When the Chula Vista Police Department headquarters opened on Fourth Avenue in 2004, it was designed to serve a city expected to reach 277,000 residents by 2030. Chula Vista surpassed that number years ahead of schedule.
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Now, with the city’s population exceeding 280,000 and long-term projections pointing toward 350,000 at build-out, officials have launched a sweeping study to determine whether the department’s lone facility can keep pace — and whether a new police presence on the city’s booming east side has become a necessity.
The Chula Vista City Council voted unanimously April 21 to award a $393,815 consultant services agreement to the architecture and planning firm Carrier Johnson + Culture to conduct a Police Department Facilities Master Plan. The study, expected to take seven months and conclude by November 2026, will assess the condition of the existing headquarters, analyze response times and service gaps, evaluate staffing needs and determine whether a new facility in eastern Chula Vista is warranted.
“The Chula Vista Police Department, they do a tremendous job of keeping our residents safe,” said Councilmember Michael Inzunza, who represents the rapidly growing eastern Chula Vista region of District 3 and who initiated a referral that set the study in motion in March 2025. “But because there isn’t a physical, permanent police presence in east Chula Vista, we want to change that.”
Councilmember Carolina Chavez, whose District 1 includes some of the areas expected to see some of the most growth in the coming years, said the need for an eastern facility has moved well beyond debate as far as her constituents are concerned.
“The residents in my district all hands down say they don’t want to go 30 minutes into the city, downtown, to file a police report or get any information from PD. There’s real concern about the distance,” Chavez said. “My constituents want to have a police presence near them. And for them, and for me, we need to have at least one additional substation.”
Chavez also pointed to a comparison that has become a rallying point among council members: San Diego, the county’s largest city, operates 11 police stations. Chula Vista, the second largest, has one.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “We’re the second-largest city, and we’re only going to keep on growing.”
The 150,000-square-foot headquarters on Fourth Avenue houses dispatch, investigations, administrative offices, evidence storage, a crime laboratory and a holding facility. But Acting Police Chief Dan Peak says the building is already straining under the weight of the city’s growth.
“We’re maxed out in regards to spacing,” Peak said. “We’ve had parking challenges over the last few years in regards to staff having to park offsite, which is not ideal if you have staff that have to walk to their car late at night, maybe by themselves, especially if it’s some of our professional staff or dispatchers.”
Peak also cited a mounting evidence storage problem, noting that vehicles tied to homicides, fatal accidents and other serious cases must be held for extended periods — sometimes through lengthy appeals processes — consuming valuable parking spaces at the facility.
The operational challenges are compounded by a sharp rise in calls for service on the east side. Peak said his department’s analyst team found that calls for service east of Interstate 805 — covering the Eastlake, Millennia and state Route 125 corridor areas — have risen 25% over the past five years, including a projected 6% increase in 2026 alone.
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Meeting the department’s response time standards has grown more difficult as a result. Peak said priority one calls — the most urgent, including shootings, serious crashes and violent crimes — require officers to be on scene within six minutes. Priority two calls require a 12-minute response.
“With the growth of the sectors with calls for service, it has been more challenging just based on how large the eastern section of Chula Vista is,” Peak said. “There’s just more ground to have to cover.”
Carrier Johnson + Culture brings a notable history with the city to the assignment — the firm served as the primary architect for the existing police headquarters when it was built in the early 2000s. Craig Atkinson, the firm’s director in charge of the project, said that history informs but does not predetermine their approach.
“We try not to come to it with any preconceived notions about what it is we’re going to do,” Atkinson said. “We’re going to let the data tell us what’s needed for the city of Chula Vista.”
Steven Kissfierros, the firm’s civic director, noted early background research has already flagged one factor that could shape the study’s recommendations — the department’s sophisticated use of technology, including a drone program that dispatches unmanned aircraft to 911 calls ahead of patrol units.
“The city is very interested in the use of technology and we’ve already done some background work on looking at their data and their staffing is very efficient,” Kissfierros said.
Peak, however, cautioned against viewing technology as an indefinite substitute for a physical police presence on the east side.
“Technology’s never a substitute for an actual police officer,” he said. “We’re kind of tapped out. I don’t think we could lean on that technology in relation to drones anymore to try to substitute for officers.”
The study’s scope includes an optional component — triggered only if the initial assessment warrants it — that would produce a conceptual design and site plan for a potential eastern substation, including cost estimates. Whether that component is activated will depend on what the data shows.
Carrier Johnson + Culture’s formal kickoff meeting with city staff is scheduled for May. A final report is expected to be delivered to the City Council by November 2026.
Peak said the decision ultimately extends beyond law enforcement and city hall.
“This is not just a police decision. This is not just a city leadership decision,” he said. “This is a Chula Vista community decision where eventually we’re going to want to go and hear from the community and hear what their needs and wants are.”
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