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Fire District says if the city rejects plan, it will still build
District wants city to approve planned station
Service center still alive
By Oakley Brooks
Saratoga Fire District Chairman Bob Egan indicated a potential rift between the district and the city recently, saying that his district would go ahead with plans for a new fire station even if the city council rejects the plans at a scheduled Sept. 5 hearing.
"If they turn it down, we will pursue this," Egan said at an Aug. 16 fire commission meeting.
Mayor John Mehaffey was quick to downplay the potential divergence of the city and district.
"It's a little premature to consider that situation," said Mehaffey Aug. 16 after learning of Egan's comments.
The district's resolution puts new pressure on the city council to approve plans for the station and also grant roughly 500 square feet of city land to accommodate the new 13,000-square-foot facility. City officials are also considering the likelihood that a new public service center might be built around the new fire station rather than in conjunction with it.
"If we approve the station and it gets built, then we'll work around it," said Mehaffey.
The city council recently allocated $25,000 for detailed architectural planning for the service center--which might include an upgrade to the facilities of the fire district's neighbors, the U.S. Postal Service and Santa Clara County Sheriff, on the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Saratoga-Los Gatos Road.
The fire district has so far been involved with city-led discussions in recent weeks to consider a coordinated construction project for the three public service agencies.
But before the council's Aug. 15 vote on money for further service center studies, Egan made clear that the district would continue to be a part of service center discussions only as long as they did not interfere with the new fire station project.
"To hold the fire station project hostage to some long-term and uncertain plan is unsafe and not fair to the citizens of Saratoga," said Egan.
Mehaffey said he was amenable to working around a new fire station because the council cannot legally halt the station just to incorporate fire facilities into the public service center.
"That's not a valid reason for denying it," said Mehaffey.
He and other council members have not given any indication on how they will vote at the Sept. 5 station hearing.
If the city rejected the plans for the new station, the fire district could, as an independent district formed under state law, override the council's decision.
Fire Chief Ernie Kraule said recently that district architects are already considering redesigning the new station if the city turns down the district request for a piece of city-owned Memorial Plaza.
The fire district has so far cooperated with the city in planning its station. In June, the district took the station design to the Saratoga Planning Commission for approval and fire district architects had to alter their station design to win the commission's approval. The district then agreed to go before the city council to resolve the Firefighters and Citizens Task Force appeal of the planning commission's approval.
Discussions on the public service center will go on long past the Sept. 5 decision on the fire station, now that the council has approved money for design schemes.
Financial consultants Sutro & Co. Inc estimated last week that it would cost the city between $8 million and $18 million to both buy the U.S. Postal Service property, which houses the post office and sheriff's office, and to construct a new service facility and roughly 200 adjoining parking spaces.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
