Rory Fitzpatrick of Council District 4 opened the meeting, introducing Allan Kawaguchi from the Department of Engineering. Mr. Kawaguchi then moderated the meeting, introducing representatives from the Fire Department, the Planning Department, the Cultural Affairs Department as well as two architects from the firm that has designed the new fire station.
The architects gave a powerpoint presentation of the design for the new
three-story fire station. The first story will house the engine bays
(there’s room for two engines and a hook and ladder, although initially
there will only be the same one engine currently housed at the Bronson
station), ambulance bays, and public spaces. The second story includes
offices for department officers, a conference room and facilities (such
as exercise rooms) for the personnel stationed there. The third story
houses dormitories and other facilities for the fire personnel stationed
in the building. You can find an artist's rendering of the planned
building at the city's Department of Public Works' website.
The bays for the fire engines and ladder truck are laid out so that those vehicles will exit onto Hollywood Boulevard; the bays for the ambulances are oriented so that they will exit onto Van Ness Avenue.
The environmental impact report required by CEQA (the mitigated negative declaration) has been finished and was distributed at the meeting. The comment period on the report has been extended until the middle of January. More information on the process is found here.
Construction on the new fire station could begin in summer or fall of 2008 and is expected to be finished by summer 2010. As soon as the new station is completed and personnel and equipment have been moved over, the renovation of the old station will begin, with completion scheduled for summer of 2012.
The Bronson Avenue station currently has two buildings. The main
building (on the west) that abuts Bronson will undergo some interior renovation
but will essentially retain its current layout: engine bay and public office
on the bottom floor; offices, training facilities and equipment storage
on the upper floor. However, the existing back building (to
the east and south) will be taken down and replaced by a new two story
building which will have bays for fire department vehicles on the bottom
floor, office space and a large community meeting room on the upper floor.
Once both buildings have been completed, the plan is that the Van Ness and Hollywood building will be the primary station, housing the active fire personnel and vehicles and that the Bronson building will be primarily a training facility. However, during prime brush fire periods in the fall, the Bronson station can be upgraded to an additional active facility with temporary vehicles and personnel brought in from other parts of the city.
In addition to the presentation by the architects, Chief Clarke of the LAFD addressed the group. Both he and Mr. Kawaguchi remarked on the long time it has taken to get from the passage of Proposition F to the groundbreaking for this new fire station. Both spoke about the various sites proposed over the last seven years for the new station building: Florentine Gardens and the Garfield/Gramercy site in particular – the Florentine Gardens site having failed because the owner wanted too much money (reportedly upwards of ninety million dollars which would have pushed the total budget for the new station to 120 million dollars) and the Garfield/Gramercy site which was abandoned due to neighborhood opposition regarding loss of apartments for residents of that neighborhood. Both expressed some frustration that, of the twenty or so new fire stations planned under Prop F, eighteen have been completed, two more are in construction and only FS 82 remains unbuilt. Of all the new stations in the city, the Hollywood station has been the most difficult to achieve consensus on a site. Mr. Kawaguchi referred to a new station elsewhere in the city that was completed in 2003 having cost six million dollars, then to another identical station completed in 2005 having cost twelve million dollars, and to Fire Station 82 (identical in size and layout to the other two) now estimated to cost twenty million dollars – the increases almost entirely attributable to enormous increases in materials costs over the last six years. The delays in getting FS 82 constructed have meant that a station that should have cost six to eight million will now cost three times that amount.
After the presentations by Kawaguchi, Clarke and the architects, the floor was opened for neighbors to ask questions. The first questioner, a resident of Hollywood land, speaking from extensive notes, gave Mr. Kawaguchi a ringing denunciation on the placement of the new station even farther from Hollywoodland. He pointed out that one of the promises of Prop F was that response times were to be improved with the new fire stations, and that the placement of the new station at Hollywood and Van Ness makes it impossible that response time to Hollywoodland could be shortened. Kawaguchi responded that, since the majority of calls for FS 82 come from the areas south of Franklin and east of Bronson, the new station is actually situated advantageously to handle calls from its service area. The speaker however was not satisfied.
The next speaker was a resident who lives just on the east side of Western Avenue, south of Franklin. He was very concerned that the proposed new station at Van Ness and Hollywood doesn’t have a community room. The residents of his area around Western have no reasonably large space available on a regular basis for community meetings. Mr. Kawaguchi responded that the new location consists of two one-acre properties, and that while the Van Ness/Hollywood station does not have a community room, the renovated Bronson station will have a new, very large community room available for neighborhood meetings. The resident was not satisfied and complained that this new community room would be too far from his neighborhood. Mr. Kawaguchi responded that the earlier proposed location at Garfield and Gramercy which was much closer to Western Avenue had adequate room for a large community room but that the site had been opposed by neighbors’ groups.
The Western Avenue resident also expressed strong concern that the residents of Van Ness Avenue would be adversely affected by fire engines accelerating up their street at all hours with sirens blaring. Chief Clarke responded that the bays for the fire engines are oriented so that the engines must exit onto Hollywood Boulevard and because Van Ness is a narrower street, it’s likely that, once onto Hollywood Boulevard, the engines would use Bronson or Gower for access to the Oaks or Hollyoodland or other points north. Another resident stood up to say that she has lived on Franklin for years just around the corner from the current Bronson fire station and that engines pass by once or twice a day at most, usually without their sirens on and usually not at night, and that it has never been a problem or an issue for her or her neighbors.
K.C. Schmidt of the Eastwood Coalition, the next speaker, pointed out that the area at Van Ness and Hollywood is actually not zoned to allow for a fire station. Craig Weber of the Planning Department answered Mr. Schmidt, pointing out that the zoning materials are indeed somewhat confusing on that count, but that if one reads them more carefully, one discovers that the area is in fact zoned for a fire station. Mr. Schmidt seemed reassured by this new information.
When the plans for the new station are further refined, based on suggestions from the various constituencies, there will be additional community meetings so that neighbors can be updated on them.
