Seminole County is asking its planning board to clear the way for a new Fire Station 23, replacing a building the county calls its oldest fire station with a larger one just across Howell Branch Road.
The county's Planning and Zoning Commission holds a public hearing on the request at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, in the Board of County Commissioners chambers at the County Services Building, 1101 E. First St. in Sanford. The commission's vote is a recommendation; county commissioners make the final call.
Why a new station
The current station at 4810 Howell Branch Road dates to the 1970s, and its cramped site leaves no room to expand, according to the staff report. The replacement would sit on about 3.48 county-owned acres at 1550 Grand Road, at the northwest corner of Grand and Howell Branch, next to the Winter Park Elks Lodge.
Staff say the new building would add apparatus bays, decontamination space and crew quarters.
The request would change the land's future land use designation from low density residential to public, quasi-public and rezone it from agriculture to the Public Lands and Institutions district. County planners recommend approval, writing that the station is relocating within the same corridor and is compatible with the homes, lodge and church around it.
Traffic, trees and wetlands
Trucks would enter from Grand Road and leave onto Howell Branch Road, which is already signalized to stop traffic for fire equipment, and the county is considering a new signalized exit for the relocated station.
Staff note a small, apparently man-made wetland on the site; state environmental regulators have told the county they do not object to mitigating it, and a wetlands survey and wildlife study will be required at site plan review. The site is outside the floodplain, and sidewalks already line both roads.
