by Tony Gonzalez
October 17, 2009 7:41 AM
Following an extensive search for a public safety storage facility to shelter reserve emergency equipment for the fire and police departments, officials narrowed the list to a half dozen locations, according to an October 16 posting on santamonicadailypress.com.
Those 6 potential locations - 3 in and around the Santa Monica Airport - are to be presented to the community on November 18 during a workshop at the Ken Edwards Center, where the public will be invited to provide input on whether the proposed sites meet certain criteria, including providing major arterial access and complementing existing land uses.
The proposed facility is needed to store reserve emergency and training vehicles and specialized equipment, which are currently stored outside in multiple locations, exposing them to the Mother Nature, thus shortening their useful life. Without one central storage facility, residents and officials alike have concerns regarding response times since all equipment on vehicles is removed and stored indoors to prevent theft. Obviously, this causes some delay when the equipment then needs to be loaded during emergency calls.
City Hall evaluated 30 different potential sites, narrowing the field to 7 for review by consultant, Gensler Architects. The original group included 7 city-owned sites, 18 non-city-owned sites, and 5 non-city-owned sites in Los Angeles, the latter portion of which were eliminated because of additional expense and delay, Alex Parry, the project architect, said.
The Gensler group then weighed the 7 remaining properties against criteria that included their impact on response time and their need for utility infrastructure, and a pair of properties was removed as a result.
"This site has vulnerability to tsunamis and potential inaccessibility should the McClure Tunnel be blocked due to earthquakes," Parry said about the Deauville site.
Fire Chief Jim Hone said the storage facilities will store emergency reserve apparatuses and community disaster preparedness supplies, adding there will be no heavy maintenance at the facilities, which now takes place at the new Big Blue Bus maintenance yard on Colorado Avenue, saying ""That is a beautiful location for us to utilize."
City staff is expected to conduct 6-8 interviews with a sample of residents on Thursday, October 29; they will return to the council later this year with the outcome of both public outreach efforts and to receive direction on which site to pursue.