A three-storey, 75,000 square foot communications centre is closer to becoming a reality at the Maple Grove Road police headquarters.
On Wednesday, the Waterloo Regional Police Service's Board voted unanimously in favour of a recommendation to include the larger of two options for a public safety communications centre (PSCC) in an updated facilities master plan.
The master plan is part of the police service's 2025 capital budget and 10-year capital forecast.
The PSCC, estimated to cost $173 million, will bring dispatch operations for regional police, paramedics and fire services under one roof and could eventually lead to consolidation of the service.
Consultants had originally considered building a communications centre at the recently completed central division headquarters on Frederick Street in Kitchener, but that idea was nixed five years ago due to space limitations.
Over the last few years, consultants and architects tasked with coming up with ideas for the PSCC settled on the three storey project as the preferred option and the headquarters campus as the preferred location because of its proximity to "mission critical infrastructure" already in place.
The new communications centre will be "multi-generational, providing service to a rapidly growing population that's expected to reach approximately one million residents by 2051."
Facilities manager Chris Gibson said the service is already feeling pressure from the population boom.
The service has been trying to keep up with its own growth by converting old file rooms into office space and creating efficiencies in existing spaces by shrinking the size of desks to meet facility standards.
Half of the third floor at the central division in Kitchener will be built out over the next year to accommodate some of that growth but even it will be at capacity by the end of next year.
The administrative support branch and professional standards branch will be moving there next year while the vacated space at headquarters will be reconfigured to manage growth in areas such as human resources and storage for evidence management.
Gibson said the headquarters campus growth strategy is all about intensification.
Since parking and green space at Maple Grove is in short supply, the plan is to build up for new facilities, including the PSCC. Construction of a new firearms training centre on the headquarters campus is planned for 2029 to 2031.
"We need to grow up instead of spread out is really the mantra there," he said.
Before the board voted in favour of the recommended option, Jamie Brosseau, an inspector with the finance and assets branch, presented a second option for the PSCC with two floors and 50,000 square feet of space.
But, he said, it isn't consistent with recommendations of the architect, nor with growth needs of the service.
The idea of building "third floor shell space" into future projects was adopted in the WRPS facilities master plan in the summer.
Once part of the new PSCC, the third floor will eventually be used for service growth but can be leased out to other emergency response agencies and social services in the meantime, Gibson said.
"It will allow for the creation of a shared services hub model here at the WRPS," Brosseau said, adding it's the direction the industry is heading in given the increasing cost and complexity of providing 911 services.
Revenue from lease agreements would help recover operating costs for the facility, he said.
He called it a smart growth strategy and said all WRPS facilities are either close to or exceeding capacity.
"The rise in population increases the demand for policing services, which in turn increases the need for space to accommodate growth in staffing and operations," he said.
Having the extra space will also reduce the need to undertake other projects in the facilities master plan, he said.
It would relieve pressure to build a new evidence building, expand the emergency response team facilities and renovate the investigation services building and reporting centre to the tune of $23.4 million.
Taking that into account, the report claims it reduces the overall cost of building the PSCC to about $150 million.
If approved it will be the only new build on the Maple Grove campus until at least 2035.
The board also heard that each month the new PSCC project is delayed, its capital costs increase by an estimated $440,000 at the current rate of inflation.
Other projects in the capital projects list through 2029 include a new site security concept for the headquarters campus and an update to South Division on Hespeler Road to include a refreshed and expanded community room and temporary locker room.
