Police Use Funds to Expand, Build Stations in Valley

In the San Fernando Valley, funds from a $176-million bond measure adopted in 1989 are being used to expand and remodel the Foothill Division station and to build a new station for the North Hollywood Division, which has yet to break ground.

At the Foothill Division’s Pacoima headquarters, a new, four-level, 240-car parking deck is nearly complete and may be ready for use by the end of December, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Bill Dolan said this week.

The 30-year-old police station on Osborne Street is also undergoing a 10,500-square-foot expansion that should be ready for occupancy in February, said Dolan, the project manager.

Once the new wing is done, the existing station will be remodeled to create larger dispatching, report-writing and record-keeping rooms, a conference room, and upgraded locker rooms.

Women officers, who have been donning their uniforms in a trailer, will have a new locker room within the station, Dolan said.

The Foothill tab should cost $5 million, he said.

In North Hollywood, the design of a new, $15-million station, to be located just east of the Hollywood Freeway, has been completed and the department plans to seek construction bids in February, Dolan said.

The existing station on Tiara Street, which was built in 1958, has become completely cramped, he said.

Elsewhere in the Valley, bond money is being spent to expand the jail within the Van Nuys Division’s police station.

Although each police station has its own small holding cells, the Van Nuys Jail serves as a central, temporary detention facility for the Valley and has the area’s only cells for women.

There are no immediate plans for improvements at the West Valley or Devonshire Division police stations, Dolan said, and plans to create a sixth patrol area in the Valley--a big draw for the suburban vote during the bond measure’s campaign--have been placed on hold indefinitely for lack of funds, he said.