Sunnyvale is getting financial assistance from the federal government to rebuild a local fire station in need of modernization.
The city was recently awarded $1 million from the House Appropriations Committee to rebuild Fire Station 2, which houses a regionally recognized fire training facility. It is one of 15 community projects for which U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, the South Bay Democrat, secured almost $14.8 million in funding for fiscal year 2024-25.
“We are grateful for Rep. Khanna’s support and are delighted that renovating Fire Station 2 is one of his priority projects to receive federal funding,” Sunnyvale said in a statement to The Mercury News. “Not only will this project improve our local emergency response and increase emergency preparedness, it will help meet critical regional training demands in a modern, sustainable facility.”
Other nearby projects include $1.05 million for Sunnyvale Community Services — a nonprofit emergency assistance agency that targets homelessness and hunger issues in Santa Clara County — to improve their facilities, $850,000 for Cupertino to rebuild the nearly century-old McClellan Road pedestrian bridge and $500,000 for Milpitas to install streetlights and signal improvements along Main Street.
Located at the intersection of Wolfe Road and Arques Avenue, Fire Station 2 serves as a regional training center for firefighters in the city and throughout Santa Clara County. The number of recruits ranges from 10 to 30 at a time, said Phan Ngo, chief for the Sunnyvale’s department of public safety. The site also trains public safety officers and hosts emergency preparedness training for community volunteers.
Five of the city’s six fire stations were built in the 1960s, including the Arques station. City staff initiated a September 2021 Fire Station Master Plan that reviewed the stations’ existing conditions and current program requirements to determine whether to replace or remodel each of them. Fire Station 2 was identified as the highest priority for replacement as it was, “outdated, inefficiently organized, and do(es) not meet many current codes and best practices,” according to city documents.
“It’s an aging facility,” Ngo said. “We want to also make sure the living and working conditions meet modern safety standards. For all those reasons, that is why we are rebuilding.”
In December 2023, the Sunnyvale City Council approved a more than $2 million contract with PBK Architects to begin the design and rebuilding process, which is expected to cost $40 million. Construction is slated to begin in late 2025.
Fire Station 2 currently consists of five buildings on a 2.28 acre parcel. These include the main fire station, an annex for equipment maintenance and repair, a training center that houses the Regional Fire Academy Training Program, an area for Santa Clara County contract paramedic provider ambulance crew members and a separate training tower.
The new building will be approximately 20,500 square feet and have a LEED gold equivalency certification, which is a symbol of sustainability achievement. Environmentally friendly measures, including solar panels and all electric systems, will also be added to the building.
“With everything that is modernized, the training that we provide to our personnel will greatly enhance our responses to fire calls through the different communities in Santa Clara County,” Ngo said. “and also when our personnel are deployed to different part of the state for wildland fires.”
Firefighters and public safety officers still plan be in the area during the construction, Ngo said, but the department is still working out a plan on how to do so.
“We are working through the process,” he said. “to determine whether we can still have a facility to house our current personnel or we need to identify a temporarily solution at that location.”