Planned demolition of Santa Paula fire station upsets preservationists

Plans to demolish a fire station originally built in 1935 in downtown Santa Paula have drawn criticism from a historical agency.

A new 13,000-square-foot facility will be built at the 114 S. 10th St. site, located between Main Street and Veterans Memorial Park. The updated Ventura County Fire Department Station 29 will include seven dorm rooms and quarters for a battalion chief.

Stephen Schafer, president of the San Buenaventura Conservancy for Preservation, wants to save the old fire station but feels it’s too late to change the decision.

“Even though everybody should have done the right thing, nothing was done correctly when it comes to that building,” Schafer said. “You can’t really operate under the excuse you didn’t know. You just didn’t look. The process was completely screwed up.”

Schafer said he first learned about the old station’s plight from a Star article published in May.

In July 2018, when the Santa Paula Fire Department joined the Ventura County Fire Protection District, the station’s ownership was transferred to the county. At the time, the county said it was committed to building two new fire stations to replace current ones within the next five years.

The county Board of Supervisors approved the plan in April 2020. Schafer said historical documentation about the fire station should have been presented in the agenda report, but wasn't.

The state’s Office of Historic Preservation lists the fire station as a Ventura County property eligible to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

Santa Paula City Manager Dan Singer was caught off guard by the criticism and said he had encouraged the county to go through its historical board before moving ahead with the project.

“Because something is old, doesn’t make it valuable,” he said in an email. “While we would always want to be sensitive about demolishing a 90-year-old structure, this facility is of low quality and craftsmanship, has no distinct architectural value, and is far inferior to the aesthetic qualities of the new station that will be constructed there, thus enhancing our city and the entrance to our historic downtown.”

Singer said his opinion was professional and not the opinion of a “true historian.”

In August 2019, months before the supervisors’ decision, Gabriel Zamora, president of the Santa Paula Conservancy, wrote a letter to Mark Lorenzen, the county fire chief at the time, asking him not to modify the building unless required by environmental law.

Zamora said he didn’t get a response to the letter and called the entire process “dispiriting.”

“From our standpoint, this is the worst possible outcome that could have happened,” Zamora said about the imminent demolition.

The estimated cost for the new two-story station is about $12 million, said Scott Thomsen, spokesperson for the county fire department. Construction of the new station will take roughly two years.

During construction, a temporary fire station is slated to open next to the California Oil Museum. The temporary station will cost about $400,000, Thomsen said.

The county is hoping to go out to bid on the project soon, so the actual start date for construction hasn't been nailed down yet, said Brian D’Anna, deputy director of engineering services for the county Public Works Agency. Timing of the demolition also hasn't been set.

When asked if the county knew the history of the building in 2020, D’Anna said, “I’m not sure we had the full ramification of the potentially historic significance of it.”

D’Anna said the county already made its decision and the latest criticism won’t change that.

Thomsen, the fire department spokesman, said the building is not in its original state and has been “substantially altered” with major modifications and additions since 1935.

He noted the 2018 agreement with Santa Paula included a requirement that the county replace the building.

“They recognized that it was an aging building,” Thomsen said. “It was going to need updating, and it was time for another major update.”

Wes Woods II covers West County for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at wesley.woodsii@vcstar.com, 805-437-0262 or @JournoWes.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Santa Paula fire station's planned demolition upsets preservationists