Geneva committee hears facilities master plan; architects recommend new South Street police station, council favors hybrid city hall option

FGM Architects and cost consultant Leopardo Construction presented a facilities master plan to the Geneva Committee of the Whole and recommended building a new police station on a city‑owned South Street site and a phased approach to modernizing other city facilities.

Dave Yandell, principal with FGM Architects, told the committee the existing downtown police building is “undersized significantly” and not feasible to meet program needs in its current location; the team’s recommended option is a roughly 45,000‑square‑foot station on city‑owned land east of the public works property on South Street. Yandell said the proposed police station would include records, patrol, evidence storage, training spaces and a smaller detention area; indoor parking and an indoor firing range were discussed as alternates.

Lee McMillan of Leopardo Construction described the cost methodology and owner costs to accompany hard construction expenses. The presentation listed preliminary must‑do project totals (in 2025 dollars) of about $48 million for the new police station; city hall options ranging roughly $34–$42 million; a capital program for Fire Station 1 of about $8 million; a new Fire Station 2 at roughly $20 million; and public works improvements of about $21 million. Yandell summarized that the overall must‑do package totaled about $132–$139 million.

Council members broadly agreed the police station is the immediate priority. Multiple alderpersons said they prefer an option that preserves the historic portion of the city’s Carnegie library and ties a new, accessible city hall space into that structure. Alderson Marks said the historic library “is a great selling point” and indicated a preference for the hybrid option that keeps the 1908 portion of the library and adds a connector building. Alderson Bowering and Alderson Paschke also expressed support for preserving the historic portion while modernizing service spaces.

Yandell and staff emphasized the plan’s intent to maintain operations during phased construction, to address mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades across sites and to build consensus for a recommended strategy; the report draws on a 2021 facility‑condition assessment and a 2024 draft master plan and will be refined for adoption. The team asked the committee to confirm three points before formal adoption: that a new police station is an immediate need; whether city hall should remain downtown; and the preferred direction for city hall and the library.

No formal adoption occurred at the meeting. The city administrator said the plan would be returned for committee consideration in early July (the July 7 meeting was discussed; staff later noted the adoption might come at the second July meeting to allow time for refinements and packet distribution). Committee members asked for additional cost breakdowns (hard vs. soft costs) and implementation scenarios, and requested the full report and spreadsheets underlying the recommendations before making a final decision. The committee closed the discussion with direction to the consultants to refine the draft and return with materials for adoption.