Jacksonville, FL (August 29, 2018) – Its official, Jacksonville City Council passed Bill 2018-459, to approve the Purchase and Sale Agreement for new Fire Station #63 in District 11. After months and years in the making, this agreement for the land purchase to build a much-needed Fire Station in the Baymeadows East area was approved unanimously.
The site for the New Fire Station #63 will be located on Gate Parkway near Burnt Mill Road, north of a proposed new mixed-use development to be called “The Palms”. The site is approximately 2.72 acres and is being purchased from Nouveau Management Group, LLC in the amount of $1,757,740.
The search for a new fire station site began in November of 2015.
District 11 Councilman Becton announced the purchase and sale agreement for the new fire station back in July during a community meeting.
“The Baymeadows East area of the district has experienced lots of growth with new homes and apartments. With this growth public safety services are stretched thin and additionally, some neighborhoods experienced ISO 10 issues which cost residents more in home insurance premiums” Becton explained during the July meeting.
In the City of Jacksonville’s budget for 2017 – 2018, money was appropriated to fund the construction of the New Fire Station #63 with a $4.4 million appropriation along with the additional resources to create Fire & Rescue Company #63 which has been housed at Station #44 at Baymeadows and Western Way, while the search for the permanent site took place.
“ISO 10 is the rating fire protection services are gauged”, Becton added. “1 is Best and 10 is Worse.” “Properties in this zone are not only too far to have reliable services but homeowners can be penalized with higher insurance premiums too”.
Hampton Park, a neighborhood off Baymeadows Road East has met the ISO 10 criteria for years.
“There are other future growth areas that also had to be considered in finding the location of this new fire station site as well.” Becton explained. “Future residences of eTown will soon be built, and they too will be part of this ISO 10 area”. Becton added, “placing this station in the right location was critical, not getting it right can cost taxpayers big!” “Choosing the wrong location, could create the need for three stations in District 11, instead of two to cover all communities within the District and this can cost taxpayers millions.” Becton explained.
This location also has an advantage in the size of the property. In 2017-2018, the budget allocated $250,000 for a temporary station to be created while the permanent one gets built. It is anticipated that by the end of the year, the temporary station will be operational and within 90 days of that happening, residents in the area will no longer have the ISO 10 rating.
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