Lacey set to spend $4 million to acquire 12 acres for new police station
The city of Lacey wants to replace its nearly 40-year-old police station, a step that involves Saint Martin’s Abbey and a future ballot measure.
The new station was discussed during a City Council work session on Thursday.
The city is working on a draft memorandum of understanding with the Abbey in which the city would pay them $4 million for about 12 acres of forested property north of City Hall. The land is between I-5 and the City Hall parking lot, next to College Street.
The Saint Martin’s University campus is just south and southeast of City Hall.
Brother Nicolaus Wilson of the Abbey, who attended Thursday’s meeting, said the Abbey and the university are separate corporations, and that the Abbey owns the land.
“That’s why you’re dealing with us and not the university,” he said.
The Abbey has so far approved the draft memorandum and is ready to move forward with selling the property, Wilson said. The memorandum eventually will come back to the council for consideration.
Some other details, according to the memorandum: The new police station will not have a full jail, similar to its current set up, but will have a 24-hour holding cell, and as few trees as possible will be removed during construction.
“We’re not going to clear cut the site,” said Ashley Smith, capital projects engineer for the city.
The city’s current timeline is for construction to begin in spring 2024 and to occupy the new two-story station at the end of 2025.
But before that happens, the city is going to spend about $5 million to acquire the property and complete 30 percent of the design work before moving forward with a ballot measure. The city plans to pay for construction of the new station via a bond issue that would be repaid through a property tax.
City Manager Scott Spence said he doesn’t expect the ballot measure to come before voters until 2023, giving the city enough time to sell the public on the need for a new station.
Councilman Lenny Greenstein doesn’t think that will be a problem.
“I don’t see this as a difficult push to the public because I think we’re going to get overwhelming support,” Greenstein said, adding that he would like to see it go to voters sooner rather than later, and possibly as soon as the November 2022 general election.
A ballot measure run during the general election will cost the city less than a special election held in 2023, he said.
Mayor Andy Ryder raised a cautionary note. He thinks a sales tax would be easily approved by voters, but a property tax?
“You just never know,” he said.
This particular ballot measure has to pass muster with the public in two ways: It needs a super-majority vote of 60 percent approval and it needs to meet a minimum voter turnout of 40 percent of the last general election, Spence said.
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
