Downtown property owners push back on Fire Station 1 parking lot plan as city defends site choice

A coalition of Downtown Palm Springs property owners is urging the city to relocate its proposed new Fire Station 1, arguing that building the facility on a surface parking lot would harm dozens of small businesses. City officials, however, say the site was selected after years of study focused on emergency response performance and public safety.

The group, calling itself “The Block 200 Club,” represents property owners on the 200 and 300 blocks of North Palm Canyon Drive and dozens of small businesses whose average tenancy exceeds 10 years, according to building owner Matt Bousquette.

“I started to get a bunch of calls from various different tenants of mine … saying, ‘Oh my God, have you seen this? Do you know what’s going on? Can you please help us?’” Bousquette said by phone on Tuesday. “They’re coming in telling us it’s a complete deal and there’s nothing we can do.”

The coalition opposes plans to redevelop the parking lot at 261 North Indian Canyon Dr., adjacent to the existing 70-year-old Fire Station 1. Ahead of the Fire Department’s Feb. 23 open house, the group installed banners along Palm Canyon and Indian Canyon drives, posted window signs and began collecting petition signatures urging relocation of the project.

“We support preserving the Albert Frey fire station in its current use or some other use,” Bousquette said. “We support the addition of a new fire station. It just doesn’t have to be in that spot.”

Parking concerns

Bousquette said the 65-space lot is the only public or private parking serving businesses on the east side of the 200–300 block and is central to their viability. The petition circulated by the group estimates eliminating the lot could reduce more than 4,000 customer visits per week and “devastate” 35 small businesses.

He disputed the city’s conclusion that downtown parking is adequate, arguing that the city’s parking study does not support its findings. He also said directing customers to the Hyatt’s nearby underground garage is not feasable.

Beyond customer parking, Bousquette said the lot provides rear service access for six restaurants and bars for deliveries, trash pickup and grease trap servicing.

Assistant City Manager Flinn Fagg said the city recognizes business concerns and evaluated parking availability through the Dixon study, which informed the city’s broader downtown parking strategy.

“That analysis indicates that parking supply and turnover can be effectively managed through existing and planned facilities to continue supporting downtown businesses,” Fagg said via email on Wednesday.

He added that conceptual site plans for the new station have been developed “balancing the programmatic needs of the station while retaining as much public parking as possible,” and that preserving convenient access remains a priority as planning continues.

Why this site?

Bousquette said the group has identified seven alternative locations within 3,000 feet of the existing station and hired a fire official from another California city to advise on siting.

“The consultant’s view was that a fire station should ideally be located on a side street, not a major thoroughfare,” he said.

Fagg said the site selection followed a “deliberate, years-long, data-driven process” led by consultant Citygate Associates, focused on maintaining optimal emergency response coverage.

The search area was defined by balancing a four-minute travel time goal with the Insurance Services Office’s 1.5-mile distance standard, he said. Moving outside that defined area would create coverage gaps or excessive overlap.

“A comprehensive response analysis further demonstrated that constructing the station anywhere other than the site of the existing 70-year-old facility would negatively impact response times,” Fagg said.

He added that Fire Department calls have increased roughly 20% over the past five years, from about 10,000 in 2019 to more than 12,000 in 2023, with continued annual growth of 3–4%, reinforcing the need for modernization.

The Fire Station 1 Master Plan, including the site selection study and conceptual design, was presented to the City Council in February 2025 and again in January of this year as part of what Fagg described as an ongoing, transparent planning process.

Outreach and next steps

Bousquette said property owners attempted to meet with city departments but were told to attend the public open house.

“All of those groups refused to even speak to the people who own the adjoining property lines,” he said. “They said, ‘You can come to the open house.’”

Fagg said outreach has been “robust, ongoing and multi-layered.” A tour of the existing station with local business owners was held in early August 2025, followed by additional design and information meetings with business leaders and preservation representatives.

In advance of the Feb. 23 open house, the Office of Economic Development conducted door-to-door visits in the area and distributed newsletters to nearly 8,000 businesses. The Fire Chief also presented the project at a ONE-PS meeting on Tuesday.

Fagg emphasized that the site plan shown publicly is conceptual and not a final design. Public input gathered through outreach will be forwarded to the yet-to-be-selected architect and considered in developing the final layout.

The open house is scheduled for 4 to 6 p.m. Feb. 23 at Fire Station 1, 277 N. Indian Canyon Drive.

Meanwhile, Bousquette said the property owners’ long-term goal is to form a permanent organization to represent downtown interests.

“We love and appreciate what you do,” he said of the firefighters at Station 1. “We just can’t afford to have the station here because it’s economic suicide.”

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