Despite the public outcry over the potential loss of a city school, College Park city staff still recommended the soon-to-be-vacant Friends Community School as the best location for a new City Hall at last night’s council worksession.

The city’s planning staff spent the last few weeks working with a consultant to compare the costs and benefits of three potential sites for City Hall, which will be moved from its current site in the next few years to accommodate a downtown parking garage. After comparing the estimates, Interim City Manager Joe Nagro said he still had to recommend the site of the Friends School, which was already planning to move to Greenbelt within the next year.

“We ended up back where we were a year and a half ago: recommending the Friends School,” Nagro said.

When news reached some members of the community that City Hall might move to the site, some called for it to remain a school — especially because the university had expressed interest in establishing a lab school in the vicinity.

The council has been weighing three sites for a new, expanded municipal building: The Friends School on Calvert Road, a few blocks south of the current building; the “special lot” across Knox Road from City Hall, which is currently a parking lot behind Cornerstone Grill and Loft; and a site in the Branchville neighborhood to the north, between Greenbelt Road and University Boulevard.

City Planning Director Terry Schum said renovating and expanding the historic school building — currently occupied by the Quaker-run school and the city’s Department of Public Services — would cost about $6.93 million.

Putting City Hall at the Branchville site or the special lot was estimated to cost $7.6 million, though District 3 Councilman Eric Olson insisted $400,000 of the estimate for demolition and leveling the special lot site was already factored into the garage development.

“The site work cost on the special lot shouldn’t be considered … You’d be spending that money anyway,” he said.

Beyond the cost, other factors played a part in the recommendation. If City Hall is built at the Friends School or Branchville, the special lot would be used for offices the city could rent or sell for as much as $2.08 million — helping offset the cost of moving City Hall, Schum said.

If the special lot is used for City Hall, the city would not only lose the office revenue, but would also have to pay “mothballing costs” for the upkeep of the Friends School when its current tenant moves out in the next year, Schum said.

Other concerns were raised about the large number of public parking spaces the development would bring downtown, and what would happen to the city’s profits if those spaces could not be filled.

“Three hundred thirty-seven public parking spaces?” said Mayor Stephen Brayman. “That’s more than I could have ever asked for.”

The council will hold a public information meeting about its study April 11 and will hear public opinions on the site selection April 26.