CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Last year Corpus Christi's City Council approved a 20-year lease of the property that was once Lamar Elementary School.
There was talk of it being turned into a homeless shelter, but now the City of Corpus Christi aims to move forward with plans to turn the 50,000 square foot property into a facility to house multiple City departments, including the Corpus Christi Police Department.
According to City Manager Peter Zanoni, numerous City departments are slated to go into this new office building, including a new call center for the City Parks & Recreation Department, as well as a new substation for the police.
"Over 30 police officers will be stationed there, and their presence 24 hours a day, every day, all year, that's really going to help strengthen and stabilize that neighborhood, and that's what we are all about," Zanoni said.
Zanoni said the City, along with the Ed Rachel Foundation, have been working to build a parking lot near the building big enough to house those employees.
"Over time they have acquired lots, vacant lots, and in some cases bought other lots so they have a nice parking situation now," Zanoni said.
City Council will vote Tuesday to rezone that land, converting the existing residential lots into a parking lot with 286 parking spaces.
"All of the action tomorrow is rezoning parcels the Rachel Foundation owns outright," Zanoni said. "There's no question of somebody's house being rezoned for parking if they didn't want to sell to the Rachel Foundation.”
According to the City, this new project will cost zero dollars out of the City's budget thanks to the partnership with the Ed Rachal Foundation.
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