Historic building's fate delayed
Old police and jail building's fate still unresolved
The Oklahoma City Council on Tuesday moved ahead with plans to demolish the vacant
1968 police headquarters and the former Municipal Court to make way for parking.
Left unresolved, though, was the fate of the1930s police headquarters and city jail, one of four buildings that comprised the original Civic Center.
A motion to add the 41,310-square-foot
Depression-era structure to the demolition list failed 5-4.
The council voted unanimously to authorize the city manager to apply to the Downtown Design Review Committee for go-ahead to demolish the police and courts buildings.
Along with the old police HQ, they are part of the public safety
campus on the west side of the central business district.
The council will revisit the decision at least twice more, when it authorizes staff to seek bids on demolition and when it approves a contract.
Mayor David Holt, Ward 1 Councilman James Greiner, Ward 2 Councilman J ames Cooper, Ward 6 Councilwoman
JoBeth Hamon and Ward 7 Councilwoman Nikki Nice voted against advancing the old police HQ/jail for demolition.
Voting to move ahead were councilmen Larry McAtee, Ward 3; Todd Stone, Ward 4; David Greenwell, Ward 5, and Mark Stonecipher, Ward 8.
The council had deferred a decision on the entire demolition package four times since June 4.
Attempts to reach an agreement with developer Marva Ellard on redevelopment of the old police HQ/jail are ongoing, but have yielded little over the past two years.
“I think it's reasonable to give it more time to explore the possibilities,” Holt said by text Tuesday afternoon.
“This building has stood here for the better part of a century,” he said. “There's no rush.”
The evolving public safety campus is anchored by the new Police Headquarters opened in 2015 and Municipal Court opened in 2017.
Included are the 911 center, a police lab and property office.
Construction of t he newest additions eliminated at least 235 parking spaces, city officials say. They aimed to recover 166 by demolishing the three vacant buildings.
The old police HQ/ jail has been unoccupied since the city marshal's office moved out in June 2013.
Finance Director Brent Bryant said the city is spending about $56,000 annually to maintain the three vacant buildings. Much of the total is for electricity for the security system, he said.
According to a city manager' s memo, experience shows bidding demolition of the three buildings together likely would produce“significant savings” over bidding them piecemeal.
Redevelopment challenges
The old police HQ/jail is a six-story building with a partial basement.
The jail cells were built with 6-foot, 10-inch ceilings. Having been used to detain civil rights activists in the 1960s, there is a historic resonance but the low ceilings pose a challenge in finding productive uses for the space.
Ellard has suggested using them for records storage.
“Why we need additional storage facilities in this particular location as a possible alternative use is beyond me,” Greenwell said.
Ham on questioned whether parking is a better and higher use.
“If we're going to talk about storage is not a good use for a site, we are talking about demolishing a building for storage, just of different things,” she said.