POLICING FACILITIES EXPANSION PROJECT

POLICING FACILITIES EXPANSION PROJECT

RECOMMENDATION:

WHEREAS

• The Town of View Royal and the Cities of Langford and Colwood (“the Communities”), jointly deliver policing services through the RCMP;
• The Communities are responsible for the provision of RCMP office, garage, and jail cell facilities under the Municipal Police Unit Agreement;
• The RCMP Westshore detachment is undersized to support the force needed for our future population, and is quickly running out of space;
• Feasibility study findings indicate redeveloping and expanding the existing facility is the recommended approach.

RECOMMENDATION

THAT the Town of View Royal approve a budget of $186,720, funded from the Town’s Police Capitalization Reserve which represents the Town of View Royal’s proportionate share (15.56%) of the total budget of $1,200,000 required to further define the project requirements and goals, to arrive at a point where a decision on whether the project should proceed can be made;

AND THAT Mayor Tobias and the Chief Administrative Officer, Kim Anema be appointed to a Joint Police Facilities Steering Committee to be made up of the Mayor’s and Chief Administrative Officer’s of the Town of View Royal, City of Langford and City of Colwood to oversee the process of advancement of further project definition.

PURPOSE:

To establish Council support for the Town of View Royal’s participation in the RCMP Building expansion-design validation step advancing the RCMP building expansion project.

TIME CRITICAL:

Time is of the essence as our current facility is rapidly running out of space, and construction cost inflation has been trending upwards.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Population growth on the West Shore has resulted in an increase in our RCMP staffing contingent, and consequential need for an expanded policing support facility. The RCMP building design validation process is intended to advance conceptual designs of an expanded West Shore RCMP detachment to accommodate growth for a twenty-year horizon to inform the project approval, borrowing bylaw approval and ultimate construction. The Communities have jointly explored options with respect to expansion of the current policing facilities, and are recommending that we proceed with project validation.

BACKGROUND:

Jointly owned by The Town of View Royal and the Cities of Langford and Colwood (“the Communities”), the West Shore RCMP Detachment is located at 698 Atkins Avenue in Langford. The existing detachment is approximately 37,000 ft2, comprised of two largely separate but connected facilities: one built in the 1960s (approx. 10,600 ft2), and a newer structure built in 1999 (approx. 26,400 ft2).

Investments have been made in the current detachment, but the facility is nearing capacity. Projections by the RCMP show the need for increased space in the next one to four years. As the Communities continue to grow, so too does the need for specialized and diversified policing services, increased use of technology, modern facilities, and a larger staff contingent to maintain the current policing level of service in the region.

DISCUSSION:

Defining Project Requirements

An options analysis completed in March of 2022 (attached as Appendix 1) explored the need for an expanded RCMP facility together with a review of redevelopment of the existing site versus options to relocate elsewhere within the Communities.

A twenty-year planning horizon was used:

• to align with the minimum debt financing that will likely accompany this project
• to mirror the estimated capacity needs with the financing horizon
• assuming a 2023/2024 construction start, occupancy would be 2025/2026
• near-term “excess space” could be leased to other agencies
• construction cost escalation supports building now vs later (hopefully this upward pressure on pricing will finish in 2023)

Population projections were needed to help determine future space requirements, and are assumed as follows in Table 1.

Table 1

Police to population ratios were also forecasted to help determine future space requirements. The ratios assumed in Table 2 are estimates. Each community will need to determine their police:population ratios annually as part of their service planning processes (View Royal’s 2022 police to population ratio is ~1:870).

Table 2

The RCMP provided space requirement estimates based on future RCMP FTE counts.

Table 3

We benchmarked future space requirements against a comparable (Kelowna) and current West Shore facilities on a per capita and per FTE basis.

The feasibility study ultimately recommended a building size of 92,417 ft2 together with 2.5 acres of parking to support our policing functions 20 years hence. In the near term, portions of an expanded facility would be leased to other agencies (likely policing related) until such time that occupancy is needed for Communities policing purposes.

A further recommendation was returned to remain at and redevelop the existing location on Atkins Avenue as it was deemed to be more economical than relocating and building new. Additionally, it was noted to be the preferred site over alternative options due to its central location (both now and in the future) and ease of access to major transportation routes.

Estimated Capital Costs

*Includes $6m in seismic upgrades for the 1999 facility (approximately 26,000 ft2) together with approximately 66,000 ft2 in new construction.

Estimated Municipal Contributions

Next Steps

The Joint Police Services Facilities Steering Committee (3 CAOs) has recommended to pursue an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) procurement approach (Preliminary Project Plan attached as Appendix 2), which will enable the Communities to come to a proposed budget while meeting project requirements in the most efficient manner.

With approval of the recommended budget of $1,200,000, the Communities will proceed with procuring an IPD Advisor and IPD team to develop a Validation Report in mid-2023. A Validation Report reflects the IPD Team’s commitment to achieve the target cost, budget, appropriate level of design, contingency, risk, schedule and other details to ensure owner requirements will be met. One community (likely Langford) will act as fiscal agent for the Communities through this process.

This work will enable the Communities to make a decision on whether to proceed with the proposed project.

COMMUNICATIONS

Early and ongoing public consultation will be an important part of this process. As assent of the electors will be needed to support the borrowing involved, a Communications team will be engaged whom have both municipal, and IPD procurement experience.

Communications in this process will seek to increase public trust in decision makers and create an environment of no surprises. We will seek to:

• clearly define the decision makers
• involve the right stakeholders at the right time
• provide opportunities to be informed
• be clear about how decisions will be made
• be clear about how input will be used

TIMELINES

• January 2023: Initiate Procurement Process
• July 2023: Project Validation
• Fall 2023: Borrowing and project Approval
• 2024-2025: Construction

SUSTAINABILITY/CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS:

To be determined

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:

Project Financing

Long-term borrowing will be required for the Town of View Royal’s contribution to this project, and we may determine to begin the borrowing approval process parallel with the Validation stage of procurement. Long-term borrowing is secured through a loan authorization bylaw, which requires approval of the electors, and the Inspector of Municipalities. Steps in the borrowing process are as follows:

1. Loan authorization bylaw drafted, and the council gives it three readings
2. Provincial review and statutory approval by the Inspector of Municipalities (6-8 weeks)
3. Approval of the electors (8-11 weeks)
4. Adoption of the bylaw by the council
5. Challenge period (1 month)
6. Provincial review and certificate of approval by the Inspector of Municipalities (2-4 weeks)
7. Municipal council passes security issuing resolution and agreement
8. Regional district drafts security issuing bylaw and board gives it three readings and adoption
9. Challenge period for security issuing bylaw (10 days)
10. Provincial review of the security issuing bylaw and certificate of approval by the Inspector of Municipalities (2-4 weeks)
11. Security issuing by the Municipal Finance Authority

There is also an option to create a Capital Regional District sub-regional service for the purpose of financing the construction of the new building with View Royal, Langford and Colwood as sole participants. This sub-regional service approach has a similar approval process as described above.

Debt Servicing

Should the project proceed as currently envisioned, the Town of View Royal will need to build into our annual budgets the costs of principal and interest repayment over time, and determine a borrowing period for the loan. The capacity of the building is being scaled for the 20-year horizon, however the building itself will provide useful life over a 50-year time scale.

As part of the planning process the partners and individual municipalities will need to consider the optimal strategy to prepare our communities for the burden represented by annual debt payment requirements either individually or as sub-regional partners.

ALTERNATIVES:

The requirement to provide appropriate facilities is a municipal obligation under the Municipal Police Unit Agreement. The RCMP have signaled to the Communities that an expanded facility will be needed soon. It will take two to three years to procure a new facility under the currently envisioned plan of action, and our Communities continue to grow and add policing strength through the annual addition of RCMP officers and supporting personnel. Action will be needed in the near term to address this expanded facility need.

1. (Recommended) That the Town of View Royal approve a budget of $186,720, funded from our Police Capitalization Reserve which represents the Town of View Royal’s share (15.56%) of the total budget of $1,200,000 required to further define the project requirements and goals, to arrive at a point where a decision on whether the project should proceed can be made, or
2. That Council authorize Mayor Tobias and CAO Anema to work with the Joint Steering Committee to: a. Return with an alternative scope of project i. Different time scale (shorter or longer than 20 years) ii. Different population estimates iii. Different police: population ratio estimates iv. Different ft2/FTE, or b. Consider costs/benefits/challenges of a multi building approach to police service delivery, or c. Return with an alternate procurement approach.
3. That Council direct staff to return with additional information

CONCLUSION:

The West Shore RCMP Detachment needs to be expanded to support the policing needs of our growing communities. Collectively View Royal, Langford, and Colwood need to determine how to move forward with policing facility expansion, both financially and physically. Time is of the essence as our current facility is rapidly running out of space, and construction cost inflation has been trending upwards. Funding the next step in this process will provide the Communities with information needed to help determine how best to proceed.

Respectfully Submitted,

K. Anema Chief Administrative Officer

ATTACHMENTS: APPENDIX 1: West Shore Detachment Options Analysis (March 14th, 2022) APPENDIX 2: Preliminary Project Plan (September 2022)