Local News in Brief : Orange : Council to Weigh Sites for Police Department

The top five sites in the running as the location for the city’s new Police Department building will be discussed at a 7 p.m. meeting today of the City Council.

A citizens’ committee, made up of 10 residents appointed by the council, will present the options, selected from 15 sites that have been under study for more than a year.

The first choice is the city’s corporation yard at the northeast corner of Batavia and Struck avenues because “it’s large enough and the city already owns it,” said Robert Mickelson, chairman of the committee.

Others include the southeast corner of Main Street and Katella Avenue; the Katella School property on Katella Avenue near the Costa Mesa Freeway. Two others being considered include expansion of the existing Civic Center. But one would put the Police Department on the east side of Grand Avenue, and the other would place it on the west side of Grand.

The Katella school site previously had been the committee’s first choice. However, opposition has emerged from neighbors, and the Orange Unified School District has notified the council that it intends to keep the school on the map.