SAN DIEGO—Plans for a joint training facility in Kearny Mesa for San Diego police officers and firefighters took a key step forward Wednesday when the city agreed to pay a consultant $3 million to study the feasibility and design of the project.
Training now takes place at multiple sites, including Miramar College and some buildings just north of San Diego International Airport that the city took over from the U.S. Navy in the late 1990s.
The city needs to give up the site next to the airport, where some of the buildings have been found to have exposed asbestos, by 2027 to make way for expansion of the city’s Pure Water sewage recycling program.
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The joint training facility is proposed for a 24-acre piece of land just east of Interstate 805 and south of state Route 52. The land, which is zoned industrial, is on Copley Drive near California College and a Kaiser Permanente facility.
City officials said the central location within the city makes the Kearny Mesa site ideal, noting that officers and firefighters often attend training during shifts and must return to their stations and firehouses afterward.
The City Council’s Active Transportation & Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday approved a five-year contract for $3 million with CCBG Consultants of Arizona.
The company has agreed to conduct a site survey and a feasibility analysis by next summer, and then complete architectural designs and proposals for site grading by the end of 2021.
City officials say they plan to complete construction of the joint facility by 2027. No cost estimates for the project have been revealed.
Planned features include a six-story training tower, an urban search and rescue building, a firing range, an auditorium, a wellness center, obstacle courses and classrooms. Officials say a multi-story parking garage also is likely.
Councilman Chris Cate, whose district includes the site, urged city officials to reach out to nearby residents, including a mobile home park, as soon as possible.
Cate said he was excited about the progress on the joint training center, noting that the city has been planning such a facility for many years.
CCBG was among 13 firms that responded last year to a request for qualifications posted by the city.
The project will involve a land swap between the city and its Utilities Department, which owns the Kearny Mesa land and needs to acquire the existing training site near the airport for phase two of Pure Water.
The Kearny Mesa site has been discussed as a potential location for a joint emergency dispatch center serving much of the county, but plans for the training facility have prompted officials to explore other locations for the joint dispatch center.
City officials considered using the former San Diego Chargers practice facility on Murphy Canyon Road for the joint training facility, but they determined it wasn’t large enough.
The current training site near the airport consists of four buildings constructed between 1954 and 1967 as part of the Naval Training Center.
The asbestos was undisturbed within walls, floor tiles and insulation during the years the Navy controlled the buildings, but city firefighters say their training activities began disturbing the dangerous, fibrous material.
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