The vision of the downtown Brentwood of the future officially broke ground on Tuesday, as politicians from all across East County gathered with school officials, construction company executives and even a U.S. congressman to celebrate the start of work on Brentwood’s new downtown civic center.

“This is a town that has a lot of vision,” Congressman Jerry McNerney told a crowd of about 100 gathered in City Park for the event. “I always enjoy coming to Brentwood, because it’s the place to be, and this is going to make it more so.”

Mayor Bob Taylor welcomed, and thanked, members of the current and previous city councils who helped bring the decade-long project to the fruition. When completed in 2012, the project will include a 60,000-square-foot city hall, a 32,000-square-foot community center, a 280-space parking structure and 102 new trees in a re-vamped city park. An additional 29 trees currently in the park will remain. The Brentwood library will triple in size to about 17,000 square feet, and a water feature, history walk and permanent stage will enhance activities at a re-vamped City Park.

The new buildings will be Lede-certified Silver, the second highest environmental rating, Taylor said. As many as 250 workers will be on site for the next two years, adding to the customer base for downtown businesses as the buildings go up. An overhaul of the downtown streetscape – including new, wider sidewalks and utilities – would be done at the same time as the civic center construction.

“Brentwood has had an amazing past, has a wonderful present, and will have an astounding future,” Taylor said, pledging that everything possible will be done to assure that Liberty High School, located next to the project, is impacted as little as possible.

A contingent of protesters was also on hand, waving signs expressing concern over the use of part of the park for the civic center buildings.