Fire Chief Concerned About Station 6

Menlo Park's Fire Chief Harold Shapelhouman says that the city should take some pragmatic things into consideration when they're making the rules about what can be developed in downtown for the next 30 years.

"Everyday we have a unit whose response time is affected by the traffic downtown," Shapelhouman said.

"If a fire truck is trying to get to an emergency, the person on the other end of that 911 call is going to be affected by that," he said.

Shapelhouman was one of the individuals who made a public comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Report that is being compiled about the Downtown Specific Plan Monday night.  Thomas Rogers, associate planner for the city of Menlo Park, presented it to the Planning Commission during their regularly scheduled meeting to familiarize them with the project and hear what factors should be included in it. 

“What we’re trying to look for are things where there is a misunderstanding, or a lack of information about something,” Rogers said. 

was put together to set the zoning ordinances and other guidelines that determine how people can use the land downtown, as well as along the El Camino Real corridor for the next 30 years. It was accepted by the City Council on July 15, 2008, according to the Draft Environmental Impact Report.

The California Environmental Quality Act requires that an Environmental Impact Report be compiled when projects such as this one are put together, so that the physical effects of the project on the environment be assessed and disclosed to the public. Monday night's session was a public hearing where anyone could air their concerns about the things that they think should be weighed into the process.

Fire Chief Harold Shapelhouman said that he was concerned that the increase in traffic circulation in the area around the fire station downtown would affect his team’s ability to respond to fires. The downtown station is located on the corner of Oak Grove and Hoover Street, caddycorner to the post office.

“Two thirds of all the structures downtown are not sprinklered structures,” Shapelhouman said, to highlight the importance of a being able to get to a site quickly.  He also said that if sidewalks are expanded, as the plan sets out to do, the height of trees and width of sidewalks should be discussed, so firefighters will know which fire trucks to deploy.  

"The bottom line is that we value saving life and property; and we need to be able to use the tools we have to do that," he said.

Menlo Park residents have 19 more days to make comments on the city’s long term vision for the El Camino Real corridor and downtown.

More information about the project from the city can be found here.

To read what the Environmental Quality Commission had to say about the EIR, .