Environmental groups and residents of San Diego's Webster neighborhood launched a campaign Wednesday to oppose the location of the city's newest fire station.
The site at the corner of Fairmount Avenue and 47th Street sits atop the edge of a pristine canyon, which the city plans on developing into a regional park. Opponents argue the site's steep slope will make construction more expensive, and that the site should be saved for an entrance to the future park's trail system.
"We think if they analyze other sites, this one will die and a cheaper, better alternative will prevail," Peter Andersen of the Sierra Club San Diego said at a press conference Wednesday.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria's proposed budget for the next fiscal year includes a cost estimate for the fire station of $28 million. The project is still mostly unfunded.
Plans for the Fairmount Avenue fire station date back several years, as San Diego was pushing to build more fire stations to improve emergency response times. The vast majority of calls to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department are for medical emergencies, not fires.
Several speakers at the press conference said covering the 1.28-acre site with impervious surfaces would cause more stormwater to run off into the Chollas Creek watershed, raising the risk of flooding in other neighborhoods.
"What happens upstream affects us downstream," said Mt. Hope resident Howard Jose Cuarezma. "The proposed fire station site would harm the beautiful canyon and the Chollas Creek watershed, which is important for recreation and wildlife."
City officials say they looked at four alternative locations in the area but deemed them infeasible. Spokesman Caleb Olsen said the city purchased the land on Fairmount Avenue because the site was large enough, the soil did not require toxic remediation and the street frontage has limited traffic, making it easier for trucks to pull out.
Olsen added that the project's environmental impact report, the first draft of which is due out early next year, would analyze ways to mitigate its impacts.
"These may or may not be alternative sites, depending on what impacts the environmental impact report identifies," Olsen said.
