Multnomah County briefs board on plan for new animal services shelter, estimates $55–70 million cost

Multnomah County officials on a board briefing described the need for a new Multnomah County Animal Services (MCAS) facility and outlined a conceptual program, estimated costs, and preliminary funding options.

County staff said the current MCAS building does not meet key Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) guidelines and county access and equity expectations and identified programmatic space needs that would require between about 35,000 and 45,000 square feet. Erin Grahick, Division Director for Multnomah County Animal Services, told the board that the facility must operate as “a shelter, a hospital, and a long-term holding facility” and that the current building forces staff to use hallways and other nonhousing spaces for animals at times, a practice the ASV characterizes as unacceptable.

The presentation compared the county shelter’s existing spaces with a conceptual program across nine program areas: public/nonhousing space, cat and small-animal housing, dog housing, isolation, shelter medicine and surgery, staff and administration, program support (warehouse and storage), and related support functions. County facilities staff said existing space totals are roughly 8,000–11,000 square feet in several program areas while the conceptual program ranged…