Geneva OKs $95K for police facility conceptual plans

The Geneva City Council has unanimously approved a $95,000 contract with FGM Architects to create a strategic roadmap for a potential new police facility.

The contract calls for FMG to develop a clear vision for such a facility, including design concepts, architectural character, construction standards, site plans, floor plans, elevations and up to 10 enhanced visual renderings, documents show.

Acting as the Committee of the Whole Aug. 4, Council members also were unanimous in recommending approval of the contract with FMG.

In July, the Council adopted a Facilities Master Plan “to help guide decisions related to municipal facilities and provide a strategic roadmap for achieving the city’s goals of strong governance and quality infrastructure and services,” City Administrator Stephanie Dawkins said at the Aug. 4 committee meeting.

“Among the priorities identified through prior data collection, including stakeholder interviews and community surveys, the need for a modern police facility emerged as a high priority,” Dawkins said. “In order to further engage the community and begin detailed planning efforts, FGM Architects has submitted a proposal for professional architectural and engineering services aimed at developing a clear vision for the future police facility.”

FGM’s work is intended to help with future public information and outreach efforts as the city evaluates its next steps, she said.

Speaking at the committee meeting, FGM Vice President David Yandel said the company would work with the city, police chief and other key stakeholders.

“We are at a point now where it’s almost like starting a Pinterest board,” Yandel said of the site that’s akin to a digital scrapbook people use to organize ideas.

“We gather information,” Yandel said. “We want to make sure we’re sensitive to the community, to the environment, to the surrounding context of the proposed site. ... Our proposal and our kind of approach is to traditionally provide three or four options ... then narrow that down to a preferred scheme and then we would refine that further to develop cost estimates and additional refinements.”

Second Ward Ald. Bradley Kosirog asked if the final product would be possible, fiscally.

“We don’t want to present things that we can’t end up doing,” Kosirog said.

Yandel said as FGM works through the facilities master plan, they use “a cost-per-square-foot basis to develop preliminary cost estimates.”

“We have a saying that the more you draw, the more you learn. So our goal is to take the designs a little bit further, refine them to be a little bit more specific for the police station,” Yandel said.

Earlier this year, the council rescinded pulled a referendum that included a new police facility from the spring ballot because of a formula error used to compute the impact on property taxes.