Community Meetings Scheduled for New TPD Headquarters

Potential Site Layouts to be Presented for Top Two Locations

November 18, 2019

Community meetings will be held the first week of December to garner additional input from neighbors, as well as the community at large, for the top two sites being considered for the future home of the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD).

Of the sites recommended by the community, the two that have been determined to best meet the needs of TPD and the community are:

• Lake Bradford Road Wastewater Treatment Plant, 1815 Lake Bradford Road
• Northwood Centre, 1940 N. Monroe Street/514 W. Tharpe Street

The community meeting for the Lake Bradford Road Wastewater Treatment Plan site will take place on Monday, Dec. 2, from 5:30-7 p.m. at Pineview Elementary School, 2230 Lake Bradford Rd.

The community meeting for the Northwood Centre site will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 3, from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Tallahassee Senior Center, 1400 N. Monroe St.

At each meeting, the project architect will present potential site layouts and other ideas for both properties.

Public input has been vital for reaching this stage in the site selection process; additional feedback gathered at the community meetings will help further refine the plan and site options.

Following the community meetings, a summary of findings, including a preliminary cost analysis, will be presented before the City Commission for further direction and final site selection. After authorization has been received, the architect will develop conceptual drawings of the new TPD headquarters. Additional opportunities for community input will be scheduled as the project progresses.

TPD has conducted operations from the headquarters on 7th Avenue since 1972. Over the past several decades, space constraints to support modern public safety services have continued to mount within the current building, which was originally designed for other purposes and is nearly 100 years old. The department has grown considerably in terms of the number of employees and the variety of services it offers to the community since moving into the current facility. During the evaluation of TPD’s current headquarters, it was identified that the future home for TPD needed to serve a much broader purpose.

To meet this need, a site selection process was outlined and approved by the City Commission at its March 6 meeting. The City solicited and received a total of 68 site proposals from the community. The sites were evaluated based on criteria approved by the Commission, and the list was narrowed to 10 potential properties (three City-owned, seven privately owned). Of the seven privately owned properties, two indicated they would consider selling, thus further narrowing the list to five. Following public input at the October 16 City Commission meeting, the list was further refined to the top two sites.

The vision for the new headquarters is that it will provide adequate space for TPD’s more than 400 officers and staff, meet current and future operational needs and expand the concept of a traditional police station by also incorporating a variety of publicly available features to serve residents. A multi-functional facility of this type will help police officers connect and build strong bonds with residents, a focus of TPD’s community policing efforts.

Visit Talgov.com/TPDHQ for more information and to provide feedback.