At a Sept. 4 gathering in Southwest, Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) addressed, among a wide range of issues, concerns about the pending move of the First District (1D) police station to accommodate the new Consolidated Forensic Lab (CFL), planned for the current station property at 441 Fourth St. SW.

"We won't go forward without checking in with this community," Fenty told the Citizen Advisory Council meeting.

Fenty appeared as a special guest at the regularly scheduled CAC meeting, held as usual in the 1D station house. Prior to his arrival, self-introductions indicated that most meeting participants were from PSA 104, the police service area surrounding the Southwest station house, and most discussion – from the floor and from the podium – remained focused on Southwest.

"OPM [Office of Property Management] has been adamant that if 1D has to move, it stay in Southwest," the mayor announced early in his remarks. "We won't finalize anything until we meet with the community."

"What about the rest of 1D?" Adrienne Sedgewick, from Hill East's PSA 107, asked Fenty later in the meeting. "It seems like keeping the station in Southwest is a given. Why?"

Sedgewick noted in her remarks how few participants from areas outside of Southwest had spoken and reminded the mayor, "We have a waterfront, too, and RFK will soon be empty."

In discussing the 1D move, which the CFL timetable will necessitate in early 2009, Fenty said that "all sites are being considered.” His administration, he said, "wants to make sure we are using our municipal buildings in a sound, neighborhood-friendly type of way."

In particular, Fenty said on Sept. 4 that 225 Virginia Ave. SE was "not completely off the table." The 421,000-square-foot property in near Southeast had been publicly proposed, rejected and reconsidered by OPM for a headquarters combining citywide MPD functions with the relocated 1D station. Then, on Sept. 20, OPM Director Lars Etzkorn testified to the DC Council Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary that MPD use of 225 Virginia Ave. was again off. He cited "issues with [neighborhood] compatibility," particularly "24/7 operations and parking demands," as well as cost overruns – “hard costs alone were estimated to exceed $150 million.”

In December, the council approved a 20-year lease on 225 Virginia Ave., committing the District to $6 million/year rent plus the cost of property improvements, without a firm plan for its use. It may be used for another government agency, Etzkorn suggested in his testimony.

Meanwhile, OPM is seeking new facilities for the police divisions that were to have co-located into the headquarters, he said, and Special Operations Division – a citywide division focused on "unusual law enforcement situations and events" – may still be co-located with the 1D station.

Etzkorn also testified that the CFL is on track, adding that "a Southwest location is preferred" when 1D relocates but mentioned no specific sites.

Participants in the Sept. 4 meeting appeared prepared to address the details of the 1D station and headquarters moves, which were on the agenda. For example, Richard Westbrook, active resident of Southwest, came prepared with poster-size aerial photographs. However a question-answer period with the mayor supplanted the prepared agenda, and much of the evening's discussion focused on education and other issues only tangentially related to policing.

The CAC took no position on the potential moves at its September meeting. Chair Skip Coburn said the topic may come up again at a future meeting.

Traci Hughes, spokesperson for MPD, deferred to the mayor's office on questions regarding the potential relocation of the 1D station and other MPD operations.