ESCONDIDO - After three years of anxiety over skyrocketing construction costs, eminent domain lawsuits and contentious neighborhood meetings, city officials said last week they were relieved that construction has finally begun on every facet of a $97.4 million plan to dramatically upgrade the city's fire and police facilities.

The projects - four new fire stations and a combined headquarters for the fire and police departments - are being paid for by an $84.3 million facilities bond city voters approved in 2004.

City officials have said they will cover the extra $13.1 million with sales revenue from land that will become available when the projects are completed, and possibly some general fund money.

They said costs could have ballooned much further than $13.1 million over budget without an aggressive effort to eliminate some elaborate design features, such as special garage doors and stone architecture on the fire stations.

They also credited a slowdown in the local construction market for some favorable bids from contractors this spring and summer.

Acquiring land has also been a complex process, city officials said. The site for Fire Station No. 7 on North Ash Street was acquired before the bond passed, but the city had to endure complex eminent domain lawsuits to acquire sites for Fire Station No. 3 on Nutmeg Street and Fire Station No. 6 on Del Dios Road.

Eminent domain is the term to describe a government agency's seizure of private property for public use. When a sale price can't be agreed upon, the courts get involved.

City officials said the judge in the Station No. 6 eminent-domain lawsuit still has not determined a final purchase price, but the judge gave the city permission to break ground on the project last month while he concludes his analysis.

City officials also held neighborhood meetings for each new project, and said they spent many hours incorporating hundreds of suggestions from residents into the final designs.

Trimming the fat

Planning for the projects began just as construction costs began to skyrocket, mostly due to sharply increasing demand for concrete and steel prompted by Hurricane Katrina and accelerated housing and business construction in China.

"It was particularly bad timing for us," said John Houchin, a retired Escondido police lieutenant who has helped oversee planning for the public safety headquarters. "It meant we couldn't afford the ideal. But we ended up with a no-frills building that didn't cut corners on any of the safety aspects."

Larry Lynch, part of a citizens panel overseeing bond expenditures, said he has been impressed by the cost-cutting efforts.

"They had to rethink many elements of these projects," said Lynch. "They chopped out some of the pork barrel kinds of things."

One key cut was eliminating bi-fold garage doors, which open horizontally instead of vertically, from the fire stations, said Joyce Masterson, assistant to Escondido's city manager and the city official overseeing bond expenditures.

"They were just terrifically expensive, so they were viewed as nice to have but not worth the cost," said Masterson.

Fire Division Chief Scott Alvord said the cost was $25,000 extra for each bi-fold door, and that some stations will have as many as nine doors. Alvord said bi-fold doors are preferable to traditional overhead doors for convenience reasons, but that traditional doors are adequate.

Another crucial cut was eliminating part of the third floor of the new public safety headquarters, said Masterson.

The facility, situated on Centre City Parkway between Mission Avenue and El Norte Parkway, will be 115,000 square feet instead of 125,000 square feet. The reduction helped trim the overall cost from $65 million to $60 million, but that is still $10 million more than the $50 million estimate when the bond measure was passed.

The overall cost for Station No. 1, which will be about 28,000 square feet, has also increased $3 million since the bond measure, from $14.5 million to $17.5 million.

Masterson said the increases for each of the projects could have been much worse.

She said the costs for steel and concrete have flattened out after climbing as much as 15 percent per month during 2005 and 2006, and the dynamics of the construction market have tilted away from contractors.

"Contractors are looking for work now, so they are all bidding very competitively," said Masterson. "When we first got started, they had so much business that they could give you an outrageous number and you would have to accept it if it was the lowest bid."

Fear that construction costs would never flatten out prompted city officials to compress the construction timeline for the four new fire stations. They said that is the reason why they are all under construction simultaneously, instead of the staggered approach outlined in the bond measure.

"It wasn't the original plan," said Alvord. "But the guys are adaptable."

Alvord said demolition work is complete for Station No. 1, and that last Wednesday's approval of a construction contract means work on the actual building will begin next month.

Because Fire Station No. 3 is being rebuilt on a new site, the old site at Country Club Lane and Village Road will be sold when the new station is ready next summer. The current Police Department site, on Grand Avenue near the Escondido Transit Center, will also be sold when the new public safety headquarters opens in summer 2009.

Masterson said it is not known how much the parcels are worth, but she said it should be several million dollars. The money will be used to cover any project costs that exceed the $84.3 million provided by the bond measure, she said.

Land and neighbors

Acquiring property is rarely easy, but city officials said the effort to get a 1.5-acre parcel on Del Dios Road for Fire Station No. 6 has been particularly troublesome.

"This has taken far longer than a typical eminent domain case," City Attorney Jeff Epp said last week. "They filed a cross complaint that we interfered in a possible sale to someone else."

Epp said he expects a trial to take place within two months, and that he expects the case to be resolved within 90 days. The city has already been awarded the property, but the trial will determine the final purchase price.

Masterson said city officials were pleased when they got an order of possession, because it meant they could proceed with the project.

She said Station No. 6 was reoriented to face Del Dios instead of 11th Avenue. At neighborhood meetings, some residents complained they didn't want fire engine headlights pointed inside their homes. Masterson said that change was one of many prompted by feedback from the public.

Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler said she was pleased with how the planning process has played out for the new public safety facilities.

"You put everything you want on the list, and then you decide what you need," said Pfeiler. "We want to fulfill the promises we made to the public and I am confident these facilities will do that."

Carl Skaja, chairman of a citizens panel overseeing bond expenditures, said he is pleased to see all the projects finally under construction.

"I saw drawings of all these projects when they were just concepts, so going to all of these groundbreakings has been very rewarding," said Skaja.