At the City Council meeting on the 7th of January 2025, the City Council received its initial briefing on the Police Department Project . The City Council and the public had several questions and comments regarding the size, scope, siting and cost of the project. There were also questions regarding the staff’s interpretation of some of the former City Council policy decisions. This presentation is structured to provide the Council with the opportunity to reconsider and update guidance where necessary.
The most fundamental guidance that needs to be validated is the overall objective of the project. Currently, the staff and design team are focused on a project that accomplishes the following:
“Develop new/upgraded police and public works facilities that meet the requirements of law, building codes and functionality that the Community expects and is required to provide to assure public safety, officer safety, worker safety and expected public services now and into the future.”
The decision by previous councils to make this a top priority is because this current facility does not meet safety or legal standards, both of which are problematic as a public facility. This project began in 2017, because of complaints by staff and the public about safety and security issues. Although this project, in 2017 started out with a focus on just addressing the safety and security issues for the police department, this project has grown substantially.
In June 2023, the Council awarded a Professional Service Agreement (PSA) to Indigo Architects, in the amount of $300,000, to perform a building condition assessment, develop space programming needs for the Police Department, and generate schematic designs. Their work started with an evaluation of the existing building and all its component systems. The analysis of the overall condition of the existing building and how the building system was configured led the City Council to the realization that a remodel for the police function would require the remodel and upgrade of the whole building and all its building systems. This dictated that Public Works programmatic requirements would also have to be considered as part of the project. Further, the scope of the deterioration of the existing building and the public liabilities associated with the deteriorated roofing, electrical, heating, ventilating and structural systems dictated that the existing building required a major renovation even if the Police Department were to be totally relocated.
Adherence to the requirements of the law and current building codes is not an optional policy. The policy guidance the staff needs from the City Council is whether the project scope will just address today’s “required” needs or whether the new facilities, which should be expected to serve the community for 50 years should be designed to meet “desired” needs and provide the City maximum future flexibility. Given the scarcity and value of city owned land, the current design approach has been to provide for future flexibility.
When this project was started, the objective was to build a new police facility or remodel the existing facility to meet current standards for a Police station. It was planned to leave Public Works in its current facilities. The initial guidance to the architect was to explore the concepts of a standalone police facility on a site to be determined and the concept of meeting the police requirements on the existing site.
The initial concept approaches before the Council had also included developing the police facilities on a new site or demolishing and rebuilding on the existing site. There was a 6-month series of Ad Hoc City Council meetings, listening sessions, 3 site tours of the Carmel station and one tour of the new Salinas station prior to the Council meeting where the current policy direction was decided. There was near public unanimity that the existing building must be remodeled and upgraded. There was substantial pro and con discussion associated with the tear down concept and sometimes passionate discussion of the concept of building on Vista Lobos. Ultimately the City Council, on a split vote, approved the onsite repair and upgrade. After receiving the Ad Hoc committee split recommendations and rationale for their positions and public comment at the July 9th City Council meeting, the City Council directed staff to do the following:
- Abandon the idea of building a new police station at another site.
- Maximize the use of the existing site to accommodate all current required police programs as a priority, and public works programs as space is available.
- Consider program growth potential to provide 50-year building functionality.
- A by-product of the City Council direction was to also Identify public works functions that cannot be accommodated on site.
Staff has the following questions for Council to consider:
1) Does the City Council wish to amend the current guidance given to staff?
“Develop new/upgraded police and public works facilities that meet the requirements of law, building codes and functionality that the Community expects and is required to provide to assure public safety, officer safety, worker safety and expected public services now and into the future.”
The City Council members had several questions regarding the size, scope and resulting cost of the building. As mentioned at the City Council meeting, reliable estimated project costs cannot be developed until all the design disciplines have had an opportunity to complete their concept design work. We ultimately need the City Council to approve an amendment to the Indigo contract to allow that work to be completed. The policy decisions you are considering at this time may also have further impact on the scope of the required amendment.
Staff requests that the City Council review the police and public works program analysis. The service programs required by law, policing practice and City Council’s program desires for their citizens drive the functional requirements that must be included in the design. These decisions will drive the size and cost of the building.
The functional plans for the building will be presented at the February 10th meeting. These plans demonstrate that all the police programs and a large portion of the public works programs can be housed on site if the building envelope is expanded substantially. The plans for a notional public works equipment yard that would house the overflow public works programs will also be presented at the Feburary 10th meeting. Indigo developed the plans in such a way as to minimize the impact on the residents adjacent to the proposed expanded facility.
While not attached, Indigo has developed a very ingenious construction phasing plan that is designed to minimize the cost of providing swing space that would be abandoned after occupancy of the rebuilt facility. Staff has the following questions for Council to consider based on previous council comments.
2) Does council need further justification of the program analysis “Needs” completed for the Police/Public Works Building renovation?
During the last City Council meeting there was some discussion about using the remaining project allocated money to make essential repairs to the existing building. There are several considerations to be considered before the city takes this approach.
First, as will be explained in further detail below, the remaining funds would be insufficient for anything other than a minimal start on what is required. Any substantive investment will trigger a requirement to meet current codes to maintain occupancy. There is no low-cost way of dealing with a 60-year-old building with almost all systems being original at the end of their useful life. In several cases like the roof, they have exceeded their useful life.
Second, the city is on notice of a wide number of system degradations that could lead to incidents that have the potential for impacting officer safety and public safety. The potential liabilities of this reality are substantial. Regardless of the future use or programs housed in the current facility a major repair of the building system and code upgrade must be undertaken.
The current building that houses the police department and public works department was designed in 1966 and constructed and occupied in 1968. No significant renovation or upgrade projects have been undertaken since its original occupancy. Over the last seven years several projects have been generated that were titled police station renovation. Until the current project, these past projects were generally scoped to address the department’s highest priority functional needs that could be addressed within a given budget. Other than some very minor improvements, no major repairs or upgrades have been made to the building since its original occupancy. None of these past planned or implemented projects adequately addressed the essential repairs and improvements required to meet officer safety, building safety, current police standards or modern building codes.
The building assessment that was completed as one of the first Indigo products is included as Attachment 1. There have been several emergency repairs made because of the report, but they in no way have been sufficient to meet the repair and upgrade needs of the building.
For this City Council meeting staff will be prepared to have an initial discussion of the report. Given the short time available for this special meeting, a more complete presentation of the building conditions and needs can be scheduled if deemed necessary by council.
After reading the building assessment report and going on the tours of the building there was uniform if not unanimous support from the public for the building repairs/upgrades.
Staff has the following question based on these comments from the council:
3) Does the City Council desire a more in-depth discussion of the scope of failing building systems, near total lack of current code compliance and liability exposures associated with the deteriorated conditions in the current building?
In summary, the July City Council direction to renovate on site and to include the Public Works department resulted in a substantial change in the original project scope given to Indigo. While the firm did not have to do a concept for a new PD facility on an unknown site, for which we have gotten a credit, they were required to do a functional program analysis for the Public Works function, expand the scope of improvements on the current site and develop an initial concept for housing the public works functions that could not be accommodated on the existing site. The Council will need to approve an amendment to the Indigo contract to allow them to complete the design work that is necessary to provide good answers to the questions that the City and public will have because of this presentation. Depending upon this City Council’s policy direction, the contract amendment will tentatively be on your next City Council agenda.