Laguna Beach council directs staff to study alternatives for Fire Station 1, EOC and parking impacts

Laguna Beach City Council members said the city should prioritize replacing Fire Station 1 and asked staff to analyze alternative locations and related parking solutions rather than immediately retrofitting the current building.

Council members and the plan consultants emphasized the public-safety rationale for considering a new site. Charlie Williams, project architect with LPA Design Studios, said relocating the station “would dramatically improve their response times” and added, “When we talk about response times, it's seconds matter.” Assistant City Manager Gavin Curran told the council the draft facilities master plan ranks the station move among near-term Group 1 priorities.

The council discussed a test-fit design for a two-story fire station on the village parking lot adjacent to the farmer’s market. The concept addresses seismic requirements for an essential facility and provides approximately 11,600 square feet of program space (the team said the existing station is about 9,500 square feet), with an estimated capital cost between $24 million and $27 million. Consultants noted the fit would remove roughly 30 surface parking spaces and advised the city to consider where that parking would be replaced — for example, a separate parking structure at the village entrance or Laguna Canyon Road.

Council members raised specific implementation questions: whether an emergency operations center (EOC) could be incorporated (consultants said a third level could add roughly 3,000 square feet for an EOC but would increase mass and visual scale), how to provide temporary fire coverage during construction, and whether a shared police–fire facility had been studied (it had not been studied for that village lot option). Several council members urged the city to examine non–city-owned alternatives as well.

Council direction and next steps: staff was asked to return with a rapid follow-up analysis that (1) evaluates alternative sites to meet the city’s standards of coverage (including the Christmas tree lot and other parcels in the village entrance area), (2) quantifies cost and timeline trade-offs for retrofit vs. new construction, (3) outlines options to replace lost parking (surface vs. structured), and (4) assesses whether an EOC can be integrated without unacceptable program or massing tradeoffs. City staff indicated they would bring back a timeline and options at the next meeting.

The discussion left open tradeoffs between preserving the historic station building and meeting seismic and operational requirements; several council members said preservation is desirable but not if retrofit would leave the facility unsafe or functionally deficient.

Ending: Council members described the fire-station decision as a near-term priority within the broader facilities master plan and asked staff for an accelerated report comparing sites, costs and operational continuity strategies.