Fire District 41 Considering More Locations for New Finn Hill Station

More locations for a new fire station on Finn Hill will be considered along with a controversial proposed site inside King County’s Big Finn Hill Park, Fire District 41 commissioners announced Thursday.

The commissioners also said they were extending the public process to find a location for the new station and negotiating with the city of Kirkland, which will absorb the district on June 1 when the city’s annexation of Finn Hill takes effect. Much of Finn Hill is currently in unincorporated King County.

The negotiations are designed to ensure the creation of a new station will not be hindered when the city takes over.

“We just realized there was no way we were going to get this all done by June 1,” said Toby Nixon, one of the district’s three commissioners. “So we’re establishing an inter-local agreement with the city so that when the assets of the district are handed over June 1, the city will complete the process of creating a new station on Finn Hill.”

The decisions come after a heated March 8 public meeting during which area residents roundly criticized the district proposal to locate a new, $4.5 million fire station inside Big Finn Hill Park. Most of the residents who spoke said the value of the park location as habitat, open space and recreational uses far outweighs the need to put a station there.

Fire officials want to sell two smaller stations on Finn Hill and consolidate them into one larger station, which they say will be better located to improve response time on the hill and in newly annexed areas, and cheaper to operate. Proceeds from the sale of the existing stations would pay for the new one.

Nixon said the feedback residents provided at the hearing prompted the commissioners to reexamine the process and to consider additional sites.

“Absolutely,” he said. “We took all that to heart and we’re taking another comprehensive look at it.”

More locations will be considered, including one next to Finn Hill Junior High School that had been previously rejected because it was not level and would require a more cumbersome two-story station. Nixon said declining property values might also make the purchase of private property more feasible for a station location.

While the district will continue to examine potential sites, the final decision will now with rest the city.

“All the decisions about where the station will be located will be done through a public process executed by the city," Nixon said.

The commissioners have also taken steps to extend a current district property tax levy beyond its scheduled expiration in 2012, but at a far lesser rate than the present $1.14 per $1,000 of valuation -- likely somewhere between 7 and 14 cents. The levy was passed several years ago to pay for district operations and create a reserve for a new station. The new rate will be based on estimates of the cost of a new station once a site has been chosen, Nixon said.