OCEANSIDE — The city’s Fire Station 8 will soon have a new look in a new location.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the construction of a new two-story, 19,348-square-foot fire station in a 2.15-acre vacant lot in the Pacific Coast Business Park at 1282 Rocky Point Drive.
The new station will be constructed less than a mile from Fire Station 8’s current location at 1935 Avenida del Oro, Unit F, which the city has leased for the last 10 years. With the lease set to expire in 2025 and the fire department’s need to better expand its services citywide, the city has opted to build a new station instead of renewing the current lease.
Fire Chief David Parsons explained that the department must spread its units and equipment throughout the city to serve the community better.
“The city is growing exponentially,” Parsons said at the Dec. 18 planning commission meeting. “We have ladder trucks that need to be placed around the city for best effect… (Fire Station 8 is) being designed to accommodate how we can best deploy to serve the citizens.”
The station’s apparatus bay will fit a four-person ladder truck, a three-person fire engine, a battalion chief vehicle and other equipment as needed. The station will also have an emergency generator and a concrete pad for an above-ground, 1,000-gallon diesel fuel tank.
Although the new fire station will accommodate up to 10 firefighting and paramedic personnel, there is no plan to increase the station’s current 3-person crew when the move into the new station happens. However, that could change sometime in the future.
“It will be designed to accommodate future personnel and equipment necessary to maintain adequate levels of service for the city over the next 75 years,” noted city Senior Planner Shannon Vitale in her presentation to the Planning Commission.
The new fire station will share the site with the Water Utilities Department’s new recycled water reservoir, which will be constructed on the southern portion of the property.
Though the Planning Commission unanimously approved the new Fire Station 8, some criticized its look.
According to staff, the new fire station’s architecture will feature a contemporary look with metal accent pieces resembling other Pacific Coast Business Park buildings.
“I thought we would be more creative and do something more exciting,” said Commissioner John Malik, who compared the proposed fire station with the mission-inspired styles of Fire Station 1 and other fire stations around the city with similar architecture.
“It looks like a motel,” he added.
Parsons said the station’s design had architectural restraints based on the business park’s design standards.
“It would be great if we had a particular standard that just applied to every station, but we’re also sensitive to fitting in with the neighborhoods that we’re in. In South Oceanside, the station looks like a house (Fire Station 1) like the downtown district. This station will look like its surrounding buildings,” Parson said. “As money becomes an object, we have to make compromises, but we worked with a design team who came up with some great work for what we had available to us.”
Commissioner Louise Balma noted she has seen three new fire stations on the Planning Commission but no new police stations.
The city is currently working on a plan to relocate and construct a new police headquarters from its current location in the Mission Plaza Real shopping center at 3855 Mission Ave. In August 2022, the city identified a new location for the Rancho del Oro Road building across from the El Corazon property.
Parsons explained that the main reason more fire station projects have been approved than police is due to money.
“They have one building that’s going to cost five times what each fire station costs,” Parsons said. “They have bigger challenges they’re trying to overcome, and while the current headquarters is not ideal, it’s functional as is.”
The fire chief explained that the current Fire Station 1 doesn’t meet seismic standards and is too small to accommodate the fire department’s service demands downtown adequately.
“It’s truly not a fire station – we’ve had to alter the archways to get our engines in,” Parsons said.
Fire Station 1’s new building is under construction across Civic Center Drive from the City Hall parking structure.
Similarly, Parsons explained that the current Fire Station 8 building is located in an industrial building that doesn’t meet critical facility standards, such as having no backup power.
“It’s not a good situation, but some of these needs were more critical in our case at the moment, but that doesn’t take away from (the police department’s) incredible need,” Parsons said. “I think financing is a big challenge and the Council will tell you that too, but they are working on it and it is a high priority.”
Despite his critique of the new station’s look, Malik was pleased to see the fire department’s plans for a new Fire Station 8.
“It’s good to see you firefighters getting out of that temporary facility,” he said. “It’s nice to see that you’re doing something for their quality of life while on shift.”
