An Aurora City Council committee on Wednesday recommended plans for two new fire stations to be built on the far East Side of the city.
Fire Station 13 would be on the southeast corner of Bilter Road and Nan Street, just east of Farnsworth Avenue, on land the city has owned since 2015. Fire Station 9 would be on land at 7S300 Eola Road, just south of Liberty Street.
Both stations would be about the same size, and would include a ladder truck, an engine and an ambulance.
Both stations are being built to improve call response times in the northeast part of town.
Michael Kaufman, assistant chief for support services for the Aurora Fire Department, said response time to the area to be served by Fire Station 13 – which includes Chicago Premium Outlets mall and all the development along Farnsworth Avenue and Bilter Road – is “significant” because it comes from either a station near Fox Valley Mall, or downtown.
“This would cut response time in half,” he said of the planned new station.
Response time is key to the locations for the new stations. A study done several years ago pinpointed the best locations for stations. According to fire officials, the goal in moving and constructing new stations is to get response times below six minutes for regular fire responses and four minutes for emergency medical responses.
While the city has had a fire station in mind for the Bilter Road and Nan Street location since 2015, residents along Nan Street said they were concerned about what the station there might bring.
Michael and Diane Mutersbaugh, who have lived on Nan Street for about 40 years, said they were concerned about fire trucks on Nan being too much.
“It’s the wrong move to put that kind of activity there, with our children,” Diane Mutersbaugh said.
Michael Mutersbaugh said the station would be better located on land the city has purchased further east on Bilter Road.
“The city is dug in like a tick on a hound on this,” he said. “Why can’t the city have a new fire station the way they want it just down the street? It don’t make any sense.”
But city officials said the 2.5-acre Bilter and Nan site would be perfect for the about 19,000-square-foot station. When leaving for an emergency, all the fire vehicles would exit onto Bilter Road. They would only use Nan Street when returning to the station, said Ed Sieben, the city’s Planning and Zoning administrator.
He also said the station would be 80 feet from Nan, with a lot of landscaping, including a six-foot-high solid wood fence there.
He said that five of eight city fire stations are located in residential neighborhoods, and there have been “no problems.”
Ald. William Donnell, 4th Ward, said Fire Station 7 is two blocks from his house, and there is little disruption because of sirens or traffic.
“The neighbors think it’s been very positive,” he said.
Ald. Michael Saville, 6th Ward, said the city has “long recognized the need for a fire station in that area.”
He did ask if the city had considered some of the land it has purchased along Bilter Road to the east.
Alex Alexandrou, the city’s chief management officer, said the other properties the city owns are “slated for other types of development.”
The Bilter and Nan site is in Aurora Township, so the city would have to annex it, which the City Council Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee on Wednesday also recommended. By annexing, the city would also annex Nan Street along the length of the site, and make substantial improvements to the roadway to be able to handle the weight of the fire trucks.
The station along Eola Road would be slightly smaller than the Bilter Road site, at 17,600 square feet. Plans show a lot of landscaping to the west and south sides, where there is residential development.
The full City Council will consider the development plans for the stations at the next Committee of the Whole meeting.
slord@tribpub.com
