HUNTINGTON BEACH : Police Chief Wants Facility Downtown

With downtown undergoing pivotal renovations, Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg said he plans to urge the City Council to establish a police substation in the area.

If the station is built, it would most likely be set up in a street-level office of the Main Promenade parking structure on Olive Avenue at Main Street, Lowenberg said.

Since the city’s first substation opened in October in the Oak View neighborhood, police officials have been studying other areas to locate additional annexes, Lowenberg said. The Oak View substation has drawn praise from police, community leaders and residents.

A joint police-fire substation is already planned for the Holly-Seacliff area as that massive residential community develops.

A downtown location is the next leading candidate for a substation, in part because of business owners’ concerns that the area’s mixture of aging buildings and new, upscale developments might be a breeding ground for robberies, vandalism and other crime, Lowenberg said.

“If nothing else, there is a perception of people visiting downtown that a police presence may improve the feeling of safety in the area,” he said.

As Lowenberg envisions the downtown substation, it would be manned by a police sergeant and five officers, as is the Oak View facility.

The site could also serve as the new headquarters for the police’s beach detail staff, which patrols the area each year from May through September, he said. That staff, composed of a sergeant, five officers and a non-police staff “beach liaison” employee, is based each summer at the lifeguard station headquarters.

City officials have not determined how much the substation and its staffing might cost, but the price tag will probably be the critical factor in determining whether the proposal will be approved, Lowenberg said.

The $10.1-million parking structure would be ideal for a substation because, since the city owns the facility, it would be cheaper and easier to set up than it would be to build one at another site, he said.

“At this point, we’re not being overly optimistic about opening the substation (soon) because it depends on what’s available in the budget during the next fiscal year,” City Engineer Robert Eichblatt said. “For now, we’re considering this as part of our long-range planning.”