Morden's administrative staff will all be moving under one roof.

Plans are in place to redesign the civic centre for better efficiency, says Morden Mayor Brandon Burley.

"It's not a cosmetic upgrade; it's not just a gratuitous upgrade, it is to increase efficiency. Right now we have departments that are related and working together, working out of different spaces, which is becoming a significant challenge."

Currently, the city's engineering staff are located at the PDO building on 7th St., with Morden Community Development Corporation (MCDC), and immigration; however, with the purchase of 500 Stephen St., things are about to be shaken up.The PDO building on 7th St. will be the home of city staff while renovations at the civic centre take place.

City council has authorized funds from the community reserve towards renovations of the Stephen St. location, which will become the new home of MCDC and North Forge South, this will leave the old PDO building empty.

Burley says the current civic centre will be remodelled to be able to also facilitate the engineering staff; the city staff will move to the 7th St. building as an interim measure just until renovations are completed.

The last council had three designs and three different proposals, Burley says current council looked at these, and forecasting for an increase in employment and infrastructure requirements, made a decision.

"We had the discretionary budget now, and it became a factor that it had to happen now, or it wasn't going to happen for the foreseeable future."

To achieve the desired level of efficiency the redesign had to take place says Burley, the alternative being hiring additional staff. However, he says in the long run investing in infrastructure capital is cheaper than staffing which has the cost of terms and contracts.

Burley says once MCDC, immigration, and North Forge have finished their renovations and moved into the new location, a timeline can be set for the civic centre's redesign.