Public Safety and Maintenance Building Design Progress Update

At the May 21, 2024 City Council meeting, City staff presented an update to the Public Safety and Maintenance Building design process.

At the March 1 Planning Session, City Council directed the City Manager to begin planning for a new Public Safety and Maintenance Building (PSM) on the current City Hall Campus (see AB 6420). This new facility will replace the existing Public Works Building and provide a new combined home for the City’s Public Works teams, Police Department, Emergency Operations Center, and IT & GIS.

Staff and the City’s architectural consultant team, Northwest Studio, have conducted workshops with the staff teams expected to be housed in the future PSM building to inform the ongoing design work. The pre-design work considers the spaces needed in the building, in addition to how the spaces are best organized to achieve efficient workflows, to plan for future growth, and to accommodate changing space needs over time.

The presentation also included an overview of Risk Category levels in building design. The risk category of a building reflects the relative resilience to natural disasters and other building failure risks. The new PSM building is intended to be a Level IV Risk Category Building. Risk Category IV includes buildings that are essential in that their continuous use is needed, particularly in response to disasters. Police stations and emergency vehicle garages, Emergency Operations Centers, public works staff areas, and equipment necessary for emergency response, must remain operational during and after major disaster type events.

The presentation concluded with a commitment to continue the work with Police, Public Works, EOC staff, and IT & GIS to gather feedback on design concepts and proposed building programming and workflow. City staff are preparing to return to the City Council in June to present preliminary design and siting concepts for the Public Safety and Maintenance building, including early cost estimates.

Read the materials here and view the presentation here.