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New Police Station
Site Selection Process
City staff worked alongside Mackenzie Architecture to identify possible locations for a new Public Safety Facility. Originally identifying 10 locations around the community that were both owned already by the city and privately owned, the list was reduced to a Top 3 based on a variety of topics and categories. Once the Top 3 were identified, Mackenzie Architecture did a further analysis of each property to identify any potential issues that could arise for the facility and test-fit a model for a potential station on each property. Results were shown to City Council along with recommendations from our current Police staff and Mackenzie Architecture. There was a unanimous decision by City Council of the city-owned property at the corner of 18th and Old Portland Road (across from the recreation center where the industrial business park sign is).
Here are some of the specific reasons this site was chosen:
- Site is already owned by the City, which would reduce costs of purchasing any needed property that could be $600,000 to $1,000,000.
- Officer's liked the access ability to get in and out of the station. At the current Police Station, there is often issues with one-way streets leaving the facility.
- The new site provides opportunity for expansion in the future if needed.
- The new station allows easy access to Hwy 30 and access to alternative routes if there is a train.
Site Plan Characteristics
There are several factors that were thought about when drawing out the site plan of the new facility. The first and foremost was that if a new facility was to be built, we want to ensure that it is something the community can take pride in seeing. Public parking will be accessed off Kaster Road with a secured parking entrance further down in the back of the facility. Currently our police station does not provide enough secure parking for all of our vehicles along with our staff vehicles.
The site is immediately next to a main intersection in the city that leads down to the Riverfront District and waterfront, along with being an entrance to the City's new industrial business park located further down Kaster Road.
The City anticipates using influences from basalt and timber in the construction of the facility.
Currently our police officers share an 8x10 locker and changing space. Our new facility will house a larger space that is still shared by males and females; however, there are individual bathrooms with showers for changing and cleaning.
Our evidence area in the new facility will be vastly expanded and will include space to store vehicles for evidence. There will also be interview rooms where suspects can be taken directly from vehicles and a walk-through mud room for officers to enter the facility that will have automatic doors. Coming from their vehicles, our police are often carrying multiple items and have difficulty opening doors.
The new station offers a dedicated briefing room, additional conference rooms, a specific detective area, and offices along with a shared workspace for on-duty officers to have the ability to write reports.
