Longer Response Times Expected During Construction of New Station in Ann Arbor, MI

ANN ARBOR, MI — Some areas on Ann Arbor’s east side may see longer fire response times as the city operates with one less fire station over the next year.

“That extreme southeast part of the city, there is going to be some increase of response time,” Ann Arbor Fire Department Chief Mike Kennedy said.

The city is getting ready to demolish its aging Fire Station 4 off Huron Parkway and Platt Road and it’s expected to take about 14 months to build a new one in its place.

“There’s a reason for that fire station to be where it is, and so taking it off the board is definitely going to have an impact to that area,” Kennedy said.

The project could break ground around Memorial Day in late May, Kennedy said.

Station 4’s crew will relocate to Station 1 downtown during construction, while an ambulance at Station 1 will relocate to Station 6 near Briarwood Mall, he said.

“On the days that we have staffing available, we will have the second ambulance downtown as well, so it’s a bit of a dynamic staffing model, but the number of firefighters on duty is not changing,” he said.

The city hasn’t done any modeling to quantify how much fire response times could increase for affected areas around Station 4, but the fire department strives to have a median response time of under six minutes citywide, Kennedy said.

“Obviously our goal is to try to decrease the window that there is that response time,” he said.

City Council Member Jon Mallek, who lives a stone’s throw north of Station 4 near the Arborland shopping center, said he could imagine some areas within two or three minutes of the station may have to wait minutes longer if fire crews are responding from downtown and it’s definitely a concern.

“Every minute obviously counts,” said Mallek, D- 2nd Ward.

But if it’s only temporary, it’s probably manageable and he looks forward to eventually having a new state-of-the-art station, he said. He hasn’t heard any concerns about it from residents, who are similarly excited about the new station, he said.

Council Member Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, D- 3rd Ward, said she hasn’t heard from any constituents about the expected longer response times, but she has concerns and wonders what other contingency plans could be created.

The fire department reported handling nearly 12,000 calls for service in 2024, including 56 structure fires, 110 cooking fires and 36 vehicle fires, while the bulk of calls were medical emergencies. Over 1,600 of the total incidents reported were in the Station 4 district.

Ann Arbor has five fire stations, including Station 1 downtown on Fifth Avenue across from city hall, Station 3 on Jackson Avenue on the west side, Station 4 on Huron Parkway on the east side, Station 5 off Plymouth Road on the north side and Station 6 by Briarwood Mall on the south side.

In addition to the downtown crew, firefighters from the stations off Plymouth Road and by Briarwood Mall can help respond to fires in the vicinity of Station 4, Kennedy said. Pittsfield Township also may provide mutual aid in some cases, with its closest station is by Meijer off Ellsworth and Carpenter roads, he said.

“It really kind of depends where it’s going to be in the district of who’s going to be the fastest unit to get there,” he said.

The city’s old Station 2 on Stadium Boulevard just east of Packard closed in 2003 amid a round of city budget cuts and was eventually sold to the city’s Housing Commission in 2024 as a future affordable housing development site.

Kennedy said the possibility of temporarily operating out of Station 2 during construction was explored, but it would have required an extra investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not close to $1 million, to make necessary upgrades to make it operational again just for the short term.

“And this project has already had significantly rising costs,” he said of the $12.4 million Station 4 project.

The existing station at 2415 S. Huron Parkway was built in 1966 and is now outdated and does not provide adequate areas for modern firefighting equipment and personnel, officials said.

The new station is being designed to better accommodate firefighters of all gender identities, in addition to eco-friendly features to align with city sustainability goals.

It’s the first time since 1981 the city has completely redone or rebuilt one of its fire stations, Kennedy said.

“Unfortunately we just really should have been — at minimum, every 15 to 20 years — tackling one of these,” he said.

Now several of the city’s fire stations are reaching the end of their useful life around the same time, he said, hinting at more station replacement projects to come after Station 4.

In a perfect world, he said, the city would have found another location for a new Station 4 and waited until construction was complete to demolish the current station, but after a significant review of property in the area there wasn’t a good option.

So, the city is trying to make the construction time as short as possible, Kennedy said, noting the contractor is required to complete the work in 428 days once it starts.

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