Contract awarded for new Peachland firehall design and construction

The District of Peachland announced last week that a contract for design and construction of a new firehall to replace the current aging facility has been awarded, and should be complete by end of 2028.

Chandos Construction LP and Sahuri + Associates Architecture will design and build the new fire hall on land assembled at 4223 San Clemente Avenue adjacent to 13th Street. Ground will be broken there soon for the 17,000 square foot structure which “will feature four double apparatus bays with room for eight apparatus, dedicated space for community policing, and a rescue training tower to support firefighter training and development,” the district said in an announcement.

“This long-awaited facility is one of the council’s top priorities and represents a significant investment in public safety and emergency preparedness for our community,” said Mayor Van Minsel in the release.

It’s been a long and winding road to arrive at the current plan. As recently as last fall, the district was proposing a public-private partnership for the new firehall that would have included commercial and residential space, and space for other protective services. That didn’t go forward because changing market conditions made the combined building unviable, the district said in an announcement last winter. As well, that project would have required expropriation of land currently occupied by the Peachland Baptist Church, which didn’t want to relinquish the property and never agreed to the price the district offered for the land.

But in an interview Van Minsel said you have to back as far as 2019 to trace the trajectory of the new firehall, when then-fire-chief Dennis Craig put forward a vision for a new facility that would also have contained a community policing office, space for BC Ambulance Service and other services and facilities. In 2022, that proposal went to a referendum through which Peachlanders were asked to green-light the district to borrow $17.5 million to fund it. According to Van Minsel, of the Peachland citizens who voted in the referendum, 75 per cent approved and that was the mandate for council to direct district staff to investigate what a public-private partnership (P3) could look like.

“We're always trying to find efficiencies, and we thought, okay, we need to go and speak with all those partners that we want in there, and we also need to see that we maybe do it right from the beginning. A P3 would have helped our residents because we would lower our borrowing also and it would give a higher property tax (revenue) coming to our town. And it took a while, because in the meantime, a province started downloading a lot of things on our municipality, as you know, and all municipalities,” said Van Minsel.

When the request for proposals finally went forward, Van Minsel said market conditions had changed and only three proposals were received. The numbers no longer worked, and staff eventually concluded that a P3 including commercial and residential space was not viable. That left two options: wait until market conditions improved or move to building a stand-alone firehall now and adding features in the future. That led to last spring’s request for proposals for a scaled-down project. Nine viable proposals were received, the best was awarded the contract and the announcement was made last week, Van Minsel said.

He’s excited to see one of council’s top priorities moving ahead, and noted that the $17.5 million cost could be offset by a $7 million grant from the Union of BC Municipalities for the new firehall. The district should find out in a few weeks if that grant is approved, and the funding would mean a more state-of-the-art facility and reduced cost for Peachland residents, he said.

“If we get that money, great, so it means that we can instead of a basic firehall, we can add some services here and there in the building that are necessary in the long run. So we can do them now so the building is more complete and we can use some of that money to buy a fire truck because that's allowed and the rest of the money we will use to lower the borrowing for our residents,” Van Minsel said.

Peachland’s community policing service, currently stationed in the community centre, is the only other group that will be located in the new facility. BC Ambulance Service will remain where they are on 3rd Street, and Central Okanagan Search & Rescue has chosen to locate in Kelowna, said Van Minsel.

The new firehall will be constructed “to meet modern National Fire Protection Association standards, ensuring Peachland firefighters have the tools and facilities they need to serve our community safely and effectively,” the district announcement said. It also noted that the design-build team for the new firehall has completed 30 firehalls or public safety buildings, included the West Kelowna firehall completed last August.

As for the current structure on 3rd Street in downtown Peachland, Van Minsel said it was never designed to function and as a firehall and is near the end of its lifespan. It could be part of the Downtown Revitalization Implementation Strategy or it could be used for District of Peachland office space, at least temporarily, he said. “There’s no fixed idea what we’re going to do with it,” he said.