LDA Partners — the firm that designed Manteca’s transit station, animal shelter, and the renovation of the HOPE Family Shelter — is being retained to develop a conceptual design for a new public safety building.

The City Council on Tuesday awarded a $175,000 contract for a feasibility study and conceptual design for a public safety building that will house police operations and at least fire administration.

Some cities that have constructed public safety buildings have also included a working fire station within the design.

It is not clear whether Manteca will be doing so given fire stations per se are strategically placed to serve specific areas of the city.

That said, the council hasn’t zeroed in on a site yet for the public safety building.

The only parcels the city currently owns that are large enough to accommodate one is on acreage next to the Sizzler restaurant on Daniels Street near Airport Way as well as the family entertainment zone that is anchored by Great Wolf indoor water park and the Big League Dreams sports complex.

Neither site is in the area of southwest Manteca where the city has identified a need for a sixth fire station.

It is common as cities grow that police stations are sited away from city hall.

LDA Partners is a Stockton-based firm headed by East Union High graduate Eric Wohle.

The firm also designed the Lathrop Police headquarters that opened last year on River Islands. They also designed Lathrop’s combined Generations Center/Library near Lathrop High.

The current City Council has made working toward groundbreaking of a public safety building as a top priority.

A new police station was identified as a pressing need 21 years ago by a previous council. But after two false starts that involved buying two parcels with redevelopment agency money, the endeavor was dropped in 2006.

Meanwhile, both Ripon and Lathrop have managed to build new police stations.

The existing facility at the Civic Center at the 1001 West Center Street campus was determined to be inadequate for the city’s needs back in 2002 when the city had 40,000 less residents. Manteca is expected to hit 90,000 residents sometime this year,

The current police department built 45 years ago in 1978 when Manteca had 22,000 residents. It wasn’t designed for the needs of a force required to protect and serve a community that is on pace to hit 100,000 in four to five years.

The city’s current police facility has significant issues ranging from security to work space.

Officers and support staff move between offices in an open breezeway secured only by wrought iron fencing and landscaping.

Areas built as storage and file rooms were repurposed two decades ago as office space.

In mid-2022, the city has $15 million in its government facilities account collected from growth as well as another $3 million to be paid back from the fire facilities fees for money borrowed to build the Woodward Avenue/Atherton fire station.

There is roughly $4 million a year collected from growth that is going into the government facilities fee account.

Part of that money could go toward construction of a facility as well as leverage a bond and possible other funding needed for a new public safety building.

Moving the existing police station  off of the Center Street civic center campus would free up nearly 30,000 square feet to expand office space at city hall without the need to build a new complex in the near future to accommodate city growth.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com