GILROY
– City Council approved Monday a much sought after, cheaper
version of Gilroy’s new police station, but the city still must
cough up $4.33 million more than the $22.4 million it had
originally budgeted for the entire project.
GILROY – City Council approved Monday a much sought after, cheaper version of Gilroy’s new police station, but the city still must cough up $4.33 million more than the $22.4 million it had originally budgeted for the entire project.
The trimmed down version of what some had originally, and scoffingly, called the Gilroy Taj Majal will not have a decorative communications/clock tower, a second level of underground parking or a second story. The site’s architectural focal point – the freestanding communications/clock tower – has been slashed, but the vehicular roundabout where the tower was going to stand on Hanna Street remains.
The cost-cutting maneuvers are part of a seven-month scrambling effort by city officials and the project’s architects, Rancho Cucamonga-based WLC Architects who originally estimated the project to cost $17.8 million. After the architectural firm put concept to paper, however, the estimated cost of the project became $26.1 million.
Construction costs – now estimated at $20.7 million – have become $5.4 million cheaper than the controversy-triggering bid that went in front of shocked Councilmembers in May. But now, a substantial-but-modest one-story structure with 5,000 square feet less in parking is on the books.
“My feeling is I would have loved to see the original plan get to fruition,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “Long range it would have served the city better, but you have to balance that with what you can and can’t do (fiscally).”
Nonetheless, the new facility – as it’s designed now – improves existing conditions for Gilroy police who describe themselves as “pretty cramped” in the existing 19,000-square-foot building.
The new building’s main level is 48,970 square feet and includes a $1.6 million jail facility that is state-of-the-art compared to the four small holding cells Gilroy police use to temporarily hold criminals now. Other holding cells at the existing Hanna Street station are used for evidence storage.
WLC Architects will come back with final designs in March that could reduce the cost further. However, there is no guarantee the company can trim any more than $680,000, and even that amount is largely contingent upon an early construction date of July 2004.
Consultants believe $350,000 can be saved by starting construction next summer. Another $330,000 can be saved by shelling and modifying other components of the construction, such as installing a smaller emergency generator, planting less landscaping and using chain link fence instead of masonry enclosures to store police department equipment.
“It’s a much less expensive look,” City Administrator Jay Baksa said of the overall police station design.
As for the remaining $685,000, funds may have to come from future development impact fees, which typically get passed on to home buyers.
“That’s not an unreasonable thing,” said Bill Headley, the city’s facilities development manager. “You can argue that the need for a larger police station is due to growth.”
When the final conceptual designs and cost estimates arrive in March, Council must approve them and then authorize the consultant to draw up specific plans for the facility. From there, the project will be bid on by contractors, hopefully at the $20 million price tag the consultant is predicting.
If City Council doesn’t approve the redesign, “The next step would be to go back to step one and look at an entirely new building perhaps on an entirely new site,” Baksa said. “We’ve come a long way on this. Let’s give it a shot.”
The city originally wanted to open the new police station in December 2004, but now the projection is a March 2007 completion date.
The project became controversial in February when original budget figures were increased to cover potential cost hikes. The situation hit the proverbial fan in May when the architects brought back the $26.1 million price tag.
In October, Council gave the architects the go-ahead to cut roughly $6 million out of the original design. The result of that work, which is being done at no cost by the WLC Architects, was presented Monday night.
Council looked at an additional police station design that would have scrapped the expensive underground parking facility altogether – a switch that would have required the jail to be moved outside of the main building.
However, that plan came back more expensive.
According to WLC, construction of that option would cost nearly $22.3 million. Headley said much of the expense would come from the need to do a new environmental review of the project, triggered by the new jail facility.
The no-underground parking alternative also would require the city to buy existing properties on the corner of Sixth and Dowdy streets for ground-level parking. The expense of that, coupled with the visual impact of a parking lot to Dowdy Street residents, made the option undesirable in the Council’s collective eye.
