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Surrey RCMP moving into old city hall

A $36-million expansion plan for Surrey Mounties will not be necessary
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Surrey Mounties will be moving into the old city hall, saving Surrey $36 million it planned to spend on RCMP district expansion.

Surrey's police committee decided Monday to go ahead and lease a section of the old city hall to the Mounties in the near future.

Surrey had planned to spend $36 million for a separate expansion, an expense that's no longer required.

It effectively trims the net cost of the move to a new city hall from $99.5 million down to $63.5 million.

Surrey RCMP are expected to move into the south tower of the old city hall, a 57,000-sq.-ft. space that includes the old council chambers.

Which section of the RCMP will move into the old building has not yet been determined.

Coun. Barinder Rasode has concerns about having the RCMP centralized, rather than part of the district stations.

She says it means officers will respond to calls from the central detachment, instead of having someone embedded in that community.

Coun. Linda Hepner said Tuesday she was assured by the Officer in Command that an extremely robust community policing model would remain in place.

The RCMP will share the building with Crown Counsel  and probations offices which are taking, which are taking 45,000 square feet of the building on the main floor.

That represents about $550,000 annually for the city.

About 30,000 square feet of the old city hall is still unclaimed, including the west tower, with 21,000 sq. ft. and 10,000 sq. ft. in the north annex.