, permitting and public works on the other side."