Maplewood staff outline $10.6M city hall bond proposal, council schedules ordinance readings

City staff told the Maplewood City Council at its Oct. 14 work session that they are moving forward with a proposed general obligation bond referendum for the April 2026 ballot and recommended a bond size of $10.6 million to cover an expanded city hall footprint and police facility upgrades. "We are moving forward with the proposed bond referendum on the April 2026 ballot," a city staff presenter said, and asked council for feedback on the packet materials.

The staff memo reviewed municipal-adviser projections previously run on a $10 million issue and said a preliminary assessed valuation had been about $294,000,000. The memo also showed a lower final valuation entry (recorded in the packet as "about 282,182"). City staff described the updated projection as conservative and said the changes in valuation and refined project cost estimates led to a higher projected debt-service levy increase, from $0.28 to $0.53 per $100 of…