The City of Hood River Police Department has never occupied a facility purpose-designed to support modern policing. Since at least the 1970s, department operations have periodically shuffled between sharing space at various government and privately-leased office spaces in the downtown area.

Prior to 2010, the Police Department and Municipal Court occupied both floors of 211 2nd Street where City Hall is now located. The City sold its property at 301 Oak Street in order to consolidate City offices in a remodeled City Hall during the Great Recession.

Police were moved to the converted fire engine bay in the daylight basement of the building in 2010. The basement received only minor updates with the understanding that the space would be a temporary home for the department. The location is not feasible as a permanent home due to many shortcomings of the building. Click Here for a virtual tour of the existing facility.

There have been several attempts to build a tailored public safety building but none have been successful.  In 1996 & 1997, planning activities were completed for several possible sites, including Morrison Park, the State Street Lot, and City Hall location. Consideration was given to co-locating the Police Department with the Fire Department when the Myers Parkway Station bond was floated in 2008, but ultimately only the Fire Station and apparatus replacement was requested of voters.

The Hood River Police Department has been located in the daylight basement of a 100-year-old Building since 2010.  Originally a Fire Engine drive-through garage before being converted to offices, the space includes substandard rooms for basic policing functions and in some cases utilizes rooms for multiple and at times incompatible uses. CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE EXISTING FACILITY

2018

The Hood River City Council prioritized planning for a future police facility at its 2018 Goal Setting session and has reaffirmed its commitment each year since. A standard police space needs assessment includes six steps outlined in the graphic below.

2019

The architectural firm Mackenzie was awarded a competitively bid contract in 2019 to perform the Space Need Assessment.  The contract award City Council Item is available HERE.  Mackenzie’s contract was later amended to only include the “Phase I” tasks listed above.

Mackenzie held onsite programming workshops with Police Command and City Staff in order to understand existing building functions.  The firm forecast community growth and calculated the department’s future space needs, initially estimated at 16,124 sq. ft.  The April, 2019 City Council Update with this initial analysis is available HERE.

The project team next toured similar sized facilities in the region to gain a better understanding of layout and the functionalities of a modern police station.  Additional information on these tours is below under the tab “Facilities Visits”.  The initial space program of 16,124 sq. ft. was revised downward to 13,178. The preliminary space needs report was accepted by the City Council in August, 2019. The space needs report can be found HERE and the PowerPoint presentation to the City Council is HERE.

2020

Seven potential sites that could accommodate an adequately-sized facility were analyzed and ranked by consultants and City staff based on industry criteria including access, size/shape of site, costs to acquire and develop, central location, proximity to other government locations, security, and land use compatibility. Site rankings and selection were discussed with City Council on May 26th (5/26/2020 City Council Item available HERE) and August 24th (8/24/2020 City Council Item available HERE). Some properties examined were owned by the City and others would need to be acquired. Site evaluations includes pros and cons to each of seven locations. Public Works Yard, City Hall, 3540 Cascade Avenue, State Street Lot, Current Pool Location, Cascade Lot, Columbia Lot – See “Site Evaluations and Selection” tab below for more detail.

After the August 24th discussion, City Council wanted to ensure there was no possibility of a joint project with Hood River County before selecting a site and moving forward with preliminary design for a city-only project.  Hood River County had engaged in its own facility planning work in 2015, developing its own space needs program and site evaluations.

During this period of time, the City was also approached by the non-profit Columbia Gorge Children’s Advocacy Center  (CGCAC) about potentially sharing space in a new building. CGCAC is a non-profit organization that interviews suspected victims of child abuse for legal proceedings, performs medical evaluations, provides child advocacy, makes mental health referrals, and generally provides coordination of child victim services. The organization has outgrown their office space and is searching for a new permanent location. The organization estimates a need for 4,000 square feet.

Hood River County Commissioners held a discussion on the topic of a joint Courthouse, Police Station and Sheriff’s Office at their September 21st Regular Meeting.  A link to the 9/21/2020 Hood River County Board of Commissioners Meeting Packet is available HERE.  The County Commissioners were uniformly in favor on continuing the discussion on a joint facility, but did not want to slow the City’s timeline. Identified challenges to a joint facility included funding and identification of a suitable location. The County Commissioners wanted to know the project cost, which will determined through the preliminary design phase, and wanted to identify sources of outside funding.

After receiving input from Hood River County, the City Council resumed deliberation on the next steps in the project at their September 28th Regular Meeting.  The City Council Item from the meeting is available HERE.  The City Council chose to wrap up the existing project (final report HERE).

2024

The City budgeted $15,000 for potential participation in a County-led study or improvements to
the existing department space. When the County clarified its intent to consolidate all County services
into a single building, the City chose not to participate and instead pursued a facility needs assessment
focused on the existing police department location.

2025

The City Council prioritized the evaluation of City facilities as a Critical Project in its 2025-26 Workplan. FFA Architecture was retained to identify options to improve the Police Department’s current location to better meet its needs. The report was provided to the City Council at their 9/22/2025 meeting.

As part of the process, city staff and council members visited 3 recently constructed police facilities in the Portland/Willamette Valley area. The tour group met with staff of the other departments to learn what worked well and what they would have changed in their new departments.  Examples to emulate included labeling electrical outlets connected to emergency power (upper left photo), adding “in use” signage outside of interview rooms to limit noise (upper right photo), and having covered parking for in-use patrol vehicles (upper central photo). Examples to avoid included using unfinished wood for exterior applications (lower left photo) and uneconomical desk heights that require aftermarket add-ons later (lower left photo)

In 2008, voters authorized up to $6 million in bonding authority at an estimated cost of $0.98 per $1,000.00 of AV to finance a new fire station and apparatus.  Because the city grew faster than expected, the repayment of the Fire Station bonds only required about $0.70 per $1,000 AV in their final years. This is because the fixed debt service payments were spread out across a higher number of taxable properties.

Hood River is already a safe city, how will a purpose-designed Police Facility improve services?

Hood River’s Police Officers will keep residents and visitors safe under any circumstance. The question for the Hood River community is whether their police facility is an obstacle to overcome, or an asset that assists, Officers in their duties.  The Hood River Police Department has operated in a series of generic office spaces since at least the 1970s.  Similar to a doctor in a hospital, chef in a kitchen, or teacher in a classroom, policing is a specialized field that benefits from a purpose-designed facility. Intentionally designed policing facilities support effective policing in some of the following ways:

• Separated and specifically designed victim interview rooms vs. rooms for in-custody interrogations
• Temporary holding cells so officers don’t have to personally control all in-custody suspects
• Technology enabled systems, such as evidence storage lockers that maintain chain of custody without time-consuming manual processing, increasing officer availability to answer calls for service.
• Publicly accessible shared spaces that facilitate community policing principles
• Secure parking that facilitates safe and quick call responses as well as anonymity for informants or crime victims
• Audio visual recording capabilities to assist prosecutions with high-quality evidence
• Modern public safety seismic standards with emergency power for disaster resilience
• Onsite training room for regular skills instruction without the need to travel out of town on duty

How will a Police Facility change my property taxes?

This depends on the final facility design and future construction costs.  Any tax backed borrowing for a Police Facility is also dependent on voter approval. The City has used an assumed $9M Bond for the purposes of initial polling. This is expected to cost the typical residential property owner $8.16 per month. However, this is dependent on future interest rates and construction costs. The required bond size could also be much smaller if the City is successful in obtaining State of Oregon grants for seismic stability of essential public facilities.

In 2008, voters authorized up to $6 million in bonding authority at an estimated cost of $0.98 per $1,000.00 of assessed value (AV) to finance a new fire station and apparatus.  Because the city grew faster than expected, the repayment of the Fire Station bonds only required about $0.70 per $1,000.00 AV in their final years. This is because the fixed debt service payments were spread out across a higher number of taxable properties.

Isn’t Affordable Housing a more urgent need?

The City Council is also planning to forward a Housing Bond to the November 2026 election, either as a package with the Police Station Bond or separately.  Increasing affordable housing in Hood River has been a persistent challenge and top tier goal for City Leadership. City efforts to address affordable housing date back to at least the 1990s (Res. 92-07).  The most recent efforts are guided by the strategies outlined in the 2022 Housing Strategy.  Adopted strategies include:

• Create a nonprofit housing tax exemption (completed 2022)
• Establish a Westside Urban Renewal District to invest in housing, parks, and roads (completed 2023)
• Provide a program of direct housing subsidies (completed 2024).
• Seek a voter approved general obligation bond for housing investment (current effort)

The Waterfront “Lot 1” parcel is empty, why didn’t the City decide to build there?

“Lot 1” in the Hood River Waterfront area is owned by the Port of Hood River. The Port has been actively planning for the development of Lot 1 since at least 2012. A project webpage dedicated to Lot 1’s development planning process is posted at:  https://portofhoodriver.com/projects/lot-1-development/

If Lot 1 were available, the Hood River Waterfront is still not an appropriate location for a public safety building.  The only vehicular entrance and exit to the area is via the 2nd Street overpass.  If this overpass failed during an earthquake or otherwise became impassable due to fleeing traffic during an emergency, police vehicles will not be able to cross quickly.

Why doesn’t the City build on the Public Works Yard?

The shared Hood River County / City of Hood River Public Works yard was studied as one of seven possible locations in 2019.  The City only controls about 25% of the Public Works Yard with Hood River County occupying the majority.  Finding a suitable replacement location and coordinating the move between the City and County will leave the police operations in sub-standard offices for an indefinite period of time and add many millions in property acquisition, building, and property remediation costs to the project.

I thought the City didn’t have enough money for basic public safety operations, why are they asking for a new building?

The City of Hood River and Hood River County are often confused.  Each local governments has completely separate finances, elected governing boards, and dedicated funding sources.  Hood River County, like most other Oregon counties, has faced severe financial challenges in recent years and asked Hood River County voters for financial assistance, resulting in the passage of a five-year supplemental operating levy.

While the City of Hood River faced financial challenges in the wake of the Great Recession in 2008, it has been on solid financial footing for many years.  The City’s credit rating increased from AA- to AA in 2017, it fully funded its vehicle replacement reserves in 2019, and has remained financially stable through the COVID19 pandemic. While the City is operationally stable, almost no local government is able to pay cash for a major building renovation. This is why a voter approved bond will be needed if Hood River chooses to have its first ever purpose-designed police station.