Burgis: New Fire Stations Will Make Brentwood Safer

The following was submitted by Supervisor Diane Burgis on the new Fire Station improvements being proposed in downtown Brentwood. Below the article submitted by Burgis, I’ve included a Q&A this publication had with Chief McAlister for another article being worked on, but figured to include it in here.

From Supervisor Diane Burgis:

The past three years have brought massive improvements to fire protection services in East County. As your District III County Supervisor and Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Board Member, I want to share with you the progress made up to now and information about two new Brentwood fire stations set for construction in 2024.

Two major changes in recent years have increased our firefighting capacity: voters passed Measure X, a half-cent sales tax to improve public safety and other County services in 2020, and East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD) was consolidated into Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (ConFire) on July 1, 2022.

With the increase in financial resources and the efficiency gains of joining a larger agency, we have opened one new Oakley fire station, added two new fire crews for faster responses, and upgraded our crews to provide paramedic-level care so they can carry out more complicated medical tasks than EMTs.

The next improvements coming are a new Brentwood station on Empire Road and the return of a fire station in its Downtown Brentwood location on First Street. Fire Station 54 downtown served Brentwood for 57 years before ECCFPD’s budget problems forced it to close in 2014. Thankfully, ConFire has the resources to build a new modern fire station that is capable of housing 21^st century fire engines, which are larger than any engine the original fire house designers could have expected in the 1950s.

The requirement for larger garages, modern earthquake standards and other firefighting necessities means that the new Station 94 will need a larger footprint. The County, which owns the parcels on either side of the station, has pledged approximately 3,500 square feet of undeveloped land to Con Fire to make room for this lifesaving community resource. Most of that land would come from the south side of the station, but 1,212 square feet would come from land on the north side next to the Brentwood Veterans Memorial Building.

Some in the Brentwood veterans community have expressed concerns about the new construction, but the fire station would be built on a part of the County-owned land currently used as an unpermitted gravel parking lot and temporary storage units. Neither of the two permanent structures that the Brentwood Veterans Memorial Building uses would be impacted; in fact, Contra Costa County has invested more than $100,000 improving those structures in recent years, and the County is pursuing nearly $200,000 in future funds to improve the building’s fire alarm systems, air conditioning, exterior siding and more.

In the coming months, ConFire will hire design-build teams for the new fire stations, and the projects will go through the City of Brentwood’s planning and permitting process, complete with CEQA compliance and public hearings. If designs are approved in a timely manner, construction of both new stations will break ground in 2024. When they open, Brentwood and the rest of East County will have the highest level of professional fire protection in our history, and our entire community will be safer for it.

Supervisor Diane Burgis
3361 Walnut Boulevard, Suite 140
Brentwood, CA 94513
(925) 655-2330 (office)

Q&A With Deputy Chief Aaron McAlister.

On Monday, this publication had a Q&A with Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Deputy Fire Chief Aaron McAlister on the Brentwood Fire Station.

The claim this proposal Illegally takes away land dedicated to veterans and paid for by tax payers – the request is 12 feet of gravel. Its not a parking space or dedicated space and not disabled veteran parking.

The claim this proposal Removes existing parking spaces – He believes the  project will actually add parking. The old fire station was four bays wide and a large curb cut… the new station is 2 bays wide and does not need as much curb cut. Should Brentwood choose to, they may add parking spaces during design review.

Takes away the option of closing streets for community events, hometown Halloween, parades, funerals and celebrations of life ceremonies: McAlister stated anyone can pull a permit ahead of time and the fire district cooperates on events across the county. He reminds the public this has been a fire station in the past so he sees no change or new impact of downtown events.

Editors note — a lot of this has to do with parade routes and events that have grown that have stretched down to First Street to Maple. With a permit, the fire district will simply participate in the event and be out of service as a fire station for a few hours, or double up the crew at another station for a few hours. Or, the District can simply opt to have the station engines exit through the back of the station during community events.

The claim this will negatively impact loading and unloading zones in the vicinity of the area:  unknown of any impact on loading zones. The new station will have a drive through from the alley to exit onto first street.

Will only be manned by a 3 person crew:  The plan is currently to have a 3-person crew on duty each day which includes a paramedic to provide life saving services— a captain, engineer and firefighters + paramedic. Shift change, there will be six personnel. No plans to have two crews.  Another Brentwood station Empire & Grant (90) that is planning a two-crew station… which its actually anticipated to reduce the impact of Station 94.

Will only have one engine and one support vehicle: Yes, as with most single crew stations. Fire engine + wild land

The claim this is being designed without consulting the neighboring veterans building which has been in Brentwood for nearly 100 years:  He called this false given the fire station has been there for decades without an issue. The station will go through the Brentwood planning processes and they are getting input from planning staff. Once the design build team is selected, it then will go to the Brentwood Planning Commission for approval and permits. He said there was lots of opportunity for the public to participate in the planning processes once they get to that step. He added they are currently only at a design stage, no formal plans but are 75% done and then will be submitted to the city

The claim this is a 3 story building does not fit with downtown: The building was designed with current design with brick facade—planning staff input. Design goes through planning process and approval. Its actually a two-story building.

Editors Note — this is a subjective statement the building does not fit the downtown given all the changes to downtown Brentwood. Right next door across from the VFW is a taller building currently in construction.

The claim this was designed without doing an impact assessment, or doing an assessment of the emergency response needs of Brentwood, and was designed without ever looking at alternative sites: McAlister  again said the fire station has historically been there and it was always intent to reconstruct the station with consolidation while using Measure X funding. He says they fully comply with CEQA and all environmental requirements. He also explained East Contra Costa Fire had already done its expansion plan and needs assessment–which included this station. CONFIRE is simply using the standing plan created by East Contra Costa Fire and has no reason to deviate.

The claim the design was completed first, and then the survey was done. The survey was then modified with new boundary lines to match the size of the design that had already been created. Instead of working within existing lot lines, the County decided to take 7% more land from veterans to make a larger design possible, AND giveaway an additional easement to Con Fire so they control the disabled access ramp: McAlister shared that in terms of the ramp, it was determined the access to the ramp was on the fire district parcel. Through design process, they came up with concept the fire district grants to the county an easement so the ramp can remain so they don’t interfere with existing disabled ramp. That was incorporated in the design—a give from the District. They then started with needs assessment and space planning. Part of that assessment is identifying garbage access, fuel container, emergency generator. To accommodate drive-thru needs to support the facility, they did approach the county to ask for the feasibility of gaining 12 ft to the rear of the station that is currently gravel. That has been the conversation by looking to acquire more dirt for a more successful project.  Until they have a design and knew how things stand on site, they could not define the ask, that is how they ended up with stakes in the ground and made the ask—but again, nothing is final. This will ultimately be a Board item from the Board of Supervisors/CONFIRE Board and then go to City of Brentwood on design elements.

Documents:

• 2023-10-05_Brentwood Veterans Memorial Building Board
• 2023-07-18_RE 757 First St. Brentwood
• Veterans Comments at County Supervisor Meeting (Aug 15) CountyBoardMTGAugust15

Previous Stories:

• April 17 – Contra Costa County Fire Has Increased Operational Capacity in East County
• July 1, 2022 – Contra Costa County Fire Annexes East Costa Costa Fire in Historic Brentwood Ceremony