North County could be getting a new sheriff's station. The sheriff wants to know what you think.

A 18-acre plot along two busy North County highways could someday house a sheriff's station — a longtime wish list item for the county that's all of the sudden getting a lot more public attention.

A few months ago, the site — at the southwest corner of Interstate 15 and state Route 76, in a valley just north of the iconic Lilac Road Bridge — sprouted a sign: Future Site of Regional Public Safety Center.

The idea would be to create a new sheriff's command area stretching over 166 square miles, to serve unincorporated areas of Vista, San Marcos and Escondido, plus the communities of Pala, Pauma Valley and Palomar Mountain.

The Sheriff's Department bought the land two years go, picking it up from Caltrans for about $3.2 million. In asking the county to buy the plot , the department said its proximity to the freeway made it an "ideal location for public safety facilities, including a Sheriff station to serve the needs of a growing population" north of SR-76. It would also include a helicopter pad and staging site for the county's fire department.

The project comes with an estimated $95 million price tag. The funding — official talks about how to pay for it are not even on the table for two years — likely would come from "potential future revenue sources," the Sheriff's Department said. It's possible that could mean bonds.

It's not the only new building on the department's facility wish list, but it sits near the top, along with replacing the Ramona substation. Also very high on the list: a new or renovated jail in Vista, at a cost over $300 million.

As the Sheriff's Department grapples with infrastructure needs, wants and price tags, it has started a listening tour around San Diego to gauge the public appetite for projects and potential funding. It is hosting five forums — two are done, three more remain — before the end of the month.

"I'd like to know what people really think and how much they're willing to invest in improvements in our facilities," Sheriff Kelly Martinez told the Union-Tribune during the first forum, held last week in Escondido.

"I believe we have a lot of ability to make substantial improvements in the way that we have people incarcerated in this county," she said. "But I'd like to hear from our community directly what they think."

The forums are in each of the five Board of Supervisor districts, although none of the five are in cities or communities where the Sheriff's Department is the primary law enforcement agency. About 10 people showed up to the Escondido event. There's also an online comment form people can fill out to share their thoughts on the topic.

The sheriff said the forums are "an exploration of what's available out there, where the support is going to be."

"My go-to isn't to go to the voters and ask for money from them," she added. "I would love for us to be able to fund it through some government resource."

The proposal along the freeway

The need for a new station in far North County was floated nearly two decades ago, called for in a sheriff’s facilities master plan in 2005. The idea was also backed in a subsequent planning study in 2020.

The patrol area would be carved out of areas currently served by the Vista and San Marcos sheriff's stations and Fallbrook and Valley Center substations. Those stations would not go away.

The department says the need for a new station is there, with more than 10,000 planned residential units within five major subdivisions north of state Route 76.

The proposed station would serve an estimated 30,000 residents in the area to start, with growth pushing to a potential 100,000, the department said — noting that these areas are currently underserved communities.

Also, according to the department, the five tribal reservations in this area attract up to 50,000 guests a day to their casinos and other attractions.

As it stands, the department said, the geographic areas covered by two to three deputies per shift is "untenable over the long term."

The department said that the current times from dispatch to arrival at a scene averages 12.8 minutes in unincorporated areas and 22 minutes in rural areas. The response times, the department said, are "an unacceptable response rate."

The 18-acre pizza slice-shaped lot couldn't get any closer to inland North County's main routes — it's bordered on the east by I-15, on the north by SR-76, and on the west by Old Highway 395.

There are several other wants on the department's wish list, including a new station in Ramona . That project is actually closer to happening than the still-conceptual I-15 and SR-76 site.

The Ramona substation currently occupies about 10,000 square feet. But the department needs, as per a 2019 study, about 18,000 feet.

The current building is about 50 years old with aging infrastructure. It last got a serious overhaul nearly two decades ago.

Later this month, the Sheriff's Department will ask the Board of Supervisors for the OK to start planning to demolish the building and to award a contract for a design and build firm, a department official said.

The county is on track to set aside $5 million in the next fiscal year, starting in July, to pay for this first phase for a new Ramona station. The following year, they want to move forward with the physical construction, which sheriff's officials said will run another $34.5 million.

Vista jail a 'priority'

Last summer, Martinez introduced a 10-year plan to replace or and renovate jails in the county’s seven-facility system.

At the top of the list is a new jail in Vista, which Martinez said last week was "her greatest priority" among needed detention facility fixes and replacements. For several years, the department has raised red flags about the decaying Vista Detention Facility next to the Vista Courthouse, a jail the department says is decades passed its prime life.

At one of the community forums last week, a Vista jail volunteer chaplain said her library of nonsecular materials for inmates is essentially in the basement, where water leaks down the walls. There is no dedicated site for faith-based services in the jail.

The sheriff wants to add space for programming resources to help an inmate population that has shifted over the last decade. A change in the state law means jails now house people convicted of more serious crimes and keep them much longer. Martinez also wants to add better medical facilities to the Vista jail, including a spot for evaluations done during booking.

The sheriff said the Vista jail probably has "about seven years of life left." She acknowledged renovation or rebuild will be "enormously expensive." One estimate puts it at $314 million. She said it could be a lot more.

It's not clear if replacement is the way to go for the Vista jail. The department has hired an outside consultant to come back with options.

"They're looking at where the Vista jail can go, whether it needs to be a brand new facility or we can rebuild the existing facility, how that would look, and what the timeline would be for that," Martinez said. The report is due back to her around June.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune .