Another step towards expanding Langford’s West Shore RCMP detachment has been taken with the removal of a single-family-dwelling adjacent to the downtown Langford police station.

 

 

Budgeted in early 2023 at a cost of $82.4 million, a new RCMP facility will more than double the present-day 37,000 square feet of operational space at the Atkins Avenue and Veterans Memorial Parkway/Millstream Road detachment, built in the 1960s and expanded in 1999, to yield approximately 93,000 square feet.

 

The West Shore’s RCMP detachment – which provides services to the City of Langford, the City of Colwood, the Town of View Royal, the districts of Highlands and Metchosin, and two First Nations situated between Esquimalt and View Royal – is projected by 2045 to require 210 full time-equivalent (FTE) RCMP members (police constables) and an additional 70 full time-equivalent staff, compared to 96 FTE RCMP members and 54 FTE staff as of 2022. The detachment will preside over a population expected to reach 167,301 people in that time, more than present-day Saanich, Esquimalt and Oak Bay, combined. As of 2022, the West Shore detachment polices just under 87,000 residents.

 

To make way for construction, the 10,667 square foot 1960s-era wing, known for its neon lights overlooking the intersection of Veterans Memorial Parkway and Goldstream Avenue, will be bulldozed and replaced with a modern structure fronting Veterans Memorial Parkway/Millstream Road. Meanwhile, parking for officers and staff will be expanded to what were formerly single-family dwellings along Winster Road at Atkins Avenue, the last of which was recently bulldozed.

 

In terms of massing, the new building is expected to stand at a height of six to eight storeys. The final design has not been publicly revealed to-date.

 

A site plan identifies the location of the West Shore RCMP's detachment along Atkins Avenue, at Veterans Memorial Parkway/Millstream Road in Langford. A detachment expansion will occur in the footprint of the original 1960s-era wing of the station, at-left. Surface parking will be constructed at-right, where multiple single-family homes formerly stood.  WA Architects

 

Meanwhile, operational space near the detachment has been leased to accommodate officers and staff during the construction period, expected to begin by year’s-end. Occupancy of the new-build is eyed by 2027.

 

A decision to redevelop the existing complex, rather than build a new compound elsewhere, was largely a financial one, according to filed documents. Alternate sites were explored, and included a parcel along Sooke Road/Highway 14 near the West Shore Parkway intersection in Langford, the Allandale Lands in Colwood along Veterans Memorial Parkway south of Sooke Road/Highway 14, and at Langford's former Western Speedway on Millstream Road near the eastern access to Bear Mountain Resort. Relocation was costed at approximately $16 million more than an in-place $82.4 million redevelopment scenario.

 

 

In addition to serving the West Shore, the RCMP operates a detachment on the Saanich Peninsula serving the communities of Sidney and North Saanich and local area First Nations, and a detachment in Sooke, that serves the Sooke Region, the T’sou-ke First Nation, and points as far west as Port Renfrew.

 

Elsewhere on the south Island, a $49 million detachment is nearing completion on Ford Road in North Cowichan that will replace the Canada Avenue North Cowichan/Duncan police station along Canada Avenue, north of downtown Duncan. C

 

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