The City of Santa Barbara broke ground Monday on a new police station.
The new "state of the art" 65,000 square-foot facility will be located at E. Cota and Santa Barbara Streets at the current site of a commuter parking lot.
City officials say the current police station on E. Figueroa Street was constructed in 1959 and no longer meets modern seismic safety and accessibility standards. The facility is also too small to house all police operations and the department is spread out across four separate buildings.
"We will actually have all of our officers and all of our professional staff, our dispatch all under one roof which we don't currently right now," said Chief Kelly Gordon, Santa Barbara Police Department.
According to the city, the new building will include a dispatch center, parking structure, forensics lab, community room, fitness center, training room, indoor shooting range, property and evidence room, and a large solar and battery array.
Last week, the city awarded a construction contract for the Police Station Project to ProWest Constructors Inc.
The estimated $96 million project is being funded through Measure C, a sales tax increase passed by Santa Barbara voters in 2017.
Construction is expected to be completed in the spring of 2027.
