Phase I of a space needs analysis on the Mission City Hall and Police Department complex is complete, and the results are clear: the city staff and police have outgrown their shared space.
The city of Mission is planning to proceed with Phase II, which involves an in-depth analysis of structural and mechanical components of the city hall and police department. SFS Architecture completed Phase I and is slated to continue with Phase II of the analysis.
City Administrator Laura Smith told the council during its finance and administration meeting July 10 that Phase II will provide a complete picture of space needs. From the collected data, the city would then be able to identify and determine costs to expand, upgrade, renovate, demolish, construct a new building or some combination of next steps that would need to occur.
“As things have changed and adapted and technologies have improved over the years, we don’t have a building design that has been able to keep up with that,” Smith said of the results from Phase I.
Smith noted that some refining of Phase I results still needs to be completed, but city staff believes keeping both city hall and police department in this building is “probably not feasible.” However, keeping one or the other or some components in a renovated building may be a feasible and cost-effective way to move forward, she added.
“As we suspected, when we step back and look overall at the end of phase I, we have about 22,000 square feet in this building now, the initial look says we really should have closer to about 43,000,” Smith added.
Phase II costs are not to exceed $18,350, while Phase I cost the city $15,760, for a total of $34,110.
Smith also noted that some building code requirements have changed for city hall and the police department, especially with respect to requirements for an emergency operations center to be able to operate on site.
Phase II involves the preparation of evaluation criteria, existing conditions assessment, multiple concepts and costs for renovation/expansion of the existing city hall and police department. Included in the scope is a review meeting with city representatives of draft concepts and costs as well as finalization of a recommended concept and cost options.
Mission began looking in February 2019 for an architectural firm that would give the city input on determining whether building renovation, new construction, leased space or some combination thereof would “provide the most practical and cost effective solution to meet existing and future space needs of the organization,” according to a city memo.
Issues driving the space needs analysis include accessibility compliance, locker/changing room limitations in the police department, inadequate work space (square footage and with respect to productivity), storage needs, aging facility infrastructure systems, parking for employees and visitors, sallyport design, and property/evidence storage and handling.
The facility was built in the 1970s as a joint city hall and police department. The city added the space dedicated to the police department in 1997.
A comprehensive report of Phase II of the city’s space needs analysis would be ready for the council to review in the fall. The council will formally consider proceeding with Phase II during its regular meeting Wednesday. The item is on the council’s consent agenda.
