The Santa Maria Police Department is about to get an upgrade. The city recently announced that escrow is expected to close in mid-November on land and a building on West Betteravia Road, near the intersection of Blosser and Betteravia roads.
In a release to the media, Santa Maria City Manager Tim Ness said that the $13.7 million purchase authorized by the Santa Maria City Council was financed with savings—and without borrowing any money, raising taxes, or bonding.
The City Council met with its negotiator in a closed session the evening of Nov. 4, in accordance with California State law, to discuss the price and terms of payment for the purchase, Ness reported.
City staffers said the decision was made primarily to improve public safety by eventually relocating the police department from its crowded, 54-year-old downtown station, into the roomier new headquarters on the west side of town.
The new site will fit with the city’s population center as it shifts south toward Betteravia Road, Mayor Pro Tem Bob Orach said in the release.
The 72,000-square-foot, one-story office space is more than two times the size of the current police department headquarters and satellite office. However, the property does require some custom modifications—ranging from installing of communications infrastructure to adding security enhancements—before it can be transformed into the new police department. The police department likely won’t be able to relocate for at least three years, a wait that also honors existing leases currently in place.
Still, city officials remain optimistic about the land buy.
“This purchase and our plans to relocate the police department are an important investment on behalf of all Santa Maria residents and businesses,” Mayor Larry Lavagnino said in the release. “Public safety is the City Council’s very top priority … The City is taking advantage of a down real estate market to make a very timely and strategic purchase.”
The Santa Maria Police Department currently has 163 full-time personnel, including 112 sworn officers, plus the emergency dispatch center responsible for police and fire calls.
When the police department’s current station originally opened in 1954, the staff was only about 25 people strong, and the city’s population was only about 15,000 residents, according to city records. The station’s blueprints matched those numbers, with only 12,577 square feet of space—including the shooting range in the basement.
The department physically expanded in 1975, 1991, and again in 2002 to compensate for the city’s growing population.
Currently, the department has about 28,000 square feet at its headquarters and satellite location. As of Jan. 1 this year, the city’s population was estimated at 91,110.
For more information about the police department’s pending new location, call the city manager’s office at 925-0951, ext. 372.
This article appears in Nov 13-20, 2008.