Fire Station Location Project
Fire Departments across the country are in transition. The three main reasons include challenges in:
recruiting and retaining non-career firefighters
achieving best practices for firefighter health and safety
accommodating modern firefighting equipment, training, and operations
Golden Valley is no different. In 2016, the Golden Valley Fire Department (GVFD) completed a study to identify what it needs to do to continue to provide the community with high-quality, fast, and efficient emergency services while being fiscally responsible with taxpayer funding. This was followed in 2020 by a study of all City facilities to determine future needs and opportunities.
Current Locations Of Fire Stations
The City’s three current fire station locations are not geographically optimized for today’s updated highway system. Station 3 provides coverage for Minneapolis, while Station 2 (Turners Crossroad) no longer connects to main roads but also provides coverage into St Louis Park. Renovating existing stations is not feasible due to costs and restrictions posed by the current site sizes.
To improve efficiencies and response times, the City needs to consolidate Stations 2 and 3 to one remote fire station along the Hwy 100 corridor.
The City is in a process to select a site for a new remote east fire station, a priority determined by a 2021 analysis of all of its facilities and how they meet community needs.
Fire Station Location Project Documents
Over the past several years, the City has been assessing its aging public buildings and determined that the Police, Fire, and Public Works buildings can no longer adequately support efficient delivery of City services to our residents.
Based on resident input and independent analysis, the City is moving forward with a plan, called Building Forward, that will invest $105 million to modernize its core service operations.
As part of the plan, the City will acquire land outside of downtown Golden Valley where it will build a new Public Works building. The City will then build a new Public Safety building at the existing Public Works site to serve as a new fire and police headquarters.
In addition to this plan, the City will be consolidating its two remote fire stations - Fire Stations 2 and 3 - into one fully staffed East Fire Station.
