Aurora councilmembers heard updates Monday night on a public safety master plan that spans the next 25 years and includes $1.5 billion of needed improvements over that time. 

The project to create a public safety master plan kicked off in March of 2024 and has since involved data collection, staff interview and assessments of more than 30 public safety facilities, according to city officials. 

Throughout the process, staff found issues with space and operational constraints, aging infrastructure and shared facilities. 

In total, the needs for the plan add up to about $1.5 billion across Aurora Police Department, Aurora Fire Rescue and Aurora911, according to Deputy City Manager Laura Perry. The plan covers the next 25 years.

Aurora Fire Rescue Chief Alec Oughton outlined projects in the master plan for his department, saying they are seeing gaps in service when it comes to travel times, specifically in east and southeast Aurora, where travel times are two to three times industry standard benchmarks.

Aurora Fire Rescue has 17 fire stations, five of which are near or over 50 years old, which is the typical operational lifespan of a firehouse, Oughton said.

Within the next 10 years, their plan includes $103 million in new builds and $12.8 million in remodels and expansions, he said. New fire stations will go up in Aurora Highlands and Southshore neighborhoods, both of which see high response times due to their distance from existing stations.

Aurora911 Director Tina Buneta said their team got more than 300,000 911 calls in 2024, and they are outgrowing their space. 

Within the next 10 years, Aurora911’s part of the public safety master plan includes constructing a new real-time operations center, Buneta said. This would consolidate Aurora911, Access Aurora, Real Time Crime Center and traffic operations into a command facility. 

The facility, which would be about 120,000 square feet, will cost about $119.7 million in addition to land acquisition. It is still in the planning phase. 

Their second phase would implement an IT infrastructure resiliency plan that would modernize information systems so that various threats, like power outages, don’t interrupt Aurora911 systems. The cost of the phase has not been calculated.

Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain said his department needs a new property and evidence campus, new headquarters, building improvements and various other facility improvements in the next 10 years.

At the top of his priority list is a Patrol District four in Ward II, Chamberlain said. Currently in the area, which is northeastern Aurora, there has been a lot of growth that brings a need for additional police presence. The cost of the district would be about $46.4 million plus the cost of land acquisition.

He called the district “not just a request, but a necessity.”

Chamberlain said the department also needs a new special operations facility, which would be a 100,000 square foot facility that would cost $83.7 million plus land acquisition.

A new police headquarters would cost $240.5 million. The current headquarters, in Ward II, would be demolished and a new 191,000 square foot facility would be built, he added.

With the master plan, city officials can move onto the next steps, which include conversations about how to fund the projects. Now that those projects and the needs are outlined, the city can go to voters with funding questions and provide more specific information about their needs, city manager Jason Batchelor said.