ORLANDO, Fla. — Tuesday night, Oviedo residents voted against a referendum to fund $35 million worth of additional bonds for a public safety building. In response, leaders will begin brainstorming other ways to pay for future facility upgrades to the police station.

The proposal to pave the way for funding was rejected with 63% of the vote.

Oviedo Police Chief Dale Coleman said he’s disappointed with the results. With this now-failed referendum, Coleman will have to go back to the drawing board.

He says it won’t be an overnight process, but everything is on the table in the effort to find a bigger space for police to train.

If the proposal had passed, Coleman said the extra funds would have allowed officials to build a new police station with adequate space.

The current police station was built in 1990, and the building has several moldy areas and cracked ceilings. Chief Coleman said certain rooms in the station are being used as a “catchall,” meaning employees are working in spaces the station had set aside for storage.

“We just don’t have enough space. I’ve got one of my crime analysts. He’s in what used to be a closet,” Coleman said. “That’s his office and it’s not a big one. We don’t have a training room, a classroom big enough to do anything with. If we’re going to do defensive tactics, we have to do it in the fire base,”

Back in 2016, voters approved a referendum giving the agency roughly $11 million for the police station project. However, the city said with the overwhelming growth of the city and rising costs, they needed more money to build a station that would last.

Those funds can still go towards creating a new station, but Coleman reports the $11 million will not be enough to expand or change locations.