City Council Gives Final OK for New Fire Station 7

An architect's drawing shows the design of the new Fire Station 7, to be built on Bradley Road at Cherry Hills Boulevard.

The Menifee City Council last week approved the construction contract and design plans for a new fire station to built at Bradley Road and Cherry Hills Boulevard in the Sun City community of Menifee.

The 8,200-square-foot facility will replace the old Fire Station 7, located on Bradley Road just north of McCall Boulevard. That station has been documented as the busiest station in Riverside County and the 10th busiest in the country, but in 2005 it was deemed inadequate by Riverside County officials because of outdated facilities.

The new Fire Station 7 will be located on 2.1 acres at the south end of a vacant lot once occupied by the Kings Inn, a landmark hotel in the early years of Sun City. There are no plans at this time for the north part of that parcel, at the corner of Bradley Road and Cherry Hills Boulevard.

The contract awarded to RIC Construction Co. Inc. is not to exceed $4 million, according to the proposal unanimously approved by the city council last Wednesday. RIC has built 40 percent of the fire stations in the county.

The facility is scheduled to include 3,800 square feet of living quarters and 4,368 square feet of an apparatus bay in which to store firefighting equipment. Officials have not announced a construction timetable for the project.

The current fire station will be turned over to the county. Use for that facility has not been determined.

In this aerial view of the parcel looking west, the border of the fire station property on the vacant lot is shown.