Lakewood City Council to Decide on City Hall Relocation

Council to vote on moving administrative functions to former school board building

Published on Mar. 2, 2026

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Lakewood City Council is expected to decide at its meeting on March 2 whether to move the city's administrative functions to the former Lakewood City Schools Board of Education building at 1470 Warren Road. The move is part of a larger plan to renovate the current City Hall and transform it into a justice center with expanded police and court facilities.

Why it matters

This decision is significant for Lakewood as it aims to address long-standing issues with its City Hall and police department facilities. The relocation would consolidate administrative functions in a new location while allowing the current City Hall to be renovated to better serve the community's public safety needs.

The details

Under consideration is the purchase and adaptive reuse of the former Lakewood City Schools Board of Education building to accommodate a large part of administrative functions, while transforming the current City Hall into a justice center with expanded police and courts. The administration had previously requested $16.5 million in new debt authorization for the Warren Road building renovation, but City Council removed that amount, citing the need for more planning and design work before committing to the full project cost.

  • City Council is expected to make a decision at its meeting on March 2, 2026.
  • In 2024, PMC and Weber Murphy Fox Architects presented renovation options ranging from $21 million to $32 million.

The players

Sarah Kepple

Lakewood City Council President.

Meghan George

Lakewood Mayor, who sees the relocation as a "generational opportunity" for the community.

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What they’re saying

“City Council remains committed to solving the police space issues as quickly and responsibly as possible, and providing pleasantly productive work environments for all of our hard-working staff, while balancing fiscal responsibility, long-term planning and customer-service delivery.”

— Sarah Kepple, City Council President (cleveland.com)

“This is a generational opportunity for our community. I truly see this as an opportunity to fix the issues in this building and get the administrative staff in the heart of our downtown, to activate our downtown in a historic building, which truly embodies what Lakewood is -- our historic buildings and our historic structures.”

— Meghan George, Lakewood Mayor (cleveland.com)

What’s next

City Council is expected to vote on the proposal to purchase and renovate the former school board building at its meeting on March 2, 2026.

The takeaway

Lakewood's City Council faces a critical decision that could reshape the city's civic infrastructure and downtown by relocating administrative functions to a historic building while transforming the current City Hall into an expanded public safety complex. The outcome will have long-lasting impacts on the community.