Bay City council approves schematic design and $20 million max budget for public safety center

Bay City Council voted to approve schematic design option B for a proposed public safety center and to set a maximum total project budget of $20 million that includes the municipal court as an included alternate the council can later remove. The approval allows the city's architects to proceed to full design and prepare construction bid documents.

City staff presented the project and recommended design option B, which removes a central courtyard and reduces some exterior and parking scope to lower costs. Scotty, a city staff member leading the project presentation, said the design would reuse the former Kmart building, produce about 40,000 square feet of space and leave roughly "just under 8,000" square feet of blank space for future use.

Scotty described the financing context and cost ranges. The presentation listed a hard-construction cost range near $16.5 million to $18 million, soft costs around $2 million, and an all-in project estimate that…