New fire station sparks up

When the golden shovels turn up the earth today for a new fire station at the corner of Acacia Street and Mesa Drive, it will be a landmark event for the community of Santa Ana Heights and the city of Newport Beach.

The $11.5 million fire station will be the first large construction project built with money from the Santa Ana Heights redevelopment agency. An adjacent firefighter training tower will be the first such facility for the city.

Santa Ana Heights remains half in and half out of Newport Beach, after a county annexation commission on Wednesday delayed a decision on bringing West Santa Ana Heights into the city. But the city began taking over management of some projects covered by the area’s $40 million redevelopment fund after East Santa Ana Heights became part of Newport in 2003.

The fire station will replace a nearby temporary station. It will initially house three firefighters and one engine, but it will be built with the capacity for five more personnel and a ladder truck or two medic trucks.

The new station will slightly improve firefighter-response times in the immediate neighborhood, but it will really make a difference in the long run, as more residential development is added near John Wayne Airport, Newport Beach Fire Chief Tim Riley said.

Those benefits may not be seen for some time, but the $700,000 training tower ? paid for by city funds and a grant ? will be used as soon as it’s ready. Newport firefighters now have to train at a Huntington Beach facility, which means they’re effectively out of service.

“I think the fire station is important to the local Santa Ana Heights community, but the fire training center is a huge achievement for all of Newport Beach,” City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle said.

Taking into account the cost of the land and the fire station building, which came in at $7.4 million, most of the $11.5 million price tag will come from Santa Ana Heights’ $40 million redevelopment fund. It was significantly more than expected ? the land alone was as much as the projected price of the entire project ? but the money won’t be a problem, Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said.

Because property taxes have gone up, he said, “The Santa Ana Heights project area has a lot more money than it did five years ago when it made the deal, so it can afford it.”

Rather than quibbling about the price tag, area residents like Barbara Venezia are just happy to see the construction begin. Venezia chairs the Santa Ana Heights Project Advisory Committee, which represents residents.

The redevelopment agency was established in 1986. While county officials have managed the funds, Venezia said, the only big project that’s been completed is the widening of Mesa Drive and Birch Street.

“This is really a landmark for this community because it’s the first time in the history of the redevelopment agency that we’re getting a major project underway,” she said.

The fire station should take about a year to build.