Funds OKd for Police Headquarters

The Simi Valley City Council agreed Monday night to give its Police Department some breathing room--about 47,430 square feet of it.

The council voted 5 to 0 to approve spending $12.6 million for a new police headquarters, and gave a green light to constructing the building.

The current police headquarters on Cochran Street is a cramped, leaky mess. Originally built in the early 1970s as a temporary home for city offices, it was quickly outgrown by a department that more than doubled in size. Then it was badly damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The new headquarters on the corner of Alamo Street and Tapo Canyon Road will be nearly twice the size. Plans include office areas of up to 100 square feet for each detective, a centralized information desk in a 1,000-square-foot lobby and a 200-seat community room that doubles as a disaster-response nerve center.

The headquarters also will be roofed with glass in places so it can be lit by the sun.

And there will be ample storage for records that are now crammed into broom closets and under staircases.

The council approved the project despite it being $1.7 million above the original estimate.

“It’s the old story--pay me now or pay me twice as much later,” Councilman Bill Davis said. “I think we owed it to the constituents of this city, as well as to the members of the department, to build as good a facility as we could afford.”

Project designer Leach Mounce Architects intends to complete full design plans on the new building by early March for review by the Planning Commission.

The City Council would then conduct a final review and, after any revisions, would solicit bids from construction companies.