An intersection with four signals visible, as seen between trees and a wide hedge across the street. The signs read "Fairmount Avenue" and the one below, "47th Street."
An unused parcel below the intersection of Fairmount Avenue and 47th Street is where the city of San Diego is considering building a new fire station. But some community members have concerns about the loss of open space. (Photo by Times of San Diego staff)

The city of San Diego has spent years trying to build a new fire station in the Mid-City area that would address a glaring weakness in the city’s emergency response system. 

But environmental and community groups have opposed the specific location the city has settled on, arguing it would remove precious open space from a neighborhood that’s already starved for it.

The city selected its preferred site — on a hillside in the Webster neighborhood, at 47th Street and Fairmount Avenue near a mobile home park catering to seniors — in 2015. That was five years after an outside report by a consultant identified the area as the most significant gap in the city’s fire response. Another report, in 2017, confirmed the need.

Project opponents — like Charles Rili, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s local chapter, and Leslie Reynolds, executive director of Groundworks San Diego-Chollas Creek — share the desire to plug that gap. But they argue the chosen location would permanently scar current open space and lead to the destruction of habitat in the Chollas Creek watershed.

Rilli said the the city is “digging its heels in” and refusing to recognize the location as one of the few open spaces for residents in the urban environment. 

Meanwhile, the four-story firehouse project has grown from a $12 million proposal on a cleared area of relatively flat land to one that currently is estimated to cost $28 million on a site that requires extensive grading.

Rilli, Reynolds and others have argued the city didn’t pursue alternative locations as rigorously as their preferred option, and dismissed possible sites without sufficient analysis. In September, city engineers issued a notice of a pending decision on the project that didn’t include any of the Sierra Club’s preferred locations. Rilli said the group expects the city to sign off on the project soon.

Tyler Becker, the engineering department’s spokesperson, said the city is ready to complete its environmental analysis of the project. The next steps, he said, require city staff to issue a permit to develop the site, public officials signing off on the environmental report and the city providing full funding for the project.

A rendering of a building, with a U.S. flag flying above it, on the curve of a street with a "no outlet" sign on the other side and a crosswalk visible in the foreground.
A rendering, by RRM Design Group, of how the fire station would appear, as viewed from across 47th at Fairmount. (Image courtesy of city of San Diego)

But Rilli argues that once the city’s final environmental report determines a location for the station, the decision will no longer allow for a meaningful public hearing on the available alternatives.

“Such an approach undermines transparency and deprives residents of an opportunity to be heard on a project that will have lasting impacts on their neighborhood,” he said. 

Rilli and Reynolds both argue final approval for a project this big and expensive should fall to the city council, not city staff, to better allow the public to weigh in.

“This is an issue of natural resource conservation, park equity and government efficiency,” Reynolds said. The fire station is “projected to be the most expensive in San Diego history — located on a pristine canyon hillside proposed by hundreds of nearby families for a nature park.”

The city’s draft environmental review concluded that the project would not have the potential to cause significant impacts at the proposed location. The Sierra Club and Groundwork disagree. But Rillis also believes the environmental analysis may violate the state’s landmark environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires an agency to thoroughly and comprehensively review feasible alternatives. Rilli does not believe the draft report meets that standard.

If staff approves the permit and certifies the project’s EIR, opponents would have 10 business days to appeal the decision, Becker said. The council would only weigh in if someone appeals the decision.

Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek created its own analysis of other potential locations near the proposed site — including the former San Diego police firing range and land adjacent to it on Federal Boulevard, just off of state Route 94.

“Opportune adjacent sites have been dismissed from consideration with faulty floodplain and soil contamination rationales,” Reynolds said. “Some sites were not considered at all. And one site that was eliminated due to an unwilling seller has been sold.”

She argues the city should revive three other sites that city officials turned down six years ago. One is at Home and Fairmount avenues, another is on Home just south of Gateway Drive and a third is at Beech and 38th streets.

Rilli notes that the city’s draft environmental report “dismissed nearly every alternative location, including the former San Diego Police Department pistol range on Federal Boulevard, which all are located less than one mile from the proposed project site. The exclusion of the Federal Boulevard site is particularly troubling. The city’s own consultant concluded that the site can support future land use following cleanup.”

Police cars can be seen behind a metal gate between pillars on a driveway. A sign reads "SDPD range hours."
The old San Diego police firing range, a site on Federal Boulevard that some members of the community would like to see studied for the future Webster fire station. (Photo by Times of San Diego staff)

Despite this updated information, the Draft EIR failed to revisit the location and instead relied on outdated assumptions, decade-old cost estimates and constraints that were never adequately evaluated,” Rilli said.

He points out that the issues facing the city’s chosen location at 47th and Fairmount are the same kinds of problems the city cited to disqualify other locations, like “steep slopes, floodplain encroachment, biological and archaeological impacts, significant grading requirements and stormwater mitigation challenges.”

Rilli declined to say whether the Sierra Club plans to appeal the final decision, explaining that the organization prefers to wait until the process plays out.