St. Helens council, planning commissioners pick Columbia Boulevard as preferred police station site

St. Helens city councilors and planning commissioners on Feb. 5 agreed to pursue a Columbia Boulevard parcel as the preferred site for a new police station after a joint presentation by consultants and a structured ranking exercise.

Consultants from Mackenzie summarized work dating to a 2019 needs assessment and showed two finalist sites: a roughly one–block parcel on Columbia Boulevard and a 1.7-acre site near the high school on Gable Road. Jeff Humphreys, a principal with Mackenzie, said the team's work included geotechnical, drainage and environmental reviews and that design development is far enough along to place the approved building program on either site. "I'm Jeff Humphreys. I'm one of the principals of Mackenzie," Humphreys said as he introduced the team and the analysis.

The Columbia Boulevard site was estimated at about $11.2 million for site development and related relocation work; the Gable Road site was estimated at about $10.8 million (both figures were described by consultants as hard construction/site costs and do not include property purchase price or soft costs). Consultants warned the Columbia site would require…