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Our police station is a busy place. Currently, it takes four separate buildings to house operations. Today’s facilities have not been earthquake retrofitted (as required by California’s Essential Services Buildings Seismic Safety Act of 1986) and the infrastructure in the main police building is antiquated. There are insufficient bathrooms for the 26 female officers, cramped interview rooms that are too close to witness areas, and storage constraints that result in a waste of significant time merely getting to equipment.

Santa Barbara Police strive to be a mix of highly skilled officers and effective community partners to help us maintain safe neighborhoods and beach-town charm. In 2017, with the passage of Measure C, Santa Barbarans chose to create a new police station to address the current inadequacies and to support both the special equipment necessities and everyday patrol needs.

The first step in the process was site selection. Key considerations include size, parking, zoning, access to high call areas, conflicts inherent to each site, and the costs associated if the site is not already owned by the City. The colored map below shows the concentration of calls in a particular area, downtown having the majority of the calls. Additionally, the chart below is a snapshot comparison of the sites studied.

SANTA BARBARA POLICE STATION MAIN CALL AREAS

Site Needs: 72K Square Feet, 252 Secure Parking Spaces

	Sears (Vacant) La Cumbre Mall	Earl Warren Showgrounds	Louise Lowry Davis Center	Existing SBPD	Cota St Commuter Lot
Size & Lot Shape	flexible	flexible	fits	too small	fits
Parking	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
Zoning	commercial	recreation	parks & recreation	office restricted	manufact./commercial
Height Limits	60′ (community benefit)	60′ (community benefit)	60′	45′	60′ (community benefit)
Access	La Cumbre & Calle Real	Las Positas & Calle Real	Victoria, Chapala, De La Vina, Anapamu	Figueroa & Anapamu	Santa Barbara & Cota
High Call Area	no	no	yes	yes	yes
Court Proximity	drive only	drive only	walkable	walkable	walkable
Conflicts ($$ = added costs)	non-City-owned, $$, active fault zone, owner interested in rental housing	non-City-owned, $$, annexation required, freeway congestion & zoning change	lawn bowling, teen center, 2 historic/merit structures, public vote to change use	hazardous materials clean-up, relocation requires 2nd police station, $$	Farmers’ Market, commuter parking

COUNCIL AGENDA REPORTS

January 15, 2019 – Council Agenda Report and PowerPoint Presentation: “Update On Site Selection For Police Station And Revitalization Of De La Guerra Plaza”

PRESENTATIONS

Planning Commission Presentation, Courtesy Update, (Nov. 8, 2018)

2018 Public Meeting Schedule / Horario de Reuniones Publicas 2018

Meeting Notiace for New Police Station Site Selection Process / Aviso de Reunion para Proceso de Selección de Sitios para la Nueva Estación de Policía

MEETING MATERIALS

Public Comment Cards

EVALUATIONS OF POTENTIAL SITES

Sites Criteria Checklists

Facility Space Needs Assessment Validation Narrative (Cearnal Collective LLC, 2018

Needs Assessment Study, Final Report (Leach Mounce Architects, 2012)

Building Assessment Study (Paul Poirier & Associates, 2010)

Seismic Retrofit Study (Coffman Engineers, 2010)

Last Updated: Oct 9, 2020

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