I never would have thought in a million years that a community would become so divided over a fire station being built in downtown Brentwood.
After nearly two decades of fighting for improved fire service, it has become an all-out war of political theater, half-truths, intentional misinformation being spread and personal attacks. Watching this play out has escalated from silly to just divisive where anyone who agrees with the fire station being rebuilt, you are shouted down and made an enemy–one is also accused of not supporting veterans, which is just ludicrous.
Who would have thought roughly 10 square feet of dirt would have prompted so much hostility and anger from social media arsonists intentionally causing confusion.
But what is worse, this debate has gotten away from design review, public safety and history to instead becoming personal that anyone who supports this station apparently hates veterans or is accused of back room deals, being paid off or in my case labeled as “fake news”. Equally comical, or sad depending how you look at it, anyone who opposes councilwoman Jovita Mendoza apparently isn’t allowed to have an opinion. If you speak out, a target gets placed on ones back and they get bullied. This is nothing new, but its reached the tipping point.
Most I’ve spoken with who actually support the station do not want to be involved for fear being put on blast—I can’t blame them, look what happened to Father Robert after speaking out against campaign literature falsely giving the appearance of an endorsement. You also see this recently with Supervisor Diane Burgis, Councilmember Tony Oerlemans, Vince Wells, Brian Oftedal and many others all being smeared with extreme and over the top innuendos–including being accused of not supporting veterans. In fact, for city that claims it wants all opinions to speak at meetings, Oftedal gets booed for pointing out fire facts, including a fatal fire just two blocks away from Station 94. So why would anyone really want to be involved given the behavior being allowed by those running meetings.
Understandably, emotions are high and many are frustration, but emotions cannot overtake logic. Some in the community must stop throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks hoping to confuse many. Instead, people need to know their history behind the why and how we are where we are at with a lack of fire service.
1957 – Fire Station constructed. July 1, 2012 – Fire Station closed due to budget cuts. May 1, 2013 – Fire Station Reopens thanks to a SAFER Grant obtained by ECCFPD. At the time, the average response time of ECCFPD was between 7:10 minutes to 7:32 minutes per call. Nov 18, 2014 – SAFER Grant Ended – station closed. May 2015 – ECCFPD moves to a 3-station fire service model. Closing Station 54 and the Knightsen Station
For starters, because there previously was a fire station on this county owned property, they are exempt from many requirements which both is cost effective and speeds up the process – for example, the planning commission knew this, but still made illegal requests for studies that did not apply to this project.
With nearly a decade gone by since Station 94 has been open, Brentwood, its now living in a “Mandela Effect” community where so much misinformation has been stated, many false facts are believed to be true. Is the Brentwood City Council really going to go down a path and not approve a downtown station that is legally allowed? By rejecting it, CONFIRE admits a realistic opening date would be sometime in 2029 at another unknown location. Also, common says says you place fire stations where the people are at, where incidents traditionally happen, not place stations on the outskirts and increase response times.
Looking at historical data, response times for Brentwood only calls was 5:29 minutes in 2014. Today, it sits at 6:52 minutes—remember, T92 is also in service as of April 2023 or it would be higher. Meanwhile, CONFIRE says the average response time into Brentwood from outside stations sits at 5:49 in 2014 while today it’s at 7:17 minutes—this number jumps, because Station 92 is on another call and an engine from another city responded.
Regardless of design review, farmers markets or parades, data matters and seconds count in an any emergency. I’ve even read online that someone claimed 7:17 minutes isn’t that long of a response time? Ya. Okay pal. Hold your breath and let me know how that works out for you.
Also something to consider is calls for service in Brentwood have only increased since 2014 from 3,426 to 5,249 in 2024 – an increase of 1,823 calls—nearly 5 more calls a day. That is what happens when population increases, calls go up!
Given all recent these “Facebook Fire Experts” online, it would behoove many to revisit history or go on their own fact finding missions as to why we are even in this debate over a fire station—full history below. But here is a bird eye view of some topics of discussion, and a history of fire service in East Contra Costa County.
Veterans Hall is Not Being Touched
This idea that the veteran’s hall is being taken away from the veterans or torn down is false. The building is not being touched. From my perspective, there is no impact on the veteran offerings because the rub is all over 10 square feet of dirt. The impact has greatly been exaggerated by many over the past year. The veterans are provided use of the building, but have no property rights in the land or building itself–essentially, they are simply a tenant.
The million dollar question is what, if any, impact does a fire house have on the veterans that they could no longer offer?
Planning Commission Goof
The irony in all of this is the Downtown Specific Plan has been referenced as reason to deny the fire station – however, this might be the single worst document ever produced out of Brentwood. Many are citing is the report claims the fire house should become a restaurant or retail—they leave out that the same report specifically calls out the veterans building as an “opportunity site” for a reuse project (page 21). Unfortunately for Brentwood, should CONFIRE sell its downtown property, it will 99% likely become a multi-story low income housing project thanks to state law.
As for the planning commission, they either had their minds made up ahead of time or are the least observant group of humans on the planet given the dozen or so brick buildings in the downtown. To make matters worse, brick is mentioned as the preferred building material throughout the specific plan. Walk downtown and see for yourself or simply look at the pretty pictures in the Downtown Specific Plan–the commission apparently didn’t do much homework.
The planning commission simply found the most minor reasons possible to say “no” versus working with CONFIRE to find ways to get to “yes” which highlights bad governance when you reject a project due to number of trees in a parking lot which could easily be mitigated—in fact, Commissioners Kristopher Brand, Rod Flohr, Gerald Johnson, and Anita Roberts should be relieved of their duty given their behavior and ignorance. I won’t even bring up Brand suggesting the fire station might fall under the hotel code or deal with wording on gyms—what an embarrassment.
If Downtown Station Denied, Then What?
Should fire station 94 need to be located on another site, 2028 would be an aggressive timeline and 2029 might be more realistic. There has been much discussion about the “Mary Black School” site. The Fire District does not own this site.
Why Not Sand Creek Location?
This site was rejected back in 2016 when the City Gate report was released. The Sand Creek Site, and others in northern Brentwood were abandoned because it added no value to response times in Brentwood—impacting southern Brentwood. East Contra Costa County Fire abandoned the Sand Creek Road as the response arch only allows response to travel North, South and West. There is no response road to the East, i.e., a dead end road.
The June 2016 Citygate report, commissioned by East Contra Costa Fire, identifies the Downtown station as the preferred location. For nearly a decade, ECCFPD, then CONFIRE, had always planned to reopen the downtown Brentwood Fire Station. Chief McAlister presented the Downtown Site and conceptual drawings to the Brentwood City Council on January 9, 2024. No feedback was provided on the design.
Amber Lane & Grant Station Moves to Lone Tree Way
This site was transferred from the City of Brentwood to East Contra Costa County Fire District at no cost. This was to be the site of Fire Station 90. When Contra Costa County Fire initiated design and environment review, it was determined to be toxic and unbuildable. The cost estimate for cleanup was 8 million dollars.
Given this, the District was able to locate and secure an alternate site at Lone Tree and Windy Springs. The district has restarted design and environmental review at this location. Fire Station 90 is not expected to be complete until 2028.
No Fire Station Has Been Denied Before
According to CONFIRE, Brentwood is the first planning commission to deny a fire station since the District was formed in 1987.. CONFIRE has no historical experience with any project being denied by a planning commission. In the last 10 years, the CONFIRE has completed 3 fire stations; Fire Station 16 in Lafayette, Fire Station 70 in San Pablo and Fire Station 86 in unincorporated Bay Point. All three of these projects went through the planning process in the respective jurisdictions, receiving approvals with unanimous support.
This map shows the total number of calls Contra Costa Fire responded to in 2024. There were 2,400 calls within 1.5 miles of future Fire Station 94.
3 Stations in Brentwood A Win For Public Safety
Looking out at 2028/29, Brentwood could potentially have three fire houses (90, 92, 94) which has never happened before. Today, there is basically a 7-minute response time to Brentwood calls. With three stations in city limits, the response times to all calls in Brentwood would drop—maybe even to under 5-minutes giving Brentwood some of the best response times across Contra Costa County.
Currently, Brentwood is being supplemented by fire stations in the City of Antioch, City of Oakley and Town of Discovery Bay. Anytime Station 92 is on a call, an engine is coming from further away. Its not far to Brentwood, and surely is unfair to residents in other cities.
Property Rights Cannot Be Ignored
At this point, Brentwood has become one of the most difficult cities to work with as both the planning commission and city council have become somewhat hypocritical. On one hand they blame the state for forcing laws/code down their throats, only to turn around and power play property owners/businesses and telling them what they cannot do – city park use, house rentals, alcohol licenses, tobacco, tattoos, drive-Thurs, to HVAC on top of buildings to nearly screwing up Costco and Lazy Dog. The control freak mentality has got to stop.
The current conversation in Brentwood has become anything but Design Review and the council must remember that regardless of their own feelings, they have a very specific tunnel vision they can approve or disapprove this project. Regardless of any personal feelings.
Hopefully the council has more sense than the planning commission given Brentwood staff worked with the fire department on station design and within code and rules. Who rejects a project and not provide direction of how to remedy it anyway? CONFIRE could also come back with multiple designs for the council to consider outside the brick facade.
Station 95 (Oakley) ribbon cutting
East Contra Costa Fire History Cannot Be Forgotten
This idea the plan was not to have a downtown fire station in Brentwood is absurd and false. Its been there for 100 years and as far as I can remember when I launched this website the plan was always for a 2-story downtown station, confirmed in 2016 and again at annexation with CONFIRE.
While a full history is below, ECCFPD in 2011 had 9 fire stations in its serve model, by 2014, due to budget constraints, it dropped to 3 stations before a yo-yo effect occurred with open and closed stations for several years giving it a 4th station. And even more pathetic, I’d like to point out on Bethel Island, firefighters had the luxury of working out of a modular unit—so pathetic.
The financial issues of ECCFPD are well documented thanks to Prop 13 — in terms of tax rates, ECCFPD received 7% while CONFIRE had 12% and San Ramon Valley Fire had 14%. Multiple revenue enhancements were attempted, all failed.
Future Map with all CONFIRE stations
East County Future Growth
Fire Station 90 (Brentwood) is being planned as a dual company station with a Battalion Chief quarters. Current plans also call for a storage building to the rear of the station in order to store reserve equipment. Once complete, Truck 92 would be relocated from 92 to Station 90. 90 will still have room for future expansion.
The Fire District is actively engaged with a developer working in Southeast Antioch. This discussion centers around a Fire Station location near Kaiser Antioch. When the general development occurs in this area, a fire station will serve not only Antioch but surrounding communities as well.
Through Measure X funding, a new company was added to Antioch in 2024.
Another future site has been identified in Northeast Antioch at 18th and Wilson. This site will also allow future expansion of service and Antich has been a good partner in this regard. Also in Antioch, the District owns several acres on Delta Fair Blvd adjacent to SR4.
Also in Antioch, the Fire District owns 5 acres on Delta Fair Blvd for future use.
In Discovery Bay, the Fire District acquired the Byron Boys Ranch which has become the Byron Wildland Fire Center. The District is currently master planning this site.
The Fire District also owns a property in Oakley that is intended for a future fire station site.
Brentwood Fire Department
Some have suggested Brentwood simply form their own department and place four stations in better locations. It was first attempted in 2011 and abandoned. Brought up again in 2015 before finally rejected in 2017 due to costs of between $20-25 million. Also, Brentwood looked at an EMS only service which would have added $4.5 million to the budget.
Brentwood City Council Must Approve Downtown Station
While CONFIRE certainly should receive an F- for communication and failure to build bridges in Brentwood, that is not a reason to deny a solid project that has many benefits. Especially since it’s always been the plan to demolish and rebuild the downtown fire station – as correctly reported in a video online by the Brentwood Press in October of 2022, which even stated a new station was coming.
But it goes back further than 2022, the station was built into annexation with CONFIRE, stated in the 2017 Citygate Report and former ECCFPD Fire Chief Brian Helmick shared the station plans in multiple 2021 townhall meetings – noting Brentwood needed 4 stations.
History of the downtown station has either been ignored or flat out manipulated which is why the community is divided. But understanding the “why” and “how” we are finally at a point of an upgraded downtown fire station is a massive win for everyone.
Station 92 can’t keep covering all of Brentwood and Station 94 downtown would become first due and second due in many calls for service—it helps the entire CONFIRE system.
At the end of the day, there is a reason why the veterans and supporters of “yes to the station no to the location” don’t want to talk public safety, because they have nothing to stand on and their arguments are void.
The fires caused by social media arsonists should be put out once and for all and its time for the Brentwood City Council to put on its big boy/girl pants and bring back the discussion to public safety, design review and approve the station.
One that occurs, it’s time to get to work on a new state of the art building for the Brentwood veteran’s hall.
History:
With the “Mandela Effect” in full swing, here is a look back at what the residents of East Contra Costa County have had to dealing with in terms of fighting for fire service and more fire houses.
1928-1984 – Fire Station used by Brentwood Fire.
June 7, 1937 – Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved building a fire station.
1957 – Fire Station 91 was constructed.
1984 – Brentwood Fire merged with Eastern Fire Protection District, Marsh Creek area and became East Diablo Fire. Fire Station 91 was renumbered to Fire Station 51.
July 2010: ECCFPD consolidated response zones in the Discovery Bay and Byron area by closing Station 57 in Byron and Station 58 in Discovery Bay.
June 2012: voters rejected a $197 per year per parcel to ensure a six fire station model with 56.2% voting against it.
July 2012: Bethel Island Station Closes
July 1, 2012: Three fire stations closed in downtown Brentwood, Bethel Island & Knightsen — See Story
Sept. 2012: ECCFPD began drafting an implementation plan to reopen previously closed stations – downtown Brentwood & Knightsen.
May 2014: Brentwood Agrees to Begin Discussions on Options for Improving Fire Service. Mayor Bob Taylor and Vice Mayor Joel Bryant both agreed it wasn’t acceptable for Brentwood to have just 1-fire station and were in favor of moving forward with a task force to see what assistance Brentwood could potentially provide. (see story)
Sept. 2014: Downtown Brentwood Fire Station temporarily closes. The temporary station closure will remain in effect until the District determines the outcome of the ballot for a fire suppression benefit assessment (see story)
March 2015: ECCFPD talks benefit assessment.
May 2015: Knightsen Fire Station closes + permanently close downtown Brentwood after benefit assessment failed. District had to pick between Downtown Brentwood and Discovery Bay, but opted against leaving Discovery Bay uncovered with the closest station being 5+ miles away. It came down to protecting an entire community and ability for Discovery bay to get homeowners insurance – Brentwood had the call volume. (see story)
Aug 15, 2015: During station closure discussion, Town of Discovery Bay advocated for their station (Station 59) to remain open). The debate at the time was more calls were in Brentwood than in Discovery Bay. The ECCFPD was looking at call volumes and response times.
Sept. 2015: Mayor Bob Taylor calls on Brentwood to form its own fire department. This idea was abandoned once before in 2011.
June 2016: Mayor Bob Taylor formally requests Brentwood look into creating its own fire department. This came after the city was left uncovered for fire service for 8-hours (see video) (see story)
July 2, 2016: Knightsen fire Station reopens for 1-year.
June 15, 2015: CityGate Report released where it stated Brentwood is too large of a city for just two fire station, but also said moving Station 94 northerly leaves a coverage gap in southeast Brentwood. The report highlights even moving Station 94 north and on a multiple unit coverage incident, it wouldn’t get the District to 8-minute response times. The report then indicates, Brentwood is too large for even a three station model within the city. Finally, the report concluded that to reach average response times of 4-minutes, it needs 9 stations + the Cal Fire Sunshine Station. Finally, the report highlights a moved Station 94 to Sand Creek would not work because of the road network and development patterns.
July 2016: Average response time for ECCFPD was 8 minutes and 21 seconds. Utility Users tax (UUT) ordinance to fund public safety services introduced to voters — future Measures in Brentwood & Oakley would fail.
Oct. 2016: Thanks to efforts of David Piepho, Bob Mankin, and Gaylin Zeigler, a $730k transferred out of Byron Bethany Irrigation District to ECCFPD—this was a property transfer due to an overlap in the Tax Rate Area. At the time, 14.9% of some taxpayers ad valor tax were going to servers the irrigation district was not offering services for. It now meant some in Discovery Bay were now paying some of the highest taxes for fire services in the District.
Nov 2016: voters in the City of Brentwood (Measure Z) and City of Oakley rejected a “Utility Tax” to fund fire/medical services. Measure Z was rejected with 60.87% of the vote while Measure E was rejected by 67.05% of voters.
January 2017: Brentwood creates Fire + Medical Services Ad-hoc to look at cost to fund its own fire department. Current resources and options to improve. Was a tax allocation plan feasible. Note – creating own fire department ultimately was estimated between $20-25 million annually.
April 2017: Brentwood agreed to pay $3 million to fund a 4th fire station. This was combined with the City of Oakley and Contra Costa County at a total cost of $7.2 million over 18 months. That fourth station was in Knightsen and chosen for an “outside in” response while also due to ISO ratings to protect unincorporated areas from higher insurance costs or cancelled insurance. Brentwood did attempt during this time period to move the station from Knightsen to downtown Brentwood.
June 12, 2017: Average response time for ECCFPD was 8 minutes at 34 seconds.
April 2020: Brentwood receives its 9212 Report for “Emergency Services”. “The Brentwood Emergency Response for All Act would require the City of Brentwood to spend an additional $4.765,000 of future growth in property and sales tax revenue for additional fire protection, emergency medical, ambulance and hazardous materials response services to Benefit Brentwood residents.” The cost would hit the budget at $4.8 million each year but the revenue source was not predictable. Another question answered in the 9212 Report was could Brentwood have a city-run EMS program where Belknap said its legally possible, but not practical and was politically challenging saying at the end of the day it would be a regional decision. He also said the initiative may not improve services other than adding $4.8 million into the system.
Nov. 2020: Contra Costa County Measure X was passed with 58.45% of the vote. As part of the estimated $81 million a year package, money would be used for fire service/public safety, among many other items.
Nov 2021: Board of Supervisors Allocate Measure X money to fire service. The approvals pave the way for the long-planned annexation of East Contra Costa Fire into the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District by immediately funding station construction costs for Fire Station 54 and Fire Station 51 in Brentwood. In its November 16 actions, the Board of Supervisors approved a total of $32.3 million in funding for fire and emergency medical services across the county. Of the total, $18.8 million was for one-time expenditures, with $10 million of that to be expended in the first year, $13.5 million was allocated for ongoing expenses. In east Contra Costa, one-time Measure X funds of $12.2 million will support the rebuilding and reopening of Fire Station 54 in downtown Brentwood. It will be staffed with a three-person fire engine crew, of which one member will be a paramedic. Ongoing funds of $3.5 million annually will support salaries and benefits for the personnel assigned to this station. The planned Fire Station 51 construction project, also in Brentwood, will be completed thanks to $5 million in one-time Measure X funding. (see story)
June 1, 2022: Oakley Fire Station 95 opens (see story)
July 1, 2022: Contra Costa County Fire is Annexed into Contra Costa County Fire (See story)
June 20, 2024 – New Ladder truck placed at Station 92 in Brentwood
May 2025 – Brentwood Planning Commission Denies Downtown Fire Station
Mike Burkholder
Publisher of ContraCosta.news
[email protected]
