Cumberland County presents facilities master plan, finds aging buildings and need for 115,000 DGSF by 2043

Cumberland County commissioners heard a presentation on a newly completed facilities master plan that finds the county’s building stock is aging, spread across the region, and insufficient to meet projected service demands through 2043.

The consultants and county staff said the plan projects the county will need about 115,000 departmental gross square feet (DGSF) of additional space by 2043 and lays out a menu of options — from renovations and new construction to targeted leases and divestitures — for the board to consider.

The master plan, developed through interviews with every department head, staff and customer surveys, and a physical assessment of 14 county-owned buildings, produced three principal findings: many county facilities are functionally or structurally obsolete; services and offices are dispersed across multiple sites rather than collocated; and the county will need significantly more space as its population grows.

“We looked at our space needs through 2043,” said Kirk Stoner, a member of the project team, describing the plan’s time horizon and that the study intentionally presents multiple options rather than a single solution. Stoner said the plan relies on government-to-government space standards and departmental personnel projections to build the DGSF estimate.

Brent Durham, Cumberland County’s facilities management director, summarized the physical-condition assessment. “Forty-four percent of our square footage is in good condition, 35 percent is in fair condition, and then 21 percent is listed as poor or worse,” Durham said. Durham added the…