Neighborhood Board Opposes Park Site for New Finn Hill Fire Station

The board of the Denny Creek Neighborhood Alliance has voted to oppose the construction of a new Kirkland fire station at a controversial site inside King County’s Big Finn Hill Park.

The board of the longtime non-profit alliance on Finn Hill, an area annexed by Kirkland last year, said locating the proposed station on two acres of the park undermines goals important to the community. The group’s longstanding mission is to protect and restore natural resources on the hill and promote stewardship of its wildlife and environment.

“We don’t like to be in a position of opposition to the fire district’s efforts to provide service for the community,” association president Scott Morris said Wednesday. “But the choice of park property for the location does not seem to be an acceptable solution.”

Kevin Nalder, chief of the Kirkland Fire Department, said he welcomed all public comment on the fire station plan.

"The public's opinion is important," he said. "I look forward to having these discussions with the community on March 8. We serve the public, and we value their opinions."

The first public meeting on the Fire District's plan is scheduled for Tuesday, March 8, at 7 p.m., at the Mormon Stake Center on Finn Hill at the intersection of Juanita Drive and Northeast 132nd Street.

The site on Finn Hill is in an unincorporated part of King County that will become part of the City of Kirkland on June 1, when an annexation vote approved last year takes effect. The city and Fire District 41, which provides service to the area but will be dissolved when annexation takes effect, have been negotiating for months with King County to acquire the site for a new station.

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 and cheaper to operate. Proceeds from the sale of the existing stations will pay for the new one.

when a backhoe crew cut several tracks through the site at the intersection of Juanita Drive and Northeast 138th Place and cleared three small area to take soil samples. The work was part of a preliminary site analysis, conducted with a special use permit issued by the county.

Big Finn is an expansive park of mostly native coniferous forests, bisected by Juanita Drive and designated a regional park by the county, which will retain control when the area becomes part of Kirkland. It includes four developed baseball fields, a soccer field and playground. Big Finn's forests, along with those of the adjacent 400-acre Saint Edward State Park, still host black-tailed deer, bald eagles, hawks, owls, coyote, raccoons, Douglas squirrels and many other native species.