City eyes vacant parcel for new fire hall

City of Powell River elected officials will be considering a recommendation to approve a vacant property on Barnet Street as the location for a proposed new fire hall.

Dan Ouellette, director of fire and emergency services, presented a report at the October 17 committee-of-the-whole meeting about selecting a site for an emergency services facility. He asked that council set aside undeveloped city land at 7104 Barnet Street, next to the Powell River RCMP station.

When the fire department began the process, it identified five lots as possible locations, Ouellette said. “We contracted with Fire Underwriters Survey to help us determine which of those lots was best suited for emergency response and to maintain insurance grade ratings for both residential and commercial customers,” he said.

Two of the lots rose to the top, Ouellette said, the property on Barnet and the current location of the No. 1 fire hall on Courtenay Street.

The fire department contracted with an environmental company to conduct a nesting bird survey and a general riparian assessment to determine if there were any wildlife habitats that may limit or impede development on the Barnet property. “The avian nesting survey reported evidence of inactive great blue heron nests,” Ouellette wrote in a report about the property. “The locations of these sites are far enough away from the proposed building location as to not have an impact. The survey also provided recommendations to reduce impact to nesting song birds that may be in the area.”

The riparian assessment focused on the portion of Squatter’s Creek that flows through and bisects the upper portion of the property and significantly restricts the amount of land available for building. The consultant provided options to reconfigure a portion of the creek to allow enough land for construction and to satisfy habitat compensation requirements.

The proposed reconfiguration of the stream would include extending the existing culvert, which enters the property at the northeast corner from Barnet, and the construction of an open stream channel from the outlet of the culvert to the existing stream channel.

The work would require approval from regulatory agencies, including for fish habitat features to compensate for the habitat loss, and is estimated to cost $150,000.

Ouellette said the Courtenay property was too small for a new facility. “We’d have to acquire additional properties,” he said. “Those properties would either have to be acquired facing Courtenay Street and/or to the north, directly behind our current fire hall.”

To acquire two properties and to clear the land to make it suitable for construction is estimated to cost about $520,000, Ouellette said. To acquire three properties would cost about $740,000, he added. As well, temporary accommodation would have to be found for staff and equipment while the old facility was removed and the new facility was constructed.

Councillors agreed to recommend to council that it accept the Barnet Street location. That motion is expected to be on the agenda for the November 7 council meeting.