Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012

City eyes new way forward for public safety needs

Site moved out of downtown

The grand vision for a high-rise public safety center gave way to political reality Tuesday when the City Council embraced a less costly approach that would break the project into phases, starting with a 911 center northeast of downtown.

The scenario outlined by City Manager Russell Allen marks a retreat from earlier plans for the Lightner Center, a 17-story tower bordering downtown’s Nash Square that would have housed the city’s police, fire and 911 headquarters.

Unable to reach accord on the $175 million complex, City Council members agreed Tuesday to consider moving forward with a 911 communications center, considered a critical need.

The center would be built on city-owned land off Raleigh Boulevard just outside the Beltline. The vacant property was formerly part of the Westinghouse industrial site.

The initial phase also would include space for an emergency operations center, an information-technology data center and a police field office or district station.

Although it’s not the glassy, state-of-the-art tower envisioned by Lightner Center supporters, the facility could be expanded to accommodate police and fire personnel, Allen said.

Allen would not give a price for the new approach, saying the city must first do an environmental review and determine security needs at the six-acre site. But he’s confident the first phase can be completed without a tax increase – a major hang-up in negotiations over the public safety complex.

To begin the site assessment, Allen will use $600,000 previously set aside for planning the Lightner Center.

But some Raleigh leaders hold out hope for an eventual downtown venue – at least for some emergency services.

“I’ll go along with the 911 center, but I would still like to see, down the road, a public safety center in downtown,” City Councilman Eugene Weeks said.

The new approach won backing from Mayor Nancy McFarlane, who took office in December pledging to seek a compromise that eluded her predecessor, Charles Meeker.

“I like the fact that we’re going to address the most critical needs, sooner rather than later,” McFarlane said after Tuesday’s unanimous vote. “Everyone recognizes the 911 center is something we really need to do.”

No place for a crisis

Emergency telecommunicators now work in a cramped bunker in the basement of City Hall. The city has no emergency operations center.

In April, after powerful tornadoes ripped through Raleigh, emergency management officials coordinated the city’s response from tables set up in a cramped conference room.

The proposed Clarence E. Lightner Center, named for the city’s first and only black mayor, would be 17 stories high and 300,000 square feet, making it the city’s biggest and most expensive building. The city has already spent $23 million for design services and the purchase of two buildings to house the police department during construction of the new center.

But Raleigh leaders could not agree on whether it’s needed, what it should cost and who should decide whether it will be built – council members or voters in a referendum. Original plans to include up to $705,000 in public art also drew criticism.

Mixed emotions

On Tuesday, Bruce Lightner said he had mixed emotions about whether the facility, in whatever form it takes, carries the name of his father because the police department “is part of selective enforcement when it comes to arrests made in the black community.”

Council newcomer Randy Stagner said he heard lots of complaints from voters in his North Raleigh district about the price for the downtown tower.

Stagner favors a new 911 center as an initial step. “It gives us flexibility to make decisions further down the line,” he said.