PANEL EXPECTED TO OK POLICE CENTER\Planning Commission to act on proposal for state-of-art facility\By Terry Kanakri Daily News Staff Writer.

The city's long-planned $12.6 million police facility moves to the Planning Commission Wednesday, when commissioners are expected to support the design and construction plans.

The city is seeking a Civic Center permit to build a 54,691-square-foot facility on the northwest corner of Tapo Canyon Road and Alamo Street to replace the existing Cochran Street headquarters.

The new facility will provide the Police Department with more space in a central location that will make operations more efficient, commissioner Dave McCormick said Monday.

"It's about time we showed the community we care about the Police Department," he said. "They've worked in some pretty shabby buildings for quite a while. I remember when they started out in a mobile home trailer. This new station should give them lots of room to be more efficient, and that will translate into better service to the public."

Discussions for a new police station in Simi Valley began about 10 years ago, but it was given new impetus when the city's existing station was damaged by the Northridge Earthquake.

The station at 3200 Cochran St. is 25,100 square feet - less than half the size of the proposed new facility - and is too small for the department's needs, officials said. Police records, for example, are currently kept in a building adjacent to the main police station.

City planners are asking planning commissioners to recommend approval of the project to the City Council after the public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.

Sgt. Arch Morgan said police officers and other department staff members are looking forward to moving into the new facility. Construction is expected next fall with completion slated for the end of 1997. The new facility is expected to meet the city's police needs beyond the year 2006.

"The new station is designed from the onset to be a police station which this building was not, said Morgan. "This facility has been modified to accommodate us, but the new facility is engineered as a state of the art police station."

The current Police Department is in a building that originally served as City Hall when the city incorporated in 1969. When Simi Valley formed its own Police Department in 1970, operations were handled out of a trailer behind the old City Hall building.

The Police Department later shared the building with city staff, and took over the building after it was remodeled when Simi Valley's new City Hall was built on 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.

The new police facility will serve as a headquarters for the city's Police Department and function as the Emergency Operations Center. The plan also calls for the placement of a freestanding communications tower.

Councilman Paul Miller, who served as chief for nearly 12 years before retiring in 1994, said the new facility will be better equipped to handle new information technology.

"The department will be in a modern, well equipped facility," he said. "Morale will improve and that in turn will improve the overall product of the department."

Upon final construction and use of the new police facility, it is anticipated that the existing Cochran Street building will be demolished and the land will be used by the Simi Valley Family YMCA to build a full-service YMCA facility.

The proposed police-facility building is 48-feet high, measured from the underground floor level of the parking area. The main floor will consist of 47,176-square-feet while the lower floor, not including the area devoted to underground parking, will be 7,515-square-feet.

The exterior will be a tan colored stucco over block, with accent trim to match the existing buildings within the Civic Center Master Plan area, such as the library. Skylights are proposed throughout the building to take advantage of natural lighting.

The plan calls for 26 percent of the site to be landscaped with plantings, exceeding the city's requirement that a minimum of 25 percent of a project site contain landscaping.

In their recommendation of approval to the commission, city planners said the proposed police facility will not have any adverse effects on the environment or neighboring residential areas.

Planners say the facility will not cause traffic congestion problems. Looking at air quality, planners say additional traffic will produce about 9.7 tons per year of oxides of nitrogen, and 6.3 tons per year of reactive organic compounds. The threshold for significant impact on air quality is 13.7 tons per year in either category.

The police facility will not routinely generate loud noises, although patrol vehicles may occasionally use their sirens, planners added. The station will have a helicopter landing site for emergency uses, but that is expected to happen only about twice a year.

The plan calls for illuminated monument signs to be located at the intersection of Tapo Canyon Road and Alamo Street and along Alamo Street next to the public-entry driveway, but glare will not be a problem.

City planners said they will have to remove three White Alders and three London Plan trees that are currently part of the landscaping of the City Hall parking lot. They said the trees have minimal habitat value.

Access to the proposed police station from Tapo Canyon Road will be limited to police personnel and protected by a swing-arm gate. Public access will be from Alamo Street with the improvement of an existing driveway. Separating the public and private access to the new police facility assists in preventing congested entries at existing and proposed driveways, planners said.

When the city first began planning the new facility, the initial cost was projected at about $10.9 million. Further study and design work have resulted in changes to make the police station more efficient and aesthetically pleasing, officials said. The new price tag is now estimated at about $12.6 million.

The city plans to pay for the new police facility through four funding sources. The largest, $6,095,000 would come from bonds issued by the City Council last year. About $3.5 million would come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Governor's Office of Emergency Services in the form of reimbursement of earthquake repairs to the city's existing police station. Development agreement fees and other sources will account for $2,117,037, and $905,000 will come from Community Development Agency bonds.

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Map SIMI VALLEY Proposed new Simi Valley Police Station