The City of Kirkland is designing a Public Safety Building to be built in the Totem Lake Business District at 11831 - 120th Avenue NE.
Thank you to those who attended the informational meeting held on January 31, 2013. Neighboring properties received an informational mailer that addresses concerns expressed at the first community meeting held in July 2012. At the second meeting, Police Department representatives explained that the release of inmates will be appropriately timed with the start time of a neighborhing school.
In anticipation of serving 30,000 new residents due to the largest annexation in Kirkland’s history, the City purchased an existing commercial building for the purpose of co-locating police and court services to better serve Kirkland’s population of 80,000. Police, Corrections, and Municipal Court staff work closely coordinate services to ensure the public is safe and that all customers are treated fairly. The building provides the following benefits:
- Locates the base for public safety services in the geographic center of the City.
- Improves the Kirkland Police Department’s operational spaces and reduces costly inefficiencies, such as misdemeanant transportation from multiple contracted jail facilities to the Court.
- Increases on-site parking for Kirkland Municipal Court clients and jurors, reducing on-street parking.
- Provides stable jail costs for housing misdemeanant that meets current needs and increases the capacity for use of alternative sentencing such as electronic home detention
The City has hired a public safety technical consultant and architectural firm to assist City staff with the design, layout, and furnishing of the building. Costs will be funded primarily from the sale of general obligation bonds, the sale of current city-owned buildings that will be vacated, and from reserve accounts that have been set aside over time for facility upgrades and remodels.
Building features include:
- Security fence to be installed around the north parking lot.
- Designed for a 55 jail beds with “rough out” for additional 30 beds.
- Layout includes indoor firing range which may or may not be built.
- Design provides for secure staff entrances and public entrances for police and court visitors.
- Building will have one public meeting space.
- A plaza area will be outside of the front entrances.
- The City seeks to achieve a LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver designation for the building.
Construction is expected to begin in mid-2013 and take up to 12 months to complete.
Page updated: May 6, 2013