Vallejo City Council reviews initial designs for $121M rebuild of police HQ

VALLEJO – The Vallejo City Council reviewed early designs on Tuesday to rebuild the Vallejo police headquarters with a number of features intended to improve community relations, and an anticipated $121 million in overall construction costs. 

The council voted during its Tuesday meeting to allocate $2 million of Measure P sales tax revenue to move forward with the design process, which will include community engagement on financing options. A second vote is expected on April 9.

One of the project architects with the firm Indigo presented digital renderings of the exterior along with site and floor plans for a three-story main building and two existing repurposed buildings at the police department’s current location at 111 Amador St. The design concept includes a tree-lined public plaza that can accommodate art fairs and vendors, a multi-purpose public engagement room for community events or non-profits and an interior courtyard to create a welcoming atmosphere.

The exterior of the building features rounded corners and an entryway sculpture to symbolize unity between law enforcement and the community. The architect said that the idea to incorporate the unity elements came from the department during design discussions.

Councilmember Mina Loera-Diaz said that she liked the design much better than a design that the same firm had completed for 400 Mare Island Way, another city-owned police building that the city had intended to renovate as a new headquarters until it changed course after community outcry.

“I like the community area that you have both inside and outside,” Loera-Diaz said. “I think that the residents here, me included, need that type of healing with the police department. We need a place where we can feel safe with whatever business that we are conducting and that building is the first thing that we will be seeing.”  

Councilmembers expressed that they appreciate the plan’s aesthetic but had concerns about the overall project timeline. Assistant City Manager Terrance Davis said that the city expects the next phase of the design process as well as project bidding to run through August 2025. The construction of the project is expected to take 18 months, setting a move-in date of February 2027.

“I am concerned about the long timeline,” Councilmember Peter Bregenzer said.  “Anything that you can do to speed this process up – this is something that the community needs and something that the police department needs.”

Bregenzer went on to say that a public engagement process to decide how to finance the project is important but feels that it needs to be done efficiently to avoid delays.

“If we put this off for a vote in another 17 months for funding for this, I think we are really missing the mark,” Bregenzer said.

Bruce Playle, an architect involved in the project, said that the timeline is not unusual for buildings of this size and complexity but added that there may be ways to accelerate some aspects of the process.

Davis indicated that the project timeline includes moving the city’s corporation yard to a location which has not yet been determined. The overall project construction costs of $121 million includes $21 million to potentially purchase a property for the yard and to rebuild the yard facilities. 

At the beginning of the project presentation, City Manager Mike Malone said that part of the staff recommendation is to conduct a community engagement process so residents can weigh in on the options available to finance the project. 

Davis noted that the council recently approved the application process to issue $120 million in bonds for street repair, which he said equated to about eight or $9 million in debt service per year.

The city’s plan to move police dispatchers out of a dilapidated location in the existing police headquarters into temporary buildings is still in progress, according to Davis. This portion of the project was paid for separately with American Rescue Plan Act funds but additional costs for security fencing and sound barriers has led to a $400,000 shortfall in funding needed to complete the move.

Interim Vallejo police Chief Jason Ta said that the department is enthusiastic about the new building and they anticipate being able to save money by offering training for their own officers as well as other agencies at the facility rather than paying to send officers out for training.

“We are going to have huge training costs when we enter into this next phase with Cal DOJ,” Ta said. “Any training that we can do on-site is going to save us a lot of money.”

The state Department of Justice filed a stipulated judgment with the city in October which calls for the department to complete a series of reforms within five years. One of the required tasks is the construction of a new police headquarters.