Palo Alto approves contracts to rebuild Mitchell Park fire station

Palo Alto has reached another milestone in its quest to rebuild the Mitchell Park fire station with the City Council approving a series of contracts totaling more than $13 million for a project that has long been viewed by city leaders as a key infrastructure priority.

By a unanimous vote, the council approved on Oct. 20 an $11.5-million contract with Beals Martin and Associates, for replacement of the station. The contract also includes a $1.5 million contingency amount for any unforeseen work that could arise over the course of the project, which is expected to commence in the coming days and conclude in spring 2027.

The city also added $41,366 to its contract with the architecture firm Brown Reynolds Watford Architects, Inc. raising its total contract with the firm to $838,514.

Station 4 is one of the last remaining projects on the city’s 2014 list of infrastructure priorities, a list that also includes a new public safety building that has recently been completed near California Avenue; the bike bridge over U.S. Highway 101 that the city opened in 2021; and Fire Station 3 near Rinconada Park, which was completed in 2020.

An evaluation by the city concluded that the station, which was built in 1953, does not meet current building and seismic codes and fails to meet the department’s operational needs. The 2014 infrastructure report noted that both the former Rinconada and Mitchell Park stations are “earthquake vulnerable, lack sufficient space for emergency supplies, lack safe separation of living quarters from the fumes of engines and hazardous materials, and can barely hold the two engines located at each as those vital pieces of equipment have grown in size and capacity over the years.”

The new Mitchell Park station will be bigger than the current one, with space for a fire engine, an ambulance and a reserve engine. It will also have expanded living quarters for the fire crew, including five bedrooms, an exercise room, a captain’s office and a training room, according to a report from the Department of Public Works. It will also have an electric vehicle charging station, an amenity that “prepares the facility for future electric fire and emergency vehicles, including an electric ambulance and fire engine,” the report states.

Located at 3600 Middlefield Road, the small fire station has been in the spotlight in recent years as the Fire Department changed its staffing models during the pandemic and removed the lone fire engine at Station 4. The move created an uproar in the city’s southeastern quadrant, with many residents complaining that the decision leaves them vulnerable when it comes to fire protection.

Earlier this year, the city moved to return the fire engine to Station 4 and to add enough staffing to the station to allow for a “cross-staffing” model in which a three-person crew operates both a fire engine and an ambulance, depending on which apparatus is needed for a given call. Firefighters have criticized this model, which requires them to swap gear when switching from one apparatus to another.

Councilmembers indicated during budget discussions that they ultimately plan to give the Mitchell Park fire engine full staffing, while medical calls would be shifted to a new civilian division. The budget that the city approved last summer added six full-time paramedic positions to handle medical calls, which make up a vast majority of the total calls that the department receives.

Station 4 staff plan to operate out of modular buildings at Cubberley Community Center while the construction proceeds.

This story originally appeared in Palo Alto Weekly. Gennady Sheyner is the editor of Palo Alto Weekly and Palo Alto Online. As a former staff writer, he has won awards for his coverage of elections, land use, business, technology and breaking news.