Will historic landmark have to make way for badly needed fire station on Tideflats?

Across the street from where Puget Sound Energy's planned liquified natural gas plant is under construction stands a 90-year-old fire station surrounded by overgrown grass.

It's styled like a low-slung, one-story bungalow, notable for its Hispanic-inspired architecture. For about a decade it's sat quietly, used only for storage.

That might change soon.

With planned and existing industrial, chemical and fossil-fuel activity on the Tideflats, there's a need for more public safety services, including a fully operational fire station. The LNG plant cannot open until a fire station is opened nearby.

"To meet the (requirements of) the environmental impact statement for the PSE facility, we need to have a facility ready by the time they're operational," Tacoma Fire Chief Jim Duggan said recently. "Following 2012, our presence on the Tideflats was reduced essentially to zero."

When the LNG plant was in planning stages, renovating the landmark building formerly known as Fire Station 15, now known as Station 5, on the Hylebos Peninsula seemed like an obvious choice. The old station is directly across the street from the plant, and the city still owns the building and property.

But city staff has determined that renovating the building would not meet the fire department's long-term needs or the code requirements for essential facilities.

On Thursday, members of the Tacoma City Council's Community Vitality and Safety Committee heard some options for the future of the fire station: Renovate it, demolish it and build a new fire station or find and acquire a different property close to the LNG plant and build a station there.

The department currently has $1.3 million dedicated for a Tideflats station and will get an additional $470,000 from Puget Sound Energy for either renovations to the fire station or to help pay for building a new one.

Renovating the fire station would cost $4 million. The 3,300-square-foot building is currently unfit for any sort of use.

Part of the issue is the materials.

"If we were to take these bricks and build the exact same station right next to this one using the same materials, means and methods, that building would also be unfit," said Justin Davis of the city's public works department. "It's not necessarily the condition of the building as much as it is what it's built out of."

When the station was built, major seismic and structural upgrades weren't considered, because buildings weren't automatically designed to withstand earthquakes back then. The station would need a new foundation and new walls whether it was to be used as a fire station or an office building.

The next option recommended by staff: Demolish the existing building and build a new one. Anticipated cost: $6.5 million. The plan also would require approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, as the old station is on both the local and national historic registers. The idea of tearing it down is not likely to sit well with the historic preservation advocates.

While it's $2.5 million more than the cost to renovate, the new building would be 5,600 square feet and could serve the fire department for the next 50 to 60 years, Duggan and Davis said. A new building would have a decontamination room, something that's been widely adopted in new fire stations and could prove useful in an industrial area. It would have gender-neutral showers and restrooms and allow for more efficient use of the site.

A new, bigger fire station also would allow for two vehicle bays. Renovating the existing building would only allow for one vehicle bay.

Another option could be enlisting help from the Port of Tacoma to find and acquire a site for a new fire station — as long as it's within about a six-minute drive from the LNG plant.

Duggan made it clear that would be fine with him. He said he's aware of the concerns from the community about demolishing a historic landmark.

"The fire department is not married to that particular site," he said. "What we are committed to is having an operational station prior to (the LNG plant) becoming operational."

For now, time seems to be on the city's side. The controversial LNG plant is undergoing extra environmental scrutiny from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and that review and permitting issues will likely push back the date that the facility is up and running.

PSE originally hoped to have the plant operational by late 2019. Duggan said Thursday that it's looking more like late 2020 or early 2021.

PSE said Friday the utility "anticipates the LNG facility will be coming online by late 2020."

This story was originally published June 15, 2018 at 3:56 PM with the headline "Will historic landmark have to make way for badly needed fire station on Tideflats?."