New Orange County animal shelter would cost $25-35 million

Facing the increasingly obvious conclusion that its 30-year-old animal services shelter is no longer adequate, Orange County is moving ahead with plans to replace it, but a new one could cost up to $35 million and take several years.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners heard that news Tuesday while also reviewing information that showed the shelter on Conroy Road is booming both in the numbers of stray dogs and cats it houses and in the numbers that are placed for adoption.

But $35 million?

“It is going to be costly; we know that,” said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs. “It’s going to be more expensive than we anticipated. But for the long run, the long-range standpoint, I think this is definitely the right way to go.”

Officials have no clear explanation for why so many dogs and cats wind up there – with an average daily count of over 400. But the adoptions’ numbers indicate the increasing value that society is placing on adopting shelter pets, and the radical repurposing of the animal services department, which once was principally of controlling stray animals, including euthanasia.

“The community now expects us to be a full-service adoption center,” said Sara Flynn-Kramer, the county’s manager of capital projects.

The 25,000-square-foot warehouse-like building with no air conditioning and, until recent modifications with ventilation many considered inadequate, with indoor summer-time temperatures often in the 90s.

For now the county is spending $450,000 to improve the ventilation and other upgrades in the dog building and plans to spend $475,000 to add air conditioning and other improvements to the cat building. Both should be done by the summer or fall of this year.

Last year the facility took in 18,896 animals, down 18 percent over the past five years; and arranged 8,348 adoptions, up 86 percent over the last five years. Another 2,004 pets were reclaimed by owners.

After considering alternatives, Flynn-Kramer said the most likely answer will be to build a new center at the location of the current one. The $25 million to $35 million estimate is based on the square footage costs incurred when Broward County built and opened a new center recently, she said. Broward serves a larger population and a larger area, but Orange brought in, and adopted, far more animals, she said.

County Administrator Ajit Lalchandani said planning money for the new facility likely will be programmed into the 2018 fiscal year capital budget, and construction would not start before 2o19 or 2020.