Community Forum for New Lake Oswego Police Facility April 6

LAKE OSWEGO, OR – A new police facility is coming to Lake Oswego, and this Thursday residents are invited to offer their feedback to steer its development.

At Lake Oswego City Hall, 380 A Ave., from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 6, the city’s project team and representatives from architecture firm Mackenzie will lead a Community Visioning Forum, giving residents an opportunity to examine existing facilities and offer their feedback to help with the project’s development, which coincides with construction on a new City Hall.

"This first meeting will help us take this to the next steps," Deputy City Manager Jordan Wheeler told Patch Tuesday. "You don't get (a new police facility) very often so it's good for the community to get involved and offer their design input."

Since 2001 city officials have known a new police facility was needed, according to reports from the Lake Oswego Redevelopment Agency board; and between 2015 and 2016 the city purchased three parcels of land east of city hall, on the corner of A Avenue and Third Street, upon which the new police facility will be built.

Officials estimate a total cost of $18 million for the planned two-story police facility, which will also house the city’s 911 dispatch services, the Lake Oswego Arts Council, and the Lake Oswego Booktique. Wheeler said the building will fall somewhere between 30,000- and 35,000-square-feet, and will maintain the city's architectural look and feel.

"We have a downtown aesthetic that we want to preserve," he said. "In some ways that makes it easier (for design constraints), and in other ways that makes it harder."

Ultimately, Wheeler said, "We want it to be open and for people to feel comfortable coming into it."

The meeting Thursday will be the first of many the city will hold to take input from the community.

For more information on this project, visit the city’s project website.