South Shore Fire Station Project
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Constructed in 1971, South Shore Fire Station is the oldest of the Lake Oswego's four fire stations. Located at 1880 South Shore Boulevard, firefighters based out of this facility primarily respond to calls for service within the southeast quadrant of the city. In 2023, firefighters from the South Shore Fire Station responded to approximately 900 calls for service ranging from medical emergencies, to fire and life safety incidents, to public service calls.
The Fire Department has been charged by the City Council with beginning a needs assessment and community engagement process to rebuild the South Shore Fire Station. Over the next year, this page will be updated with the Fire Department's findings and recommendations.
March 4, 2025 -- Assitant Fire Chief Kristine Artman, Task Force Chair Chris Durkee, and Management Analyst Quin Brunner presented the Task Force's recommendations and findings to the City Council.
In front of an enthusiastic audience of Task Force members, fire fighters, Neighborhood Association board members, and community members, the City Council directed staff to begin phase two of the project -- determining project cost and launching a full-scale community engagement effort.
A recording of the City Council presentation is available here and the Task Force's final reccomendation report is available here.
February 20, 2025 - City Manager Martha Bennett kicked-off the final meeting of the South Shore Fire Station Task Force by thanking members for their thoughtful questions, thorough fact-finding, and effective collaboration.
Members then reviewed and endorsed both a draft community engagement plan and final recommendation report -- fulfilling the charge issued to them by the City Council in September of 2024.
Task Force members were recognized individually by City Councilor Trudy Corrigan and Task Force Chair Chris Durkee before the group adjourned for the final time.
Photos by Jesper Angelo.
All materials from the Task Force's sixth meeting, including the agenda packet, handouts, meeting recording, and minutes are available here.
January 30, 2025 - Recognizing that passage of a bond is a likely a prerequisite to advancing this project, Task Force members worked with Deputy City Manager Madison Thesing to identify the best channels for sharing their findings.
Photos by Task Force member, Kianna Angelo.
Members produced a wide-ranging list of stakeholders and communciation methods, which are being incorporated into a full-scale community engagement strategy. Task Force members also received a manuscript of their recommendation report, and were asked to provide edits ahead of their final meeting in February.
All materials from the Task Force's fifth meeting, including the agenda packet, slide deck, handouts, meeting recording, and minutes are available here.
January 9, 2025 - The fourth meeting of the South Shore Fire Station Task Force began with a discussion of whether renovating the existing facility would be feasible. Task Force members coalesced around the perspective that it is preferential to renovate a structure when some portion of the original remains useable. Members then talked through each space in the existing facility and were unable to identify a single structural feature worth building around.
Living Quarters. Station 212’s living quarters are made of unreinforced cinder blocks. This is not seismically sound, and reinforcement would not be cost effective. Further, this space wraps around the back of the apparatus bay, making retrofitting a pull-through bay impossible. For these reasons alone, renovation of the living quarters is not recommended.
Apparatus Bay. The existing apparatus bay has been seismically reinforced. However, it is not the adequate length or width to accommodate the future needs of the companies housed at this station. If modified, it would be to such an extent that it is hard to imagine the existing reinforced bay offering any substantial cost savings. The bay is positioned near the back corner of the existing lot, making expansion infeasible and the possibility of a pull-through bay likely impossible.
At the existing facility, the living quarters (red) surround the apparatus bay.
Task Force members then turned their attention to cost -- exploring project scale and potential funding methods.
Scale. Based on fifteen comporable project, staff calculated that a new-build of this size could cost up to $18 million in 2027 dollars. This model include all hard costs (material and labor) and soft costs (design, management, and permitting) but excludes financing and transition costs.
Task Force members considered project variations that were projected to meet the community's service needs for the next 20-, 30-, and 50-years, ultimately finding that investing more up-front to build a 50-year fire station would yield significant savings over the life of the facility.
Funding Methods. Task Force member Jeff Gudman presented a menu of potential funding options, outlining how the City has funded previous projects using enterprise funds, external partnerships, and debt. The group found that new debt was the most viable funding source for a project of this scale, and agreed that it would be prudent to pursue grants to defray the cost of specific project elements.
All materials from the Task Force's fourth meeting, including the agenda packet, slide decks, handouts, meeting recording, and minutes are available here.
December 5, 2024 - Having established the need to maintain a fire station in the southeast quadrant of Lake Oswego, and developed a preliminary spatial program for the new facility, the third meeting of the South Shore FIre Station Task Force focused on identifying the optimum location for a new station.
Task Force members identified seven characteristics of the optimal site, which they used to evaluate both the current location of Station 212 and a list of alternatives generated from the City's Buildable Lands Inventory:
- Location. No sites west of the current location need to be further considered as moving the station that direction would lead to a net decrease in response times. The far periphery of the east side can also be excluded from further consideration.
- Zoning. Current zoning must allow for a major facility, or there needs to be a high likelihood a variance would be granted.
- Access. The site should be on an arterial (major or minor) or major collector road.
- Geohazards. A new station should not be located on a fault line or land with unmitigable landslide risk.
- Steep slopes, flood hazards, and sensitive lands were considered in the preliminary assessment.
- Size. A larger site, close to 41,000 square feet, would be ideal.
- Response Time. An alternative site should result in a net improvement in response times city-wide, with significant improvements for the neighborhoods on the east side of the city.
- Acquisition. Non-public land may be considered, though acquisition costs and time are likely to have a significant impact on feasibility.
- Avoiding condemnation was raised as a strong preference.
Starting from a list of 39 alternative sites, Task Force members applied the criteria outlined above and concluded that the optimum location for Station 212 is its current location – 1880 South Shore Blvd.
All materials from the Task Force's third meeting, including the agenda packet, slide decks, handouts, meeting recording, and minutes are available here.
November 26, 2024 - Ahead of their third regular meeting, members of the South Shore Fire Station Task Force toured two recently-constructed fire stations.
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue - Station 39
Clackamas Fire District - Station 16
Reflecting on these tours, Task Force members developed a list of the modern fire station elements that support top-tier service provision and firefighter health. Their list included:
- Enough apparatus bays to house all equipment (current and future)
- Individual dorms (as opposed to traditional bunk rooms)
- Multipurpose room for LOFD trainings, public classes, and community use
- Pressure-negative decontamination room and turnout storage
- On-site gear decontamination
- Dedicated room for EMS supplies
- Office space for professional counseling and writing incident reports
- The ability to house two companies
- Allows for upstaffing in emergency weather events, temporarily housing other companies if a station is off-line, and/or service expansion
- Adequate storage throughout
Incorporating these elements, staff prepared a spatial program for a facility that would meet the community’s projected fire service needs for the next 30-50 years. Staff reviewed recently-constructed fire stations and estimated the optimal facility would range between 12,000 – 14,000 square feet. The current fire station is 5,463sf.
November 14, 2024 - At their second regular meeting, South Shore Fire Station Task Force members explored two significant questions:
- Does the City need four fire stations to provide adequate community coverage?
- If so, is Station 212 in the optimal location?
Task force members spent considerable time analyzing data, including national and local response time guidelines and standards, predictability of patient outcome and survivability based on first paramedic on scene times, fire growth based on the arrival time of the first engine on scene, historical incident response data, and impediments encountered including traffic and topography. After much consideration, the task force members concluded that the City does need four fire stations to ensure all community members receive equitable service. Asked to build the case, members identified seven reasons for keeping a station in the southeast quadrant of Lake Oswego:
- Four stations are necessary to maintain the Department's high standard of service (rapid response times).
- Even marginally longer response times reduces survivability in critical medical incidents (heart attacks) and exponentially increases damage in fire incidents.
- The projected response times without 212 would likely render the Fire Department unable to fulfill the terms of their contract with Clackamas County and AMR, leading to a significant reduction in Department revenue.
- Slower response times may also lower Lake Oswego’s Insurance Services Organization (ISO) rating, which could lead to higher insurance rates for all residents.
- For serious incidents, in which multiple apparatus are dispatched, redundancy in the response network is a vital asset. The loss of this level of coverage would render the network less effective.
- In the event of a major disaster, Station 212 mitigates hazards that could otherwise isolate the southeast segment of the City (bridges, railroad crossings, landslide-prone topography).
- Closing this station would lead to minimal operational savings, as the Department would likely up-staff at other stations while phasing-out positions through retirements.
- Maintaining four stations supports current and future growth on the south side of the lake, both high-density residential development and the opening of new day-time draws (Lake Oswego Recreation and Aquatic Center and Rassekh Park).
- The Station 212 Fire Management Area includes two senior facilities that generate a higher volume of calls. Shifting this coverage to adjacent stations would stretch their capacity and response times.
- This station houses the Fire Department’s rescue boat. There is not another city-owned facility with the ability to house the boat and provide similar proximity to both Oswego Lake and the Willamette River.
Members then shifted their focus to the second question, building a list of criteria by which to evaluate alternative sites. Staff will present alternative site considerations at the next task force meeting, along with current site specifications.
All materials from the Task Force's second meeting, including the agenda packet, slide decks, handouts, meeting recording, and minutes are available here.
October 24, 2024 - Newly-appointed members of the South Shore Fire Station convened for the first time, touring Station 212 and selecting a chair.
After welcoming remarks from City Council liaison Trudy Corrigan and Fire Chief Don Johnson, members engaged in their first official action: electing Chris Durkee from the Palisades Neighborhood Association to serve as the Task Force Chair. Fire Department staff, including Assistant Chief Kristine Artman, Batallion Chief Scott Vachter, and Lieutenant Jeremy Langeliers then led Task Force members on a tour of Station 212, highlighting eleven significant facility deficiencies:
- Inadequate vehicle and apparatus storage
- Electrical system and backup power in poor condition
- Roof needs to be replaced
- HVAC system needs to be upgraded and/or replaced
- Inadequate separation between living and office space
- Limited storage space
- Group bathroom lacks privacy and equitable accommodations
- ADA upgrades needed for public areas
- Longstanding rodent problem
- No diversion system for run-off from apparatus when cleaning and or flushing tanks; run-off currently goes into storm drains
- Not built to “essential facility” seismic standards
All materials from the Task Force's first meeting, including the agenda, minutes, and handouts, are available here.
October 1, 2024 - The City Council approved the appointment of eighteen members to the South Shore Fire Station Task Force (Resolution 24-39). This group includes eight members selected at-large (two youth, six adult), as well as representatives from the following groups:
- McVey-South Shore Neighborhood Association
- Palisades Neighborhood Association
- Hallinan Neighborhood Association
- Mary's Woods
- Lake Grove Fire District
- Chamber of Commerce
- City DEI Advisory Board
- City Sustainability Advisory Board
- City Budget Committee
City Councilor Trudy Corrigan will serve as the City Council's liaison to the Task Force. Lieutenant Jonathan Isbell will represent the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 1159.
Members will hold their first meeting on Thursday, October 24th.
September 3, 2024 - The City Council unanimously passed Resolution 24-38, creating an ad hoc Task Force to study rebuilding the South Shore Fire Station.
This group, selected by the Mayor and appointed by the City Council, is charged with reviewing and providing feedback on:
- The Fire Department’s assessment of community coverage needs,
- Existing facility and site conditions at the South Shore Fire Station,
- The Department’s vision for their next generation of service provision,
- Preliminary project cost estimates, and
- A full-scale community engagement strategy, contingent upon a City Council decision to advance this project.
Members will be appointed to the Task Force at the October 1, 2024 City Council meeting.
February 20, 2024 - City Council instructs staff to "begin a needs assessment and community engagement process to rebuild the South Shore Fire Station."
Grouped under the City Council Goal to "strengthen public trust in the City through continuous improvement, outstanding customer service, infrastructure investments, and fiscal stewardship," this initiative directs City staff to conduct a complete project analysis and recommend action to the City Council.
See the complete list of 2024 City Council Goals here: www.ci.oswego.or.us/citycouncil/2024-city-council-goals
Quin Brunner
Management Analyst
(503) 675-2543
qbrunner@lakeoswego.city
Task Force Recommendation Report
Video: Presentation of Task Force Findings and Recommendations
Task Force Meeting #6
Task Force Meeting #5
Task Force Meeting #4
Task Force Meeting #3
Task Force Meeting #2
Task Force Meeting #1
Resolution 24-45 Appointing Members to the SSFS Task Force
Resolution 24-39 Appointing Members to the SSFS Task Force
Resolution 24-38 Creating the South Shore Fire Station Task Force
Video: Passage of Resolution 24-38, Creating the South Shore Fire Station Task Force