The Police Department, bursting at the seams in its
10,000-square-foot former bank building, may have hope for more
space if the City Council decides Wednesday night to go forward
with a new station. Before the council are two choices.
The Police Department, bursting at the seams in its 10,000-square-foot former bank building, may have hope for more space if the City Council decides Wednesday night to go forward with a new station. Before the council are two choices.
One is to continue discussions with the county to find a way to fit a police facility, which the staff report notes would require 1.5 acres, on the proposed courthouse site on Butterfield Boulevard. The report states only one-half an acre is currently available. The projected cost of a 25,000-square-foot purpose facility, is said to be $12 million.
The second choice is to purchase an empty, unfinished 43,000-square-foot industrial building on Vineyard Avenue, just north of Tennant Avenue, for $6.4 million and refit it into a facility with indoor parking and 8,000-square-feet left over for other city uses or rented to commercial use, which would recover some expenses. Total cost, including conversion improvements, is estimated at $9.2 million.
Funding for the new station, wherever it ends up, will come from a variety of sources. Police impact fees, paid by all new developments, will contribute as will a property sale between the Redevelopment Agency and the city’s general fund. And the fund will make its own contribution.
Both cost estimates are higher than presented to the council in January, because, the report said, the city’s finance department has better information.
A plus for the purpose-built facility on Butterfield, is its central location. Or, failing the courthouse site, the city could purchase another centrally located site for the station. Because it would take longer to begin and complete, the impact on the general fund would occur later than with the Vineyard building in an industrial area.
Plusses for the Vineyard building are the extremely low interest rates and a depressed real estate market – both likely to increase, the report said, and the fact that it could be up and running sooner. Proponents of this site – Police Chief Gerald Galvin and neighbors on Vineyard who have written the council in its favor – point out that a central location is not necessary for a police station.
Galvin has said that the department’s current downtown location is chiefly memorable for traffic tie-ups during peak hours.
MEDICAL CLINIC
Council will also deliberate over a renewed request by a consortium of land owners to develop the southwest corner of the Tennant Avenue/Hwy. 101 intersection. The city’s citizen-sponsored general plan update requires a large anchor store on the site before it can be developed.
Neither the Planning Commission in September, nor the council in January favored waiving those rules. Proposed is a combination gas station, minimart, car wash and fast food restaurant on one plot and a 10,000 sq. ft. medical office building on the other. The land’s owner, Dr. Arthur Biedermann, an allergist with several clinics in the Bay Area, proposes such a clinic for Morgan Hill and intends to bring with him several other specialists.
Neither was deemed “anchor enough” before though the applicants will ask for a waiver again Wednesday.
Council has previously reserved $500,000 for the purpose of bringing physicians to town after the Saint Louise Hospital closed in 1999 and dozens of physicians left with it, leaving the town bereft of many medical services.
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City Council meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday in City Hall Chambers, 17555 Peak Ave. Council meetings are broadcast live on cable access channel 17. Details: www.morgan-hill.ca.gov or 779-7271.
