Designers present schematic plan for combined city hall, YMCA and police facility; council moves to executive session

Designers for a planned combined municipal facility presented schematic drawings and site concepts to the Trenton City Council on Monday evening, showing a 54,000-square-foot building that would house YMCA facilities, city offices and a police department around a central civic lawn.

The presentation, led by Lisa Cameron Gully of the project design team and construction project manager Dave Settles, outlined a shared front lobby for YMCA and city functions, a separate police entrance with secure staff parking, an oval walking path, space for food trucks at special events and provisions for accessibility. “One of the things that we really have been focusing on is making sure that we're spending our dollars in the right places,” Lisa Cameron Gully said during the presentation.

The schematic, described as the completion of the project’s schematic design phase, also included an overview of exterior treatments, a large canopy entry, and options for precast exterior walls. “We have a very efficient design here. We are within budget where we are on the plans right now,” Dave Settles said, adding the team is targeting a construction start in the fall.

Why it matters: The plan consolidates multiple public services into a single development on privately led mixed-use property, creating new public-facing space and affecting how city operations, public safety and YMCA…