Downers Grove is planning two community meetings to kick off talks on proposed multi-million-dollar upgrades to the village headquarters and police station.
Residents are invited to tour the buildings then sit in with council members and staff for a presentation and discussion on the ambitious project.
The first meeting is scheduled for Dec. 4. An optional tour starts at 6:30 p.m. with the town hall meeting to start at 7:30 p.m. The second meeting will be Dec. 6, with the tour at 8 a.m. and meeting at 9 a.m.
Council members have been reviewing plans to construct a new Village Hall in its current location, and a new police station, fire station and fleet maintenance center on the north side of town. Preliminary figures show all the work could cost $52 million and take more than three years to complete.
Officials have said that the police station is too small, and lacks storage for equipment and evidence and proper space to interview crime suspects and victims. Village Hall, by contrast, is too large and poorly designed.
The police/fire station complex would be located on a long-vacant parcel on Ogden and Lacey avenues and span about 80,000 square feet, according to a report from Village Manager David Fieldman. The front part of the property would have commercial development, Fieldman said.
That project is estimated to cost $38 million. The village would tap into the Ogden Avenue tax increment financing and other existing revenue to pay for about $6.5 million of the project while borrowing would pay for the lion’s share. Officials have said that they would want to hire designers for the project by December and bring a redevelopment proposal before the council by January. Construction could be completed by Spring of 2017.
The Village Hall would be about 40,000 square feet built in its current spot at 801 Burlington Avenue. Meanwhile the current police station next door would be torn down and the land sold to a developer, in hopes of replacing it with an apartment of condominium complex.
That phase of the project would cost $14 million. The village figures about $4 million would come from selling part of the property and another $10 million in revenue from the new TIF district created only to include the new headquarters and new residential building. Construction would wrap up around Spring 2018.
