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A plan to pay for a new police and fire headquarters sailed through the Mountain View City Council Tuesday evening with assurances from city staff that the $189 million project would not have substantial cost overruns.
In a unanimous vote, the City Council approved a plan to fund a new 75,000-square-foot public safety building at 1000 Villa St., replacing the current facility which houses the police department, emergency dispatchers, fire department administration and other municipal operations.
The city will pull together money from several different sources, with the bulk, $135 million, coming from bond financing, according to Assistant City Manager Arn Andrews.
“Staff went through what we referred to as a ‘building block process’ to put together the funding,” Andrews told the council at the April 14 meeting.
The first building block is revenue from two sources: Measure G, a property transfer tax that voters approved in 2024, and the Ameswell Hotel, which has a long-term ground lease with the city and also pays various taxes. Combined, the proceeds amount to approximately $8.5 million annually, which is expected to be able to cover the debt service for roughly $135 million in bonds, Andrews said.
Other funding sources include $26.5 million that the city has set aside in a special reserve for the project and $16.3 million that’s already been allocated for pre-construction services and construction management, according to the city staff report.
Revenue from the Shoreline Regional Park Community, a separate tax district that covers much of the city north of U.S. Highway 101, will also contribute funding. The council opted on Tuesday to have the tax district kick in $25.5 million, up from the $10 million that staff initially recommended.
Tax revenue from the Shoreline Regional Park Community is earmarked for improving that portion of the city. Because the Shoreline area is served by the police and fire departments, “it is responsible for a proportionate share of the infrastructure necessary for the provision of public safety resources to the community,” according to the city staff report.
Increasing the appropriation to $25.5 million would make the Shoreline contribution more proportionate, Andrews said, adding that it also would create a financial buffer for the project.
In addition to the Shoreline appropriation, the City Council also approved $2 million from the general operating fund to bring the project across the finish line.
Concerns about spiking costs
While the City Council backed the plan, two community members raised concerns about the financial projections, especially given the project’s history of spiking costs.
“We’d like some assurance that we’ve done our homework on the $189 [million], and we’re not putting the cart before the horse,” Mountain View resident Jim Zaorski said. “If we’re going to have pain, we want to make sure that we know what the pain is.”
Responding to these concerns, Public Works Director Jennifer Ng noted that the project will be done in phases over five years, which will help staff evaluate the project’s progress at each stage relative to the amount of available funding, she said.
The first phase of the project, which includes site preparation and partial demolition of the existing building, is scheduled to begin in July, according to the staff report. The second phase will focus on the construction of the new public safety building and is scheduled to start in May 2027.
Ng described the project’s third phase, which includes the complete demolition of the existing public safety building and construction of a three-story garage and shooting range, as an “off-ramp” that could be modified if funding got tight.
“That garage component of the project is one of the major off-ramps that we have in order to keep the rest of the project on track,” she said.
That work is scheduled to begin in September 2029 and be completed in December 2030, according to the staff report.
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