With today’s unanimous vote by all City Council members, Lakeway’s May 6 bond election will call for funding a $23,065,000 new police station to be located at the corner of Lohmans Crossing and Lohmans Spur.

“We feel very good about the cost that came back,” said project architect Denny Boles, senior principal at Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects. "That it is a very real number.”

The new facility will add storage, a juvenile processing area, secure areas, additional parking, holding cells, a locker area for employees and other rooms, said former Lakeway Mayor Dave DeOme, chairman of the Justice Center Advisory Committee that was charged with determining the need and feasibility for the project.

“One easy way to look at this is with space, DeOme said.

The current police station is 9,000 square feet in size, and the proposed station would be 31,000 square feet.

The tax increase passed on to the average Lakeway taxpayer amounts to $9.79 monthly, or 2.49 cents per $100 valuation, for the original Lakeway Police Facility Project bond proposal of $22 million, City Manager Steve Jones said.

The city will request a new scenario from its advisers with the updated amount of $23,065,000, he said.

The project agenda reflected a $22 million bond; however, the proposal that passed will include a $1 million extension of Lohmans Spur to provide a third access to the facility, an addition that caused debate among City Council members who were concerned about the resulting cost increase to the site.

The road extension will allow the project to include a sally port, a private driveway that allows detainees to enter and exit the building with an officer, as well as provide direct access for employees, Lakeway Police Chief Todd Radford said.

Council Member Jean Hennagin said the city may be able to recoup its costs to construct the Lohmans Spur extension from the developer of the adjoining 80-acre tract, a proposal that is slated to be presented by Legend Communities to Lakeway City Council tomorrow at 2 p.m. at City Hall, 1102 Lohmans Crossing Road, Lakeway.

The project is at the schematic design stage now, and the city will present a full design of the proposed site before the bond goes to public vote in May, Jones said.