East Fire Station
The City is advancing its East Fire Station project to enhance operational efficiency and emergency response times.
This initiative involves consolidating Fire Stations 2 and 3 into a single, strategically located facility along the Hwy 100 corridor. The current stations fall short of modern standards for firefighter safety, health, wellness, and equity. Due to structural and functional limitations, renovating them is not a viable option.
Latest Update: City Council Approves Resolutions Regarding New East Fire Station Facility
At its Sept 16, 2025 meeting, the Golden Valley City Council approved two resolutions regarding the location of a new East Fire Station facility.
These actions move the City one step closer to achieving its Building Forward plan to reinvest in essential services—in this case maintaining a high level of fire and life safety, protection, and response throughout the community.
The first resolution approves the property at 1875 Lilac Drive N as the location of the new East Fire Station, and the second resolution authorizes the City to use eminent domain to acquire the property, if necessary.
The City has been in communication with the property owner for over a year. Recognizing the importance of moving forward with this project and the lack of other viable properties, approval of the second resolution allows the City to start the process of acquisition by eminent domain. This process involves multiple steps and is designed to protect the rights of the property owner and ensure they are protected and fairly compensated. However, it is still possible eminent domain will not be required.
More about the eminent domain process is available in this pamphlet from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT).
Fire Station Location Project Process
From 2023 to 2025, the City explored optimal site options and hosted multiple public information and community engagement sessions to gather resident feedback and provide project status updates.
Over 30 potential sites were evaluated for the new East Fire Station, with each location assessed based on key criteria such as emergency response times, land acquisition and development costs, site size, long-term sustainability, and overall community impact.
After a comprehensive review, City Council directed staff to further study the top four scoring locations:
Fiest Automotive site at 1875 Lilac Dr
MnDOT-owned parcel at 2055 Lilac Dr
medical office buildings located behind Lunds & Byerlys at 5801 and 5851 Duluth St
Schaper Park at 631 Ottawa Ave
Following detailed analysis that included feasibility, cost, accessibility, and alignment with response goals, 1875 Lilac Dr emerged as the most suitable option for the new East Fire Station. Its central, strategic location along the Hwy 100 corridor offers optimal emergency coverage for the eastern part of Golden Valley while minimizing disruption to the community and ensuring long-term operational efficiency.
The new East Fire Station will significantly improve emergency response times with its strategic location on Hwy 100, allowing the GVFD to respond more quickly to a larger portion of the city than the current three-station model allows.
Transitioning to two two well-placed stations improves overall city coverage within the critical 4-minute response window. The current three stations are not optimally located, leaving some parts of the city underserved. The updated two-station model reduces overlapping coverage in some areas and extends faster response access to previously under-covered regions, ultimately increasing efficiency and reducing response times.
About the City’s Fire Stations
Golden Valley’s Fire Department currently operates out of three fire stations:
Fire Station 1 (Civic Campus at 7800 Golden Valley Rd), which is the largest and most central fire station
Fire Station 2 (Turners Crossroad and Laurel Ave), which is near the St Louis Park border
Fire Station 3 (Golden Valley Rd and Bonnie Ln), which is near the Minneapolis border
A 2016 study of Golden Valley’s fire/rescue operations concluded the City needed to move from a three-station paid on-call staffing model to a two station duty crew staffing model. In 2021, the City of Golden Valley completed an analysis of all of its facilities needs that reaffirmed the findings of its 2016 fire/rescue operation study and identified a new remote fire station as the City’s number one facilities priority.
The City’s analysis shows that a new East Fire Station will:
accommodate 24/7 staffing of duty crews
provide equitable facilities for male and female staff
improve response time with a central, strategic location east of Hwy 100
reduce reliance on neighboring communities to respond to Golden Valley incidents
improve cancer prevention measures to better protect firefighters
locate personnel and gear a safe distance away from moving trucks
accommodate larger, modern fire trucks and equipment
increase efficiencies for training and maintenance
reduce the amount of firefighting equipment needed by consolidating stations
provide facilities for hands-on training
address ADA and accessibility challenges
In addition, a new remote station in Golden Valley will provide a regional resource for mutual aid response and training opportunities for other fire departments.
Current Staff Resting Space
Current Staff Men’s Lockers
Current Staff Women’s Lockers
Read more about the changing needs of the City’s Fire Department by expanding the headers below.
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Golden Valley’s fire stations were established to support a paid on-call staffing structure, which is no longer sustainable in today’s culture. Fire departments nationwide are finding it more and more difficult to recruit and retain paid on-call firefighters due to increased family and job obligations. This is also making it more difficult to respond to fire calls within Industry response-time standards.
The 2016 study concluded Golden Valley needs to move from a three-station paid on-call staffing model to a two-station duty crew staffing model. To accommodate this, the City needs facilities to house firefighters 24 hours a day.
In response to recruiting challenges and retention issues, in March 2022 the GVFD began staffing duty crews, rotating between the three fire stations. Each crew includes three to four paid on-call firefighters scheduled from 5 pm to 11 pm Monday through Friday, and Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 11 pm. Full-time GVFD staff (chief officers and fire inspectors) cover from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday.
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GVFD’s current facilities do not provide adequate measures to protect firefighter health and safety. Stations are not equipped with ample workspace to reduce exposure to carcinogens and proper facilities to clean carcinogens off equipment and gear. Additionally, the current facilities lack ventilation systems that work to reduce exposure and spread of carcinogens throughout the building.
The current facilities also lack a protected space for firefighters to dress for calls. Current best practices include having separate equipment and non-equipment zones to prevent cross-contamination from harmful carcinogens and other contaminants brought back from incident scenes.
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The current fire stations lack adequate training space, which means most training occurs on concrete and outdoors, which is not ideal in winter. Additionally, it means the Department often has to travel to neighboring Cities to utilize their training facilities. Current stations do not have sleeping quarters, which are needed for the City to transition to duty crew staffing. The current facilities do not offer adequate locker room space, including gender-equitable amenities. Many of the spaces dedicated to women are much smaller and do not offer the same amenities as the male spaces do.
The transition to duty crew staffing will ensure long-term resiliency of the fire department and its operations. Facilities must first accommodate contemporary firefighting equipment and enable best firefighting practices. This includes:
drive-through truck bays
space to avoid conflicts with large vehicles and pedestrians
a protected space for firefighters to dress for calls
equitable facilities for male and female staff
improved spaces for maintenance, hands-on training, and physical fitness training
