Here’s a closer look at the site where the Albany City Council would like to build a new police headquarters. It’s off Pacific Boulevard S.W., just north of the medical office complex north of 29th Avenue. (I wish the place would get an address to make describing it less cumbersome.)
As reported a couple of items below, because of the likely expense the council decided Wednesday (July 23) not to continue to try to obtain land for expanding the existing police station near the jail and sheriff’s office on Jackson Street. The next day I went back to the Pacific site, and the video is the result.
The next step is to request proposals for designing the police station, and for that, a decision on the site was necessary. Eventually, the council hopes to ask voters to approve a city bond issue to pay for a substantial part of the police project and for building a larger fire station downtown at the address of the existing Fire Station 11. (hh)
Has anyone factored in the cost to provide an all new access to Pacific Blvd., assuming ODOT and the City can arrive at a suitable access plan, and who will bear those costs?
Access to Pacific Blvd.alone could run well over $1 million at today’s construction prices if a new signal were included not to mention the traffic flow problems that could result from it’s proximity to the signal at 29th which should remain in place as is.
If the Pacific Blvd site becomes a reality, perhaps access could be provided to an improved version of the part of Elm Street that extends south of 24th that services Schoen’s Motors, where police could proceed north on Elm or access Pacific from 24th Street. There is currently a driveway apron that would provide access to southbound Pacific Blvd.
Access to the site via Willetta Street is a very poor idea, and one that would greatly increase traffic on a relatively narrow street lined by homes and the medical complex, a street that could not be widened and is inadequate for the volume of traffic the new station would bring by its very nature. If I were one of the homeowners on that block of Willetta I would be very concerned about the changes this development would bring to the neighborhood and the quality of life that now exists on that dead end street.
We are watching…..