ENCINITAS — The Encinitas City Council unanimously approved an emergency declaration on Wednesday night to address safety concerns at the recently shuttered Fire Station 1 and advance efforts to find a temporary relocation site for fire crews.
The station, built in 1957 and located at 415 Second Street, was closed on Oct. 8 after an assessment deemed the structure unsafe due to inadequate seismic reinforcement.
During the Nov. 13 meeting, Fire Chief Josh Gordon detailed the urgent need for temporary accommodations to ensure continued fire services west of the railroad tracks, an area with the city’s highest call volume.
Gordon said since fire crews were moved to Fire Station 3 on Orpheus Avenue, response times in the district have increased and now exceed the city’s adopted eight-minute response standard.
According to Gordon, a typical response time is around six minutes and 50 seconds.
Several locations were reviewed for the temporary fire station, including the Moonlight Beach parking lot and City Hall, but logistical challenges and zoning restrictions limited their feasibility.
Gordon recommended the Pacific View Cultural Arts Center as the most viable option due to its location west of the tracks and access to existing utilities.
However, council members raised concerns about the visual and functional impact of a temporary fire station on the newly renovated Pacific View campus, a $15 million project (from purchasing the school to renovating the site) developed as an arts and cultural space with significant community investment.
Councilmember Joy Lyndes said it’s important to maintain Pacific View’s role in the arts.
“We need to be respectful to the investment in that asset that we’ve put in so far,” Lyndes said. “I think visually, we need to keep the fire station from blocking the structure, but also, functionally, people will want to use that space to get to their classes and to maybe even meet their friends and neighbors outside that space.”
Fiscal implications also came into focus, with the estimated cost for the temporary structure totaling $1.9 million. The council also discussed possible alternatives, including constructing a temporary replacement station after demolishing the original Fire Station 1 building, but Gordon cited complications with that proposal.
“I’m not sure how long demolishing would take, plus I know there’s some asbestos and lead issues in there, but we could end up doing that,” Gordon said regarding the proposal to build a temporary site at the current Fire Station 1 location. “The only obstacle we’d run into is if we determine we’re going to build a new fire station there, then we’d have to relocate that [temporary] fire station.”
The council decided to form a subcommittee, including Mayor Tony Kranz and Councilmember and Mayor-elect Bruce Ehlers, to further investigate potential alternatives. The subcommittee aims to report back by early December to keep the process moving forward.
The council approved the emergency declaration, ensuring city officials can continue exploring options while maintaining public safety and fiscal responsibility. The temporary relocation remains an open matter as the subcommittee conducts further review.
“We’ll deal with it pretty urgently,” Kranz said. “It’s going to be a challenge to come up with a better idea, but we’re going to do our best, and we’ll do it as quickly as possible.”
