Redmond council to convene stakeholder group after community push to save Old Firehouse Teen Center

The Redmond City Council announced plans to convene a stakeholder group and council subcommittee to gather teen and community input on the future of the Old Firehouse Teen Center, but made no final decision at the Aug. 4 special business meeting.

Speakers at the meeting pressed the council to preserve the Old Firehouse as a teen center. Chester Anderson, a community member, told the council the building “really does stand for everything Redmond stands for,” and urged collaboration to preserve it. Resident Connor Graham described the Old Firehouse as “one of the safest venues” for teens and said other venues felt less secure. A parks staff member who spoke at public comment said the building’s condition showed only about 3% degradation since a 2015 assessment and criticized the administration’s handling and communication around the closure. Former Mayor Rosemarie Ives urged the council to ask more questions about the timeline, who made the closure decision and what previous studies recommended.

Council President Kritzer told the audience the city will convene a stakeholder group beginning in September. He said the council has formed a subcommittee to work with staff on selecting members for the larger stakeholder group and that outreach will occur in August. The stakeholder group will meet one to two times per month on Monday evenings, with in-person and virtual participation and special focus groups for teens to ensure broad teen representation. A website will be set up to share stakeholder meeting materials, focus-group results and facility data so the public can follow the process.

Council members and speakers repeatedly emphasized that no formal decision to renovate, rebuild or permanently close the Old Firehouse was made at the meeting. Multiple public commenters said cost and administrative decisions, not building safety, prompted the closure and called for clearer cost estimates, staffing history and a prioritized list of repairs. Former Mayor Ives asked whether prior assessments and budget allocations (including a 2014 Meng analysis and a 2018 McKinsey review referenced at the study session) had led to targeted repairs and budgeted funds in subsequent biennial budgets.

The council’s announcement establishes a deliberative process rather than an immediate resolution. The council subcommittee will advise on stakeholder membership and process design; staff will conduct outreach and host focus groups with teens. The stakeholder group’s schedule and materials are to be posted online; the council will receive updates. No vote or commitment to specific capital spending was recorded at the Aug. 4 meeting.

Community members who testified asked for clearer communication about: hours of operation, staffing levels over recent years, detailed condition and cost estimates separated into urgent versus nonessential items, a list of donated equipment and how donations were handled, and the proposed fee assistance plan if programming moves to other sites. The council said it will provide those details to the stakeholder group and post documentation online.

The item remains in the discussion and information-gathering phase; the formal decision-making timeline will depend on the stakeholder process and any budget requests that may follow.