Open House Showcases City Hall's Emergency Preparedness, Energy Efficiency

After 23 years, the city government of Diamond Bar finally has a building it can call home.

On Tuesday, an open house was held at the new City Hall, with officials touting it as a new center for public services, safety and library access.

Mayor Ling-Ling Chang, several Diamond Bar City Council members and representatives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's and Fire Departments were on hand to greet curious residents who showed up for tours of the building.

Having leased office space across the street for nearly 10 years, the city purchased the 57,000 square-foot facility, which previously housed an Allstate Insurace call center, for $9.9 million in 2010. 

"We purchased this building at the right time. It was a buyer's market," Chang said. "I'm really thankful that we had a fiscally conservative council for so many years that gave us the opportunity to have this building."

Renovations totaling $6.1 million updated the building, allowing space for new offices, a public broadcasting room, public meeting spaces and an Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

The EOC was planned as a sister-center to a similar facility near Downtown Los Angeles, said Lt. Steve Katz of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. Working together, the two EOC's, along with others around Southern California, would help public safety officials do their jobs better during an emergency.

"There's no question that [the Diamond Bar EOC] would become the regional center for coordination and response to any type of large disaster event," said Katz.

The EOC would immediately serve neighborhoods near Diamond Bar like Walnut, Rowland Heights and other unincorporated areas. The meeting room itself houses several wall-mounted television screens on which public safety officials can monitor breaking news, as well as disaster plans and Internet access to help coordinate emergency response. Katz said the new EOC will help police and fire departments respond to events in the area like earthquakes and fires, like the Freeway Complex fire of 2008 that burned areas of Diamond Bar, Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills and Brea.

Katz is also part of Diamond Bar's public safety team, which helps coordinate neighborhood watch meetings and local crime prevention. The team was one of several groups that was hampered by its old space in the previous City Hall.

"The public safety team was practically in a closet in the old building," said City Manager James DeStefano.  

Katz said the new space would create "a better work environment" for the team that would help them serve the community better.

"[The new office] allows for a free exchange of information" that just wasn't possible in the old building, he said.

DeStefano was one of the leaders in the project to renovate the building. He said the previous office space was too small, and that the old library wasn't big enough to serve Diamond Bar's growing need. The new City Hall would be the perfect building to serve Diamond Bar into the future, he said.

"Not only is it a finished project, but it's a fulfillment of people's dream in seeing a new library for Diamond Bar," he said. "City Hall is just the icing on the cake."

Chang noted that, for years, Diamond Bar had been without a library that suited the city's needs. The new library, which is set to open in the summer, will be 18,000 square feet, more than three times the size of the old facility.

The new City Hall was also planned with environmental concerns in mind. According to DeStefano, the library will be LEED certified. Standing for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the ratings were devised by the United States Green Building Council in 2000 to help implement energy efficient building design across the country.

To achieve its LEED certification, City Hall was outfitted with several 50 kilowatt solar panels on its roof, which, according to city spokesperson Marsha Roa, will help the building reach seven to 10 percent energy savings. The roof itself is also energy efficient, helping reduce heating and air conditioning costs. Roa also said part of the cost of renovation went toward replacing all of the lights in the building with energy efficient light bulbs.

DBTV, the city's public broadcasting channel, also has new office space in the building that's been outfitted with TV screens and editing and broadcasting equipment.

City Hall is at 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar.