Commentary: Time has come to replace Petaluma’s D Street fire station

The current Fire Station #1, located at 198 ‘D’ St., at the corner of Second Street, was built in 1938 - 84 years ago. In 1938, the city fathers had no idea what level of service the Fire Department would be providing and the community deserves in the 21st Century.

During my tenure as fire chief, the topic of replacing Fire Station #1 with a modern facility was actively pursued. The city of Petaluma was chosen as the sample city for the standards of coverage course, taught through the California State Fire Marshal’s Office at the Asilomar Conference Center. With the state fire marshal’s support, professional fire managers from throughout the state discussed Petaluma’s emergency response issues and the resources the city provides to meet those emergency situations.

At the conclusion of the course, the existing Fire Station #1 on ‘D’ Street was recognized for its shortcomings and a new site, 307 Petaluma Blvd. S., was endorsed as a preferred alternative.

The city then decided to move forward with this idea. Request for qualifications, followed by requests for proposals from qualified architects, were distributed. A combination of various city department heads reviewed the submissions and made a decision for an architect and a contract was executed. To maximize input into the design of this new fire station, several committees were organized, each convening several times with the architect to discuss their various concerns. These committees included a neighbors committee, a business committee and an employee committee.

In addition, there were several nighttime community meetings, open to the public and held at the Lucchesi Community Center. The then City Council was periodically updated on the status of the Fire Station’s plans and process.

Following my retirement from the Petaluma Fire Department, a subsequent fire chief disagreed with the Station’s location. He felt that the building site was too small. It is true that 307 PBS is small for a modern fire station but a 30,000 sq/ft building, in three stories of creative architecture solved the internal space issues. Securing a portion of the vacant lot immediately behind the new proposed fire station, traversing from Second Street through to First Street, would address the issue of employee off-street parking.

On March 5, 2007, the then City Council voted for issuing $34 million in new redevelopment bonds for the historic downtown area, to include funding for this new fire station. Before construction could begin, then Gov. Brown confiscated redevelopment monies from local jurisdictions, including the city of Petaluma. With a stroke of the Governor’s pen, funding for this new fire station disappeared.

Now, there are new Measure U monies. How much of the Measure U revenues has been allocated to Fire Station 1 construction and addressing the structural and space needs of the other two fire stations and the police station? Which of these four buildings are earthquake retrofitted? Answer: “None!” The site at 307 PBS was donated to the city. Still, the city has over $800,000 in out-of-pocket expenses to make the site construction ready. There may still be some hesitation to use this site for a new fire headquarters building. The site was not chosen capriciously. The decision then was deliberate and for cause. There remains the question: If not 307 Petaluma Blvd. S., then where? To my knowledge, no one within the current City Council, city administration, nor fire administration, has met with the architect and allowed him the opportunity to present the proposal for this new fire station. Respectfully, if the city is going to say “No” to this project, they should at least be informed about what they are saying “No” to.

Chris Albertson is a former Petaluma fire chief and former two-term member of the Petaluma City Council.