Burbank Unveils Plans for New Police and Fire Headquarters

The Burbank City Council took its first look at plans for a proposed police and fire department headquarters and authorized a public opinion poll to determine whether voters would be willing to pay for the building, expected to cost about $35 million.

City officials hope money to build the 131,000-square-foot headquarters will come from a bond issue that would raise property taxes about $71 a year for the average homeowner, City Manager Robert R. (Bud) Ovrom said.

Although the city cannot spend taxpayers’ funds to campaign for the measure, the council authorized private pollster Bernard Walp to measure public support for the new headquarters. Walp is scheduled to give the council the results of the poll in August.

Models and drawings of the white, three-level building, twice the size of current separate fire and police facilities, were unveiled at Tuesday’s council meeting.

It would be built near City Hall on what is now a city parking lot on 3rd Street, between Palm and Orange Grove avenues.

Architect Larry Wolff said the building was designed to be accessible to the public, yet secure enough for the needs of the police and fire departments.

Each department would fill a wing of the U-shaped building that would be joined by a two-story atrium facing 3rd Street.

Wolff said designers copied architectural features of other buildings in downtown Burbank--windows and door shapes, for example--to create a “very important piece in the overall fabric of the community of Burbank.”

The existing police and fire facilities, both built about 30 years ago, are falling apart, Police Chief Glen Bell said.

City officials estimated repairs would cost several million dollars and Ovrom said such repairs would be Band-Aid measures that would not address long-term concerns, such as overcrowding.

The council decided in October, 1988, to pursue the possibility of building a new headquarters.

The bond issue was originally scheduled for the Nov. 6 ballot, but council members appeared on Tuesday to be leaning toward delaying the vote until local elections in February.

Although more people vote in the November general elections, council members said voters in the local elections in February would be more in touch with the city’s needs and therefore more likely to approve the bond issue.

“In November, it will just get lost,” Councilwoman Mary Lou Howard said. “There’s too much going on.”

The proposal needs a two-thirds vote to pass.