Space at Auburn City Hall is at such a premium that the lead member of the city’s emergency response team, Sarah Miller, has been parceled out to the SuperMall, while Police Chief Jim Kelly is at the Auburn Police Department.

The upshot is that should the Howard Hansen Dam or a Lake Tapps dike break or the earth rock violently or a truck full of fuel explode on Highway 18, there would be no place for the people who are supposed to coordinate the city’s disaster response to get together and actually do it.

But thanks to a pending amendment to the city’s lease agreement with Auburn Professional Plaza LLC and its principal Jeff Oliphant, developer of the City Hall Annex and office building that will replace the old Tavern Row east of City Hall, there will be such a place.

According to a proposed amendment to the existing agreement up for discussion at Monday’s Municipal Service meeting, the city is proposing to rent in addition to the annex space 1,982 square feet on the third floor for $24 per square foot for five years with an option to buy after that time.

“Emergency management has got to have a place for emergency management, and they don’t,” said Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis. “If we have a big super emergency like a lahar, they’ve got no place to coordinate. No place is wired so they can be in touch with people.

“This way everything they need will be there and built to the emergency standards the state requires. An office high on the third floor will be a perfect place for it,” Lewis said.

Oliphant and his firm plan to replace the block east of City Hall with a three-story brick structure to include the City Hall annex, medical and office space, and a new home for KeyBank on the east end.

City Council members in September approved the lease for the area of the building that will become the annex, which will take up roughly half of the building. City officials expect the annex to answer their critical need for space outside the cramped, 30-year-old City Hall next door.

Oliphant has said one year should pass from demolition to construction to tenant improvements and occupation. He hopes to get under way by the end of the year.