Brentwood CA New Fire Station May Be Funded By Real Estate Developer

Brentwood will get a new fire station if the city’s western boundary lines are extended so a developer can build thousands of homes in its proposed Vineyards at Deer Creek subdivision.

That’s what an agreement unanimously approved Wednesday by the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District board with developer GBN Partners LLC, calls for.

Under the deal, GBN Partners would pay the district $11 million toward a fire station and to help cover extra fire protection services the development will need.

The district last month rejected a previous agreement with the developer and took no position on Measure L, which asks voters to approving expanding the city’s urban limit line to accommodate Vineyards at Deer Creek.

“This (revised) MOU will provide the mitigations the district needs if Measure 11 is approved,” Chief Brian Helmick told the board.

He said the fire district is hard-pressed to provide adequate services to residents while also trying to brace for future development.

“Growth that comes without appropriate mitigations will make a bad situation worse, and make it impossible for East Contra Costa Fire District to lend its support to any proposals on any new development,” he said.

GBN wants to build up to 2,400 homes over the next 20 years on 815 acres off Balfour Road — outside Brentwood’s current urban limit line — if Measure L passes this fall.

In the agreement, GBN will pay an estimated $6.5 million for the fire station. In exchange, the district will ask the city to waive impact fees that otherwise would have been used to help build a station.

The developer will also pay $4.5 million to help staff operational costs, including a $1 million lump sum at the outset of the project and up to $3.5 million for the first 1,500 housing units.

If Measure L is approved, an additional $2 million to $2.5 million in base property taxes will help pay for ongoing operations, Helmick said.

“Establishing a station, we know, this is only half the problem,” Helmick said. “We know that ongoing revenue to be able to sustain and support the operations is the challenge.”

To help the fire district meet a projected $1 million to $1.5 million budget deficit, Helmick said GBN has agreed to also participate in a community facilities district. As a result, the new homeowners will pay up to $650 each in parcel taxes for emergency services.

Not everyone who attended Wednesday’s meeting was swayed, however.

“The problem is that fundamentally it doesn’t solve the big problem — that we don’t have enough firefighters to fill the stations that we have, and building a fire station does not make a damn difference in that process,” resident Jonathan Simpson said.

Kathy Griffin, who spearheads the No on Measure L campaign, also urged a no vote.

“I don’t want you to enter into this agreement on one particular project, one particular geographical area,” she said. “You have to ask yourself, is it really helping and benefiting your service area as a whole for all that it is adding?”

Director Joe Young, however, urged approval, saying it sets a precedent for future development.

“We need six stations right now and we don’t have it,” he said. “We own that problem, the developers don’t own that problem — the past developers might…. We’re having this problem because this hasn’t been done before.

“The developer wants to say he has mitigated fire impacts and that’s what the MOU does,” Young added. “It doesn’t say we support it or oppose it (Measure L).”

Director Steve Smith said voters will decide Measure L’s fate and the board’s only task is to determine whether the agreement addresses anticipated fire service costs.

“Franky, I believe it goes above and beyond and it materially advances us down the road where we have been headed all along,” he said. “What about the current shortages? We will be addressing that. We have been working on that since January. It would be extremely unfair to expect the developer to solve all the problems of the district.”

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