The Sedona City Council and Sedona Fire District Management Board held a joint meeting on Sept. 25 to discuss a potential land swap that would allow for the relocation of SFD’s Station 4, currently located at 391 Forest Road Uptown.

The city-owned parcel under consideration for such a land swap is 401 Jordan Road, a 1.75-acre site built in 1973 as Valley Bank, which the Sedona Chamber of Commerce announced in 2017. It was acquired with city funds and transferred to the city in May. It was completed in 2021 and is currently used as an overflow city parking lot. SFD Chief Ed Mezulis said if SFD were to acquire the Jordan 401 property, most of the site would be occupied by the fire department.

“There will probably be more public parking on the north side than we would normally provide at the fire station,” Mezulis said. “You’re not going to lose all the parking spaces, but most of them, because we know there’s business uptown. But if you lay out the station properly as a one-story… [take up] most of the property. ” Principal Planner Cynthia Lovely said a private developer has expressed interest in building a workforce housing project at 401 Jordan Road.

“We let [the developer] I know this conversation took place today, and we will wait and see if this packet is of further interest to the Fire Commission and City Council, and depending on whether it remains on the agenda, we will issue it after that development. RFP to select candidates,” Lovely said.

Councilman Brian Fultz said that even if the city were to exchange the Jordan property for SFD, it would have been purchased before the City Council voted to purchase the Sedona Cultural Park in November 2022. He said it would not be a “major sacrifice at this point.”

Vice Mayor Holly Ploeg asked what land SFD could exchange with the city, and Meslis said most of the district’s property is outside city limits, but if SFD could keep it, it would be at 431 Forest Road. He said he imagines the parcel could be traded. A communications tower will be constructed on a separate 0.13-acre parcel adjacent to the existing Station 4.

The 431 Forest site is currently leased to the city for use as a parking lot, and the joint meeting also considered the possibility of SFD building a new station on the site to replace the station next door.

Mezulis said that would require SFD to also acquire two adjacent parcels: 461 Forest, owned by Chai Spot LLC, and 441 Forest, owned by Sal DiGiovanni.

During the meeting, Meslis reiterated that DiGiovanni had no intention of selling his property.

“If we had the 461 but not the 441, would we have the ability to build a station?” SFD board secretary Cory Cooperman asked during the meeting. “Not really,” Mezulis answered. “We’ll basically build the same thing we have now, but in a different location.”

Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey suggested the properties could be condemned. City officials said during the meeting that they could provide a condemnation experience.

Sedona Mayor Scott Jabrow then said the city is focusing more on the 401 Jordan Road site for Station 4. “I don’t know about fire protection districts specifically, but any special district generally has condemnation authority,” the city attorney said. Kurt Christianson said.

Other locations city staff considered in their preliminary assessment included the area around 221 Brewer Road and the current location of the city’s main uptown parking lot, 260 Schnebly Road. , the city council ruled out that possibility.

“The other thing we had on our list as a possibility, which is completely tentative, is [Sedona-Oak Creek School District] This is the land where the courthouse and city hall are located,” Lovely said. “It’s a relatively good-sized lot at the back of the building. There may be an opportunity there as well. I mean, it was brought out relatively last minute, so we haven’t been able to do a detailed analysis, but… That doesn’t mean further investigation was impossible.”

Meslis said there are drainage issues behind the site at 221 Brewer Road, and “we’ve just heard that they may be looking to 2030 before we break ground.”

A potential site in the Brewer Road area has not been identified, but once completed, the extension of Forest Road would provide quick access to 89A and Uptown, but the downside is that the station would be outside of Uptown. said Mezulis, adding that the move to Brewer Road will not affect SFD’s road mileage statistics, so it will not affect the area’s Insurance Services Agency rating.

Station 4 relocation history

“I personally began this process of evaluating Station 4 with great effort in the fall of ’23 and began conversations with Karen, the former City Administrator. [Osburn]” SFD Director Ed Mezulis said before giving credit to Osburn’s successor, Annette Spickard, for setting up the joint session. “To my knowledge, this is the first time in the history of town annexation and the history of the fire district that we have had a joint meeting.”

Mezulis added that one of the major efforts of him and the SFD board since taking over as SFD chief in September 2022 has been to put the discussion about Station 4 on the City Council agenda.

Discussions regarding the construction of a new Station 4 continued for decades, but to no avail. In 2017, 56% of voters rejected SFD’s request for a $17.9 million bond to replace Station 4 in Uptown and relocate Station 5 in Oak Creek Canyon. After spending several years building capital reserves, SFD returns to plans to build two new stations.

“SFD launched a fully funded 10-year capital plan with $7.79 million in reserves earlier this year,” Meslis said afterwards. “For Station 4, we are planning a $10 million combination of cash and financing, but we won’t know the true cost until the station location is solidified.”

“You say you’re saving money. Is that enough to cover the construction or land acquisition and construction, and how pessimistic are you about that cost? Because we’re talking about the cost of building things. Because it has broken my heart over and over again,” Fultz asked Meslis.

“The city’s costs for fire departments and municipal buildings have increased 200 percent since 2012, and I made the board aware of that reality,” Meslis said. “My personal opinion is that costs will not come down…but we are in a good financial position to achieve it.” [this]. These aren’t things we want…this is what we’ve needed since ’96. ”

SFD’s stated goals are to acquire a new 50-year service life station with a drive-through bay, increased separation between living quarters and work areas, direct access from station living quarters to equipment bays, The exhaust system is to ensure community space for public gatherings. and sustainability.

“It wasn’t built for people to live in,” Mezulis said of the current Station 4, which was built in 1972. The current Station 4 is smaller than current fire department design standards require, with a foundation in the engine room and housing. above the engine room. Mezulis added that he would like a one-story station. “When I started, [at SFD]the bedroom I slept in had sliding glass doors…because before my bedroom was enclosed it was a patio. The station now has another bedroom, which was the living room and then the weight room, but the floor started to collapse under the weight… Most of the bedrooms have four doorways to get to the equipment bays. You have to go through… In an emergency, every second counts, you have to go through every door, you have to go down every staircase, so it increases the amount of time it takes to get out the door in a fire truck. Masu. ”

SFD and the city agreed to schedule another joint meeting in approximately two months to continue considering location options.