Moving Up, Down and All Around at County Operations Center

Map Showing a Portion of County Operations Center Campus

If you think you know the County Operations Center, think again. You may need a new set of directions. More than a dozen departments are moving or consolidating, affecting more than 2,200 people.   

Thanks to hybrid schedules, and employees teleworking full time, space opened up at COC office buildings. More than 700 employees at the Health Services Center suddenly needed space when their building on Rosecrans Street closed down.

So, is there room for them at the COC? With the help of a consultant, General Services found a way.

It’s just a matter of sharing workspaces, rearranging desks and chairs. And offices and departments. And emptying the entire 5530 building.

A new Health Services Center will fit inside. All it takes is a lot of cooperation, streamlining, planning, and finally, moving.  

General Services Director Marko Medved says it also takes a new mindset to align our workplace to how, where and when we now work.

“Moving departments will cost about $25 million, but this saves the County up to $130 million in building a new facility for the Health Services Center,” said Medved.  “This also gives us the flexibility to follow our campus master plan in constructing a new public health lab in the parking lot outside the 5530 offices and expanding the north parking garage.”

Here’s an idea of how departments will move around.   

The COC Consolidation Project is complicated and will take about three years. But there will be space for employees onsite and those with hybrid schedules, with room to grow. A 10% growth factor is built into the plan.

“All the affected COC departments are aware this is happening, and we are making sure each one has what it needs in terms of office space,” said Rich Grudman. “We are moving everyone’s ‘cheese’ but we’re trying to minimize the impact. When you look at the bigger picture, the campus will add Health Services Center employees, allow other COC departments to work more efficiently, save millions of dollars and better serve customers.”  

General Services expects to have a completed schematic design for the massive move by late July. Construction will begin in December. And the whole project should be completed in late 2025.

For more information, visit https://sdcountycagov.sharepoint.com/sites/InSite/fg3/gs/Pages/COC-Consolidation.aspx.