Alamo Fire Station Project Takes One Step Backward

It will be another few months before Alamo's new fire station project moves forward.

One week after the county approved a permit for Alamo's new fire station, eight residents submitted an appeal letter, returning the fire district's plans to a county process that could take months.

The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District's current Alamo fire station on the 1100 block of Stone Valley Road is outdated and undersized, officials have said.

The proposal aims to build a station on a 1.1-acre site at 2100 Stone Valley Road using a residential property the district bought in 2008.

Catherine Kutsuris, director of the Department of Conservation and Development for Contra Costa County, approved the district’s land-use permit for the project at .

Residents’ qualms, listed in their appeal letter filed July 18, are much the same as they were when.

The letter was signed by Dan and Tiffany Haller, Hans and Dianne Christensen, Dave and Natalie Ard and Darren and Lynn Muzio, vocal local opponents to the project who attended Alamo Municipal Advisory Council meetings in and to speak about their worries over the plan.

The concerns include an increase in noise, decrease in safety, traffic congestion, lowering of property values and loss of privacy for nearby homes.

At the July 11 hearing, Kutsuris said her approval hinged on changes in the plans that would minimize the station’s impact on residents. Those changes included more parking, using alarms and sirens only during normal business hours and more neutral color schemes on buildings.

However, residents said in their appeal that the demands did not go far enough and the plan’s “impacts are significant enough to require further mitigation or the decision overturned."

Safety on Miranda Avenue is one point of contention with residents, who say sidewalks should be installed on both sides of the street.

“If there is an emergency during school hours and an accident involving just one student or on a bicycle occurs, could the Fire District and county be liable if this request is not met?” residents asked in the appeal letter.

Ruben Hernandez, a county senior planner, said he is compiling a staff report that would “address the appeal points made in the letter,” but added that no further analysis would be conducted on the district’s plan itself.

After the land-use permit’s approval, architects for the project said it would take about 14 months to complete and estimated that construction would begin in early spring.

But the appeal sends the plan to the County Planning Commission for a hearing that will be scheduled in the next few months, said Hernandez.