The city of Aurora is moving forward with plans to expand the site of the current police department headquarters into a public safety campus that would also hold a new Aurora Fire Department headquarters.
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin announced last June the city’s plans to create a public safety campus on the site of its current police department headquarters at his second State of the City address of 2024, which was focused around public safety and community engagement.
Resolutions establishing a public safety campus subdivision and approving a plan for the site were approved by the Aurora City Council’s Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee at its meeting last week.
Cost estimates for the project are still being worked on and will be brought forward when they are complete, Aurora Chief Management Officer Alex Alexandrou said at Tuesday’s City Council Committee of the Whole meeting.
Last year, Aurora Fire Chief David McCabe told The Beacon-News that the new fire headquarters would give the Aurora Fire Department’s administration much-needed extra space. That means extra office space and space for training, which is currently lacking at the department’s current headquarters, located within downtown’s Central Fire Station, he said at the time.
The new fire department headquarters would also include a new Fire Station 4, moving from its current location at 800 Michels Ave., along with office space for the Aurora Emergency Medical Agency and the city’s Emergency Operations Center, McCabe said last June.
According to a staff report included with Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting agenda, the building will be two stories, roughly 29,800 square feet and will hold four bay doors for the building’s fire prevention side. Site plans attached to the staff report show the site’s parking lot expanded and a new parking lot will be added along with an additional entrance onto East Indian Trail Road that the staff report said will be for fire trucks.
The raised median on East Indian Trail Road will be removed at that new entrance for fire truck access, the staff report said.
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The new fire station’s parking lot will be connected to the police department’s existing driveways that connect to Reckinger Road, but the connection is not intended for fire trucks, according to the staff report.
A plaza is planned to connect with walking paths at the existing Aurora Police Department headquarters building and the new Aurora Fire Department headquarters building, as well as the site’s parking lots, site plans show.
Two new fueling dispensers will be added to the site, plans show, one with diesel fuel for the fire trucks and another that is for other on-site vehicles. The plan also includes a dedicated area for a solar panel array north of the new fire station, the staff report said.
McCabe previously told The Beacon-News that the new Aurora Fire Department headquarters’ location will be helpful both because it will make it easier for the police and fire departments to communicate with each other and because the new Fire Station 4 will be in a better spot to cover a larger part of the city, which will help to reduce response times.
While the Building, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee’s decisions on the subdivision of the site and the final plan are final, a related ordinance vacating an access easement is set to go before the Aurora City Council at its meeting on Tuesday as a part of that meeting’s consent agenda, which is typically used for routine or non-controversial items that are all approved with one vote and without discussion instead of needing to vote on and talk about each individual item.