Federal Bill Aims to Allow Fire & Police Station Construction During FEMA Building Restriction
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D, California district 05) introduced a bill in Congress on November 20 that, if passed, will allow fire and police station construction in urban areas, even if there are FEMA-imposed building restrictions in place. Natomas is destined to be rezoned into an “AE” flood zone on December 8 which will mandate strict building restrictions and flood insurance for federally-insured home mortgages.
“Since learning of the FEMA remapping of the Natomas area, I have been working to protect homeowners from increased flood insurance costs by requesting a one year extension of current rates. I have also worked to ensure that Natomas has the vital infrastructure it needs. The bill I introduced today will allow for sensible building in the interest of public safety,” said Matsui in her her press release.
“The relief and the abillity to build the safety structures (police & fire) are so important for Natomas,” said Angelique Ashby, President of Creekside Neighborhood Association and co-founder of the Natomas Crime & Safety Leadership Team.
“We have faced so many challenges at the City level just to get the conversation about the fire and police station going — it is really nice to see an elected representative planning for our future development and safety/infrastructure needs in Natomas,” Ashby said.
Natomas community leaders have been pushing hard for a fire station west of Interstate 5 for years, and those efforts have intensified in recent months following a devastating house fire in on Stilt Court in October that sent four firefighters to the hospital and the death of a woman while waiting for paramedics to arrive. Both of these cases were west of I-5 and because of their location, the response time for first responders was several minutes longer than Sacramento Fire Department targets. Many wonder if the outcomes would have been different if a fire station had been in place at the designated location of future fire station 43 at the intersection of El Centro Road and Arena Blvd.