City council could see updated forecasts for planned police station in July

Details continue to emerge about a large-scale public facility project that has been on the minds of Wilmette officials for more than two decades.

Wilmette Township Supervisor Michael Braiman presented a brief overview of the village’s evaluation of a new police station to the Board of Trustees during its meeting on Tuesday, June 25.

According to a project schedule presented by Braiman, a preliminary project cost forecast could be available to the municipal council as early as the end of July.

The board’s public safety committee is scheduled to meet on July 18, according to Braiman. He said the meeting will be devoted to reviewing and creating cost estimates for the potential multimillion-dollar project. The goal of the meeting is for the committee to make a recommendation to the Wilmette Town Council on the overall scope and budget of the project, Braiman added.

A presentation by the committee could be on the agenda for the July 23 town council meeting, officials said during the June 25 meeting.

Braiman noted that the project would need to move from the committee level to the council to be “fully reviewed,” comparing it to the process the massive stormwater management project in Wilmette went through.

Towards the end of his presentation, Braiman also said Wilmette hopes to host a joint open house and committee of the whole meeting sometime in September to provide more information to the community in a public forum.

The council’s finance subcommittee will then look at more detailed financing scenarios over the course of the summer.

Officials would then ask the council to reach a consensus on the project’s future and overall scope before awarding a design contract to Wilmette, which could happen in late September or October, according to the timeline provided by Braiman.

The timeline set during the meeting is likely to change and the process will evolve, Braiman noted.

Last conversation

As previously reported by The RecordWilmette officials resumed talks about a new police station in May 2023 when the board of trustees approved a needs analysis and land use study.

In addition, the Village Board’s Public Safety Committee visited and toured four nearby, newly constructed police stations to learn what other suburban police departments have done about the outdated facilities.

A key aspect of the Public Safety Committee’s recent work has been space allocation, specifically determining the “adequate net building space to meet the current and future needs of the Wilmette Police Department,” Braiman said.

According to Braiman, officials have previously looked at space needs differently, breaking their assessment down into net building area and circulation area. Net building area includes the “functional areas” of the police station, while circulation area includes hallways, stairwells, elevators, etc.

Village staff had initially proposed a net building area of ​​just under 42,000 square meters. This figure represents a reduction of approximately 7.5 percent compared to the recommendation of a study by FGM Architects.

The planned gross floor area could be between 54,449 and 58,638 square feet, according to initial numbers in municipal documents dated June 25.

Braiman noted several times that the square footage figures will change as the process progresses. Township Supervisor Stephen Leonard, who sits on the Public Safety Committee, also noted that cost projects “could change radically depending on the location.”

“So much can change,” Leonard said. “We’re doing the best we can with the information we have, but we’re also aware that we don’t have enough information. … It will work itself out, but you have to start somewhere.”

Long-standing wish

Wilmette has invested its resources for over 20 years exploring the possibilities of a new police station.

Space studies were already carried out in 2002 and 2007 to review the department’s existing facilities and determine the additional space requirements.

Those studies found that 4,600 square feet were needed to meet Wilmette Township’s needs. The results also showed that the department needed more space to improve “function, workflow, traffic and safety,” according to village records.

“We have been thinking about and planning this project for 20 years, and it was postponed several times due to the Great Recession. The council was trying to find the right time to start the project to mitigate the impact on property taxpayers,” Braiman said.

The current Wilmette Police Station, located at 710 Ridge Road, opened in 1968 and is just over 16,000 square feet, according to municipal documents. Eighteen years later, a 3,500-square-foot addition was built on the south end of the facility, which includes a women’s locker room, a detainee intake area, a gym, and administrative and records space.

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