El Segundo council expected to approve $7.8 fire station project - The Daily Breeze By Andrea Woodhouse, Staff Writer

The El Segundo City Council is set tonight to approve designs for a new fire station that will more than double the size of current facilities on the town's corporation-heavy east side.

The city also could launch a search for a contractor for the project on the corner of Mariposa Avenue and Nash Street, estimated to cost about $7.8 million.

El Segundo's two fire stations straddle both sides of town, but the 1950s-era, 5,800-square-foot facility that keeps watch over the city's share of Fortune 500 companies is cramped and in poor shape, officials have said.

The new station will have 13,600 square feet of space, giving a private bedroom to each of the nine firefighters stationed there each shift, as well as private restrooms for female firefighters, said Fire Chief Kevin Smith.

The design also includes a smaller version of the Main Street station's training tower, as well as more room for engines and trucks, some of which must now be parked outside the current station, he said.

"We're impressed with the appearance and how it's also going to serve us functionally," Smith said. "It gives us a lot more space."

If the council approves designs tonight and selects a contractor soon, construction could begin as early as July and wrap up about a year later, he added.

The existing fire station No. 2 near El Segundo Boulevard and Nash Street will be sold off, its profits used to offset construction costs for the facility's replacement, Smith said.

A new firehouse is the final piece of long-running plans for a five-acre chunk of land near Mariposa Avenue and Nash Street.

The city bought the sliver of property in 2006 for $5.5 million as part of a deal with a developer that turned the parcel's remaining 46 acres into a controversial corporate campus development.

Thomas Properties, the developer, in October 2005 purchased the land from Federal Express Corp. for $30 million.

Opponents of the project, Campus El Segundo, halted its development for years through an unsuccessful 2002 ballot referendum and subsequent failed lawsuit.

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