A new fire station is being proposed in this Tacoma park. The plan is getting pushback
Metro Parks Tacoma is considering selling some park land in South Tacoma to the city for a new fire station, something officials say would help them serve the community more effectively.
The new South Tacoma Fire Station would be built on the northwest side of the South End Recreation and Adventure campus near South 58th Street and South Tyler Street. The 75-acre SERA campus is home to Gray Middle School, the Boys & Girls Club’s Topping Hope Center, the STAR Center and a Metro Parks sports complex with multiple fields, tennis courts, a sprayground and playground.
The current Fire Station No. 7 at 5448 S. Warner St. was built in 1959. Expansion of that site is not possible because of its co-location with the South Tacoma Library Branch, according to the city.
The idea to build the new fire station is still in the proposal stage, with costs and a construction timeline to be determined if the Tacoma Park Board decides to move forward with the conversion. The board would need to vote unanimously in approval to surplus and sell the property, said Tacoma Parks chief planning officer Marty Stump.
Stump told The News Tribune it likely would be months before staff make a recommendation to the board. A community open house will be hosted at 6 p.m. on Aug. 31 at the STAR Center, 3873 S. 66th St. Residents can also share feedback online.
Tacoma facilities management division manager Justin Davis told the Parks Board during a presentation Monday that the fire station on South Warner Street is undersized and lacks the capacity to accommodate additional emergency vehicles, equipment and staff.
“The station serves one of the two areas of the city with the highest call volume,” Davis said. “The station is staffed with one engine company that responds to over 3,500 emergencies annually. The call volume far exceeds the department’s target of 2,500 calls.”
The proposal is to relocate Fire Station #7 to a 2-acre lot of the SERA campus along South Tyler Street. The city would purchase that site from Metro Parks and build a new larger fire station there, Davis said. If the proposal is approved by the park board and the city, the fire station on South Warner Street would be converted to an ambulance station, he said.
After looking at several possible locations for a new fire station, staff concluded the SERA campus would suit the Fire Department’s needs the best due to its location, status as a designated crisis response site and ownership by Metro Parks Tacoma, Davis said. Building a 24-hour emergency response facility there also would deter illegal dumping and other undesirable activities that have happened in that vacant area, Stump said.
Residents worry about tree cutting, green space
Cathie Raine, who lives near the site, said the area “definitely needs” a new fire station but doesn’t believe the SERA property is the best suited. Raine said she is concerned about the removal of trees to make way for the station, especially as South Tacoma residents suffer from the heat-island effect, which occurs when an area surrounded by concrete doesn’t have enough tree canopy or vegetation to provide shade, resulting in higher temperatures.
Raine said she’s also concerned about the fire station being built so close to a proposed mega-warehouse on a 150-acre property at 5024 S. Madison St., which she said will increase air pollution and traffic significantly in an area already under pressure from Interstate 5. The hearing examiner has not yet made a decision on the case of an appeal regarding the project.
Raine said she’d like the city to consider properties that have already been cleared of trees and look holistically at the larger impacts of deforestation and traffic on the community.
“I just think it’s a bad idea. [The city] needs to respect the South Tacoma citizens more and stop dumping stuff like this,” she said. “There are other options that have not been described in any detail, but we just get the feeling that they’re just trying to save money.”
South Tacoma resident Heidi Stephens said in a written public comment to Metro Parks she also opposed the land transfer, saying Metro Parks should “not only stop selling ‘surplus’ land, but to in fact purchase more land within South Tacoma to create more natural parks which this neighborhood so desperately needs.”
Stephens said transferring land away from park land “feels like a serious betrayal and opposite of what Metro Parks should be striving for in this already overburdened community.”
Stump said the city and Metro Parks are aware of the need to preserve as many trees as possible and do track and monitor the city’s equity index when it comes to tree-canopy deficiencies. City staff is analyzing the site, and tree removal would be contingent on the Fire Department’s site design, Stump said.
“Moving forward, the project team will survey and identify each and every tree that’s of a size that’s picked up traditionally in a tree survey, and then a calculation made for which trees would need to be removed, which ones can be saved and retained, and then there’s a requirement to plant replacement trees,” he said. “We appreciate the fact that the community members want to see as many mature trees left intact. That’s always your best course of action from an environmental sustainability perspective. But with any development, like a fire station, there would be some trees needing to be removed.”
Stump said the Fire Department has a short list of other properties to consider, although this site was identified as the main property for consideration.
“Those are probably properties that are privately-owned commercial properties that they would likely consider if this proposal doesn’t move forward,” he said.
This story was originally published August 17, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
