Santa Rosa's Planning Commission has given the go-ahead to build a new fire station perched atop the Fountaingrove ridge-top, a move fire officials say will improve response times in the high fire-severity zone.
But not everyone is happy with the idea.
About a dozen homeowners living near the proposed site indicate they plan to ask the City Council to overturn the commission decision. They argue that the station's operation could generate excessive noise, traffic and aesthetic problems and would pose dangers to children playing in nearby residential streets.
The Sonoma Grand Jury criticized the city's firefighting capabilities in 2004, citing a population that had doubled in size since 1982, when the last new fire station was built. It urged the city to move forward quickly with plans to build six new fire stations, three of which would replace existing stations to provide better coverage.
Those efforts were stalled until passage of Measure O, a quarter-cent sales tax that since 2005 has generated millions of dollars for the fire department.
The tax revenue, coupled with development fees, has financed two new fire stations, on Circadian Way in southwest Santa Rosa and on Lewis Road in northeast Santa Rosa.
A dozen homeowners who live near the proposed Fountaingrove station appeared before the commission last week to state their concerns.
"It seems like a bad mixture. It's a quiet residential neighborhood," said Wedgewood Way resident Linda Barr.
However, planning commissioner David Poulsen said some of those objecting to the proposal were well aware of it when they bought their homes.
"The city made it clear for quite some time they were going to put a fire station there," Poulsen said. He cited reports that the city posted the parcel in 2004 as the future home of a fire station.
McCormick, responding to concerns about noise and children, promised that sirens atop the fire engines would be used sparingly and that adjoining residential streets would not be used unless a fire was within that area.
Despite those assurances, several opponents said they plan to ask City Council to overturn the commission's decision.
The proposal calls for a 5,600-square-foot station on 1.1 acres at the southeast corner of Fountain Grove Parkway and Newgate Court. The station would share the site with an existing 60-foot-tall, 750,000-gallon water storage tank.
City civil engineer David Vandeveer said the site was selected to speed response times within the expansive and wildfire-sensitive Fountaingrove area.
"It's important to have a fire station in the right spot," he said. Alternative sites in the general vicinity were either too steep or too far away, he said.
The nearest fire station now is on Parker Hill Road, nearly two miles away.
Deputy Fire Chief Mark McCormick said fire trucks dispatched from Parker Hill reach Fountaingrove within five minutes only 63 percent of the time, partly because of distance and partly because of the steep grades that must be driven to reach Fountaingrove.
McCormick said a station on Fountaingrove's highest ridge-line should speed response times because the heavy trucks would be traveling downhill.
A series of wildfires in 1964 blackened 55,000 acres between Calistoga and Santa Rosa, creeping over the undeveloped ridge-line before stopping short of Santa Rosa, noted commissioner Scott Bartley.
"History will repeat itself," and the new station will be in a good position to defend the area, he said.
The city can't proceed without a $3 million federal grant it has requested. "Hopefully we'll know within 90 days," Bartley said.
Sales tax revenue from Measure O has dropped significantly in the face of the national recession, slowing the city's expansion plans and its ability to staff the existing 10 stations. The city is saving about $1 million a year by closing one fire station each day, and there has been talk of closing a second station.
McCormick said the Parker Hill site would be sold once the Fountaingrove station is built. Plans for another new station near Franz Kafka Avenue in southeast Santa Rosa are on hold because of funding issues, as are plans to relocate the Burbank Avenue and Calistoga Road stations to more suitable sites.
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