Coral Gables may purchase Old Cutler home at $4 mil for new fire station

The purchase of a home on Old Cutler Road, to convert it into a fire station outpost, and regulations for motorized scooters are among the agenda items at the Coral Gables commission meeting Tuesday, the first since City Manager Peter Iglesias was given the permanent job.

Some people are unhappy about the way that Iglesias got the top administrative post after Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark‘s forced exit without any type of national search or even look around town. There may be some residents who bring it up during public comments, but the city manager’s position and the police structure and the relationship between the two is not on the agenda this week for the first time in a while.

What they will discuss includes the purchase of Cal Rosenbaum’s residential property at 7000 Old Cutler Road for the purpose of “preserving landscaped open space and renovating the existing house for use as a fire station to enhance fire rescue response time to the surrounding neighborhood.”

It seems odd that this is the first some might hear about the purchase of this property, which is right adjacent to Cocoplum Circle (see aerial photo here). Has there been any study as to whether the location is the best option? Have other homes or properties even been identified? In fact, how did this one come onto the city’s radar?

The city has already gotten a multitude of assessments which vary from $1.3 to $3.9 million, depending on whether the prperty is used as residential or commercial. The city’s proposal, of course, is to pay top dollar: $4 million as is.

There are $1.5 million available in state grant funds and $2.3 million would come from impact fees, leaving $200,000 from the general capital improvement budget.

Why would the city pay the highest amount? Even the property advisory board recommended $3 million.

And that’s likely not the end of the expenses. What would it cost to turn the house into a functioning station? And how would that impact the community around it?

The city, which is in the process of building a new public safety headquarters for police and fire, currently has three fire stations. The main one at 2801 Salzedo Street (photographed here), which shares space with the police department, is in such bad shape that some equipment is parked outside so it doesn’t get damaged. This station would be replaced by the new public safety building. Fire Station II at 525 South Dixie Highway is crumbling, with firefighters sleeping in trailers in the parking lot. And Fire Station III at 11911 Old Cutler Rd., may still have mold issues.

Maybe before the city gets into another fire station, it should bring the ones it has up to par and finish the main public safety building. It doesn’t seem that this is such a bargain deal that it has to happen right now. There’s even a clause where the residents get to stay for two years paying no rent. This is a sweet deal for Cal Rosenbaum, who asked the commission in 2015 to buy his home so he could move out of the Gables because of overdevelopment. I kid you not.

What’s the hurry?

“Fire response to the City’s central areas has been challenging due to travel distances and access limitation caused by traffic congestion and lack of alternate travel routes for its existing fire stations,” says the memo in the commission agenda package. “Locating a fire station somewhere near Sunset would help to narrow the gap between the existing fire stations and allow faster response times to communities such as Coco Plum, Gables Estates, Hammock Lakes, and portions of the University of Miami.”

It’s bonus that the lot they are looking at has a lot of wooded ground and 136 trees that would create a buffer to the firetrucks in an expanded garage. “This area primarily consists of residential so staff wanted to ensure the location had minimal [visual] impact to the neighborhood,” the memo says.

Maybe we’ll see what the neighborhood says Tuesday.

Coral Gables, firefighters

Coral Gables may purchase Old Cutler home at $4 mil for new fire station added by Ladra on October 9, 2018
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