Vienna Approves $1.6 Million Design Contract for New Police Station

It wasn’t nearly as contentious as the preceding vote, but the Vienna Town Council voted on Monday (Oct. 29) to authorize a $1.6 million contract to design a new police station. The new station will likely be triple the size of the current one.

The contract was awarded to architecture firm Dewberry. The company previously designed the Fairfax Criminal Justice Academy and several government buildings across the county.

The current police station is a 9,800 square foot building at 215 Center Street South. It was built in 1994 and houses the administrative, operations and communications divisions of the department, while the criminal investigations section works out of an office inside the Vienna Town Hall.

A needs assessment in 2013 determined that the department would need a roughly 30,000 square foot building to house all of the police operations. The project will likely involve renovating the current building and constructing a new facility on the adjacent property at 144 Locust Street, which is owned by the town.

The total cost of the new police station’s construction is estimated to be $15.8 million. According to the Town of Vienna CIP review, the project is being financed through general obligation bonds. Construction is expected to begin in 2020.

According to the proposal, the new building will also have offices for other Town of Vienna departments as well as public spaces. Vienna Police Chief James Morris said it was important that the new building be a “community space” in addition to a police department.

“We do community policing all the time so that’s really important,” Mayor Laurie DiRocco agreed. “It’s nice to have people enter the police station for reasons other than negative reasons.”

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