A long-awaited fire station might finally be coming to the rapidly growing campus of UC San Diego, university and city officials said this week.

The station was among 19 new facilities recommended in a 2011 independent consultant’s report that declared emergency coverage inadequate in several parts of San Diego, including the neighborhoods around UCSD.

And the new station has become even more important in the wake of the City Council’s decision last month to delete from planning maps the controversial Regents Road Bridge, which could have shortened emergency response times in the area.

Since the 2011 study, city and university officials have discussed a partnership where the university would provide land and pay for construction of the new station, while the city would fund operations and maintenance.


But no formal agreement has ever been presented publicly, and community leaders in University City have called progress on the project frustratingly slow.

A spokesman for the city’s Fire-Rescue Department said this week that city and university officials are still discussing the project and expect to unveil a proposal this spring, most likely in April.

Meanwhile, the university issued a statement on Wednesday including similar information.

“The city and UC San Diego are discussing the potential fire station project and look forward to bringing more details to the City Council for consideration, hopefully in April,” the statement said.


The city and the university declined to provide any additional details.

The website for the university’s Physical and Community Planning division says the new station would be built in the northwest corner of the campus, just south of where Genesee Avenue and North Torrey Pines Road intersect. The site also estimates the station will be completed in spring 2020.

City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, who was elected in November to represent University City, La Jolla and nearby areas, has listed the new station and another planned for southern University City among her public safety priorities.


“I look forward to working with UCSD and the city to ensure that the station is built on time and on budget,” Bry said.

She has praised the plan to have the university fund construction, which is expected to be $10 million to $12 million, and have the city cover personnel and operations, which is expected to be somewhere between $1.5 million and $4 million per year depending on a variety of factors.

The other fire station planned for the University City area, slated for the intersection of Nobel Drive and Shoreline Drive near University City High School, is already funded by $14 million the city has collected from developers of projects in the area.

Ground breaking for that station is expected in late 2017 or early 2018.


The community was the second in the city last year to get a “fast response” squad, an experimental effort to use two-man crews to quicken emergency responses in poorly served areas.

Janay Kruger, leader of the University Community Planning Group, said she’s been frustrated there hasn’t been more progress on the campus fire station.

“We’ve thought it was a done deal for the last five years,” she said.

Kruger complained that university officials have made the new station a lower priority than many other recent projects, which have increased the demand for fire coverage on campus.


City statistics show that roughly one third of the calls handled by city Fire Station 35, located near the eastern edge of UCSD, are incidents that take place on campus.

City officials have said the biggest hurdle to solving the emergency response challenges identified by the independent consultant in 2011 isn’t building new fire stations, but having enough money to operate them year after year into the future.

It was primarily for that reason that the City Council declined to place on the ballot last year a proposed $205 million bond measure that would have paid for construction of nearly all of the stations recommended by the consultant, Citygate Associates of Folsom.

The UCSD station was not included in the proposed bond measure because city officials expect the university to cover the construction costs.


The city’s Independent Budget Analyst said last summer that city expenses would increase $1.3 million per station for personnel and another $155,000 for finance charges to lease fire engines and other equipment.

But the Citygate report said the UCSD station would need “double” staffing, so annual costs could approach $4 million if that recommendation is embraced.

The report, however, is being revised at the request of the city, and the new recommendations may differ from 2011 based on changes in population and traffic patterns since then.

RELATED: UCSD OPENS DOWNTOWN CAMPUS


UC San Diego, which previously held classes in rented space, has announced a $42 million, 66,000-square-foot downtown outpost. Construction is expected to begin next year with completion by late 2020 or early-2021. (Carrier Johnson + Culture)

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick