By Niki Cervantes
Staff Writer

March 30, 2016 -- A $37 million project to replace the 1950s-era fire station in downtown Santa Monica will go before the Planning Commission next week, with officials promising the new structure will last another half century.

Rendering of Proposed Downtown Santa Monica Fire Station 1. Photo credit Rob Wellington Quigley, FAIA

Under the proposal, Fire Station 1, located at 1444 7th Street, would be demolished and a new three-story facility would be build at 1337 Seventh Street and more than double the current station's size.

The new 26,720-square-foot building would be 40 feet in height and includes storage and parking for firefighting equipment and vehicles, dormitories for as many as 20 firefighters, a kitchen, fitness area, men’s and women’s restrooms and a public community room, according to City staff.

The plan includes digging under a nearby commercial surface parking lot to create 40 additional parking spaces.

The City Planning Commission is scheduled to review the project at its April 6 meeting in City Council Chambers.

The current 11,362-square-foot station was built in 1955 for a city that was booming but hadn’t reached its existing population of some 92,000 or its current level of density, which is especially intense downtown.

Officials say Station 1 needs to be modernized as it tries to keep up with the demands of its service area downtown and in the northwestern portion of Santa Monica, according to the report.

The old station “has surpassed its expected useful lifespan,” Jing Yeo, the City Planning Division Manager, wrote in a report to the commission.

The existing facilities "are no longer adequate for the needs of the Fire Department due to its age, condition, and size,” Yeo said, adding that the proposed new facility "would provide an expanded and modernized public safety facility.”

It also needs seismic retrofitting and upgrades required to meet federal disability law and the California Building Code standards, according to a City-commissioned structural evaluation cited by the report. The replacement’s lifespan would be another 50 years, it said.

Santa Monica is upgrading other fire stations, as well as its training center, although none of them will be as large or costly as the station replacement downtown.

The SMFD – which has 114 firefighters -- was dispatched to 14,207 calls for service in 2014, mostly for emergency medical services, City records show.

The new design for Station 1 is a good fit for the area, staff said.

“The proposed design of the new facility is consistent with the height and scale of the existing buildings along this block and enhances its civic character in relation to the public library across the street,” the report said.

Civic buildings don’t typically generate much foot traffic, staff noted, but the new design draws visitors with “a high level of ground-floor visual transparency, a prominent pedestrian entrance, and a showcasing of fire operations and civic/historic memorabilia” that both “engage and activate” the building from the street and sidewalk.

The report recommends approving Conditional Use and Development Review permits needed before the project can move forward.

Typically, a new building taller than 32 feet downtown needs a special development agreement as part of Santa Monica’s interim zoning ordinance, which is in place until the Downtown Specific Plan, which has again been delayed, is adopted. That interim rule exempts City projects, however.

Still, the zoning law requires any development of 7,500 square feet or more, as is the case with the new fire house, to obtain a Development Review permit, according to the staff report. Any new City government use also requires a Conditional Use permit.

Both permits are reserved for projects that prompt concern about possible negative impacts on surrounding areas. Most of the neighborhood is commercial, although some residential units are in the mix. The main branch of the Santa Monica Public Library is across 7th Street west of the project.

Staff points out that the new fire house as now designed fails to meet minimum open space standards in the City’s draft Downtown Specific Plan, also now called the Downtown Community Plan. That rule, if eventually adopted, requires 20 percent of the buildable area be reserved for open space, with at least 10 percent of it on the ground floor.

Although the standards are still in flux, the commissioners can consider them, the report said. Meeting those requirements would be tough for the new station, because of the “extensive area that is necessary for the circulation of fire station vehicles,” staff said.

A feasibility study was ordered by the City Council in 2006. Six years later the Council voted to move forward. So far, the report said, no comments or community concerns have been received.

Station 1 -- which like all fire stations operates around the clock -- is home to two paramedic engine companies, with a crew of six between them, a 100-foot ladder truck staffed by five firefighters, an Air/Light/Rescue unit accompanied by a truck, a Medical Cart-Beach response vehicle, a command vehicle for the battalion chief and a reserve command vehicle, staff said.