NEWPORT BEACH : Revised Fire Station Plan Under Attack

After dozens of revisions, plans for a new Balboa Island fire station are still provoking opposition from angry residents who insist that the station will disrupt their tranquil neighborhood.

“We are all opposed to this station because of the adverse impact it will have on adjacent residents,” said Ellis Morcos, whose house is next door to the proposed station site.

On Thursday, Morcos presented a petition signed by 94 residents at a meeting of the city’s planning commissioners. The opponents call themselves Concerned Citizens of Balboa Island.

“The intrusion of the noise and nuisance will be intolerable,” Morcos said.

Residents questioned the need for a fire station on the island and asked city officials to have an independent company conduct an environmental study to measure the impact. They also said the proposed public restrooms near the station would bring in “undesirable” users and asked to have them removed or placed inside the $1-million fire station.

The Planning Commission did not approve the station’s design Thursday. Instead, it continued the public hearing and will make a decision at its next meeting, on Oct. 22.

The existing Balboa Island fire station is on Marine Avenue halfway between Bayside and Park avenues. If the City Council approves, a new one will be built less than two blocks away, on the opposite side of the street. Some residents would rather see the old one remodeled and remain where it is. That would cost approximately $200,000 less than building a new one, officials said.

The city’s five other fire stations are in Newport Heights, Corona del Mar, Newport Center Fashion Island area and two on the Balboa Peninsula.

Balboa Island, with a population of about 1,700, is the only island in Newport Beach to have a station. Lido Isle, with similar population and size, and six other islands don’t have any. They are Little Balboa, Linda, Bay, Harbor, Collins and Newport isles. The city’s Eastbluff and airport communities, which encompass bigger areas don’t have fire stations either.

But, Fire Chief Timothy D. Riley said the Balboa Island station, although only 26% of its calls are on the island, is “definitely necessary.”

He said that most calls on the island are for medical aides that require response times of five minutes or less and that the danger of a fire spreading from one home to the next exists because of their closeness.

Though some residents oppose the station’s relocation, many more support it, he added.

The current design, which is being changed slightly almost daily, is 4,454 square feet in size, almost 26 feet high with a tile-roofed “early California” look and a 36.6-foot tall clock tower.

Fire officials have said that the 61-year-old, 1,100-square-foot station at 323 Marine Ave. is so small that it cannot house modern fire equipment and that the three firefighters stationed there are crammed into a few hundred feet of living space.

Riley said he expects the building to be completed by Jan. 1, 1994. Thus far, City Councilwoman Jean Watt said, the council has supported the plan. “It’s pretty important because of the inaccessibility of Balboa Island.

The site for the project, on the corner of Marine and Park avenues, Riley said, is “ideally suited to service the island and provides adequate access.”

He said that without the station there, other engines would have to enter onto the island via the narrow and usually crowded bridge, making it difficult to stay within the five minutes or less response time.

“The fire engines will make a terrible noise,” said Carol Deputy, a member of Concerned Citizens of Balboa Island. “That will cause a tremendous impact. I don’t think that’s right at all.”