Start of police department renovation okayed

By Grace Lovins

Changes are coming to the historic Birmingham City Hall building, located at 151 Martin Street, as the city commission approved phase one of renovations to the police department during the Monday, April 27, meeting.

Phase one construction will include necessary safety improvements after concerns were raised by the department’s accreditation agency during a past accreditation process.

Police chief Scott Grewe said the first phase includes the design work for a new sally port to be added to city hall, renovations to the existing evidence and storage garage, as well as renovations to the building’s interview room.

When it comes to the evidence and storage garage, Grewe said that renovations to the existing evidence garage, storage area and former animal control area will expand the department’s evidence storage and current garage space. He explained that the only change from the renderings included in the meeting packet is that the garage doors will be black instead of white to match the department of public service garages.

During past discussions on renovations to the department, Grewe has said that the current interview room set up requires suspects to be walked through a clerical area, posing a safety risk. The new interview room design will prevent this from happening by creating direct access.

Designs for the new sally port, developed by MCD Architects, show the addition onto the south side of city hall will have a similar but not exactly identical look to the existing building. Grewe explained that the plans were reviewed and okayed by the city’s historic district commission as well as the planning board.

All of the phase one items were budgeted for the current fiscal year with phase two plans included in the 2026-2027 fiscal year budget proposal. Included in the meeting packet, a memorandum written by Grewe states that $1.3 million has been budgeted between the current and upcoming fiscal years to cover all renovations.

Commissioners ultimately voted 6-0 to approve the phase one renovations. The meeting packet memorandum written by Grewe explains that phase two of renovations are budgeted for the next fiscal year and include actual construction of the sally port and renovations to the department’s dispatch center.