Saratoga, California Since
1955
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Proposals for new fire station to go to planning commission By Kate Carter The Saratoga Fire District has been trying for more than a year to almost literally fit its proposed fire station into a box circumscribed by its neighbors and the opinions and desires of a broad swath of the community. Now, it seems, the district has just about done it. "We will build a station," said Fire Chief Ernie Kraule. "It will be within budget. Everything is possible if you sit down and work through it." The district and its architect, Mary McGrath of RRM Design Group, hope to submit plans for the new station for review by the planning commission this fall. If it gets approval, which Kraule expects it will, following last spring's debate over the district's initial design submission, construction could begin on the property at the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Saratoga-Los Gatos Road late next spring, he said. To prevent any future roadblocks, however, the district will actually be submitting two sets of plans. One set will depict a parking scenario in which the station will coordinate its property with that of its next-door neighbor, the post office. That situation would be ideal, he said, providing the most spaces in the best configuration to meet the station's, the post office's and the public's parking needs near downtown. However, if working with the post office and its higher-ups proves unfeasible right away, the district has a second scenario in which the station will use its adjacent Contempo building property to meet the city's requirement of 24 parking spaces. Regardless of which plan moves forward, Kraule said, the district will be able to sell a portion of that property and gain back some of the money that is draining from the station fund as the process drags on longer than expected. The district expects to have a final budget for the new station in 1 1Ž2 months, he said, but he and the board of commissioners already know that money is tight. The Retired Firefighters Association has offered to pitch in some money to help construct a community room in the new station, he said, and that will help. But he couldn't say if the remaining $4 million of the approximately $6 million bond approved by voters more than a year ago will be enough to cover the future costs, which include a temporary location for the station during the year and a half it is under construction. And the continued contortions to squeeze the station and all its accoutrements into a seemingly ever-shifting space is taking time and costing money, Kraule said. Already proposals McGrath submitted at the district board's June 27 meeting show the district about $1 million over budget on design and construction costs alone. She is still trying to work out a few kinks in the design as well. Among those is an unexpected development regarding the alley separating the station and the post office. When the city last spring asked that the station be moved further back from Saratoga Avenue to allow that street to be widened, it offered to allow the station to expand into the city-owned alley. Since then, however, the city has discovered that the alley wasn't its to give away. The fire district owns half of the alley, about 7 1/2 feet adjacent to the station, and the post office owns the other half; a city easement overlays the alley to keep it open for public use. Now, the city is taking steps to remove the easement, Kraule said, letting the future station spread a little wider. But removing the public alley would also remove access to the post office's mail drop box, which gets a lot of use. The box would have to be relocated, and the district and post office are negotiating possible alternative locations, perhaps even one for during construction and another for when construction is complete. The city is also giving the district its property where the Memorial Arch is now located along Saratoga-Los Gatos Road so that the new station can use some of that space as well. The arch will be moved to Blaney Plaza, across Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. To fit everything, the station will have to include a 1,000-square-foot basement for firefighter training space and storage of some equipment. And the firefighter's union president, Capt. Bill Morrison, said at the June 27 meeting that a new fire station with four vehicle bays would be better than one with three. The current design allows for only three. McGrath agreed to try to fit in another one but pointed out that "there aren't too many more options to study." The district also has to make a decision about what to do during construction. One option had been to remodel the Contempo building and use that, parking engines and vehicles around it. Kraule said, however, that it would cost less for the district to raze the building and install portable buildings to serve as the temporary station, with the engines parked behind it under all-weather shelters used for aircraft. "It seems like it's a lot more manageable to take the building down," Kraule said. The district is still trying to decide if the property would be more valuable for sale with the building intact on it, he said, which could influence the plan's cost-effectiveness. One thing Kraule hopes everyone will be pleased with is the style of the station, which is to reflect the design and style of the Saratoga Federated Church and Saratoga Foothill Club buildings nearby, designed by noteworthy architect Julia Morgan in the early 1900s. The new station is planned to be constructed of stucco, with wood and mission tile. |
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