By LEAH WEATHERSBY

The Seattle Police Department is planning to expand its North Precinct station. The question is where?

For years the North Precinct building, located at 10049 College Way N. in the Licton Springs neighborhood has been over-crowded. Even though the 14,000 square foot station opened less than 20 years ago, changes in the way the department organizes staff mean that the building is now home to 50 more employees more than it was originally intended to hold.

Detectives assigned to the precinct work out of a separate building, which the City rents, and residential streets are clogged with the officers' personal cars. The police no longer have an interview room, and must use their library to take statements from wittnesses and suspects.

"We're way beyond what this building was ever designed for," said North Precinct Capt. Dan Oliver.

It's clear that the police need a bigger building and more parking (currently the on-site parking lot is used mostly for Police Department-owned vehicles). What isn't so clear is where these new facilities should go.

The Police Department's Long Range Facilities Plan, published in 1998, identified three options for the North Precinct station expansion: one was to buy new land and build a bigger precinct from scratch. Another was to split the North Precinct into Northeast and Northwest branches (this is already being done in South Seattle). The third option is to enlarge the current precinct building, raising the height to about 30 feet, as well as constructing a parking structure, all within the existing footprint of the precinct station.

Currently, the City is conducting a feasibility study on this option, the results of which will be made public in June. While expanding the existing building might seem like the most direct solution to the Police Department's problem, it's also a solution that is frought with difficulties, not the least of which are impacts on local residents, and boggy area on the lot which many consider a wetland.

Laura Nichols, who has lived across from the North Precinct station for nine years, has recently begun coordinating a new organization called the North Precinct Neighborhood Group, which currently has about 25 members.]

Though Nichols said she has always considered the police to be good neighbors, she is concerned about the City's treatment of the pond next door to the station. She points out that even a City map calls the pond a wetland, but said that last year the City dredged the pond, cut out native plants and used pesticides - not an environmentally sensitive way to care for the area. Putting a bigger building on the property, she said, would simply add to the wetland's troubles. Sue Partridge, a project manager for the City's Fleets and Facilities Department, said that the bog's formal status is as a constructed detention pond, and that the maintenance performed last year was done to prevent floods such as the one that damaged the precinct's basement in 1996.

However, should the City decide to expand the North Precinct, the Department of Design, Construction and Land Use will have to take another look at the pond and decide whether or not it should be a designated wetland.

That possibility, along with the fact that the current building may simply be unable to support added stories and the problem of where to put officers during the renovation, could scuttle expansion on the current site.

(Neighbors living behind the precinct building might also be unhappy to find themselves starring at a 30-foot wall, although Partridge said the City may be able to design the building in way that minimizes the impact.)

Of course, the other two plans bring problems of their own. For starters, it would be expensive to buy a bigger piece of land for a larger precinct station. There's also the question of what would happen to the current precinct station property if it were abandoned by the police.

Partridge said she doubted the current site would be attractive to real estate developers given the area's single family zoning and presence of the pond.

The other option, splitting the current North Precinct area by building two stations (one covering Northwest Seattle and the other covering Northeast Seattle) would add even more long-term costs, particularly in staffing the additional station.

Nevertheless, at least one man in blue, Lt. Roy Wedlund, operations commander at the North Precinct, said his personal preference would be to add a Northeast Seattle Precinct, giving officers quicker access to more neighborhoods.

"It's a better service to the community," said Wedlund. He added, "I think in most cases all of (the officers) would like to stay here, but we can't live like this anymore." Currently, there is no funding for the North Precinct station expansion, though recent renovations to other precincts have been funded with bonds. The City Council must approve expansion of the current North Precinct station if the project does go forward. For more information, call Sue Partridge at the City's Fleets and Facilities Department at 684-3251.