For the past couple of years, Hideout has relied on a temporary fire station to reduce emergency response times. Developer GCD loaned the town some land for the temporary station, but at this juncture, the developer wants to build and Hideout wants its permanent firehouse.
For the facility to go forward, the Hideout Town Council had to create a small but critical zoning exception: a 20-foot setback on one side instead of the usual 30 feet.
Councilmember Jonathan Gunn said the exception will allow the town to return the site of the temporary station to the developer.
“I have nothing but praise and thanks to the developer,” he said at a town council meeting April 9. “However, now they want that land back. Now we need to get the permanent station up and running before that land is pulled back.”
Gunn emphasized it’s critical to have first responders close by, rather than on the other side of the Jordanelle Reservoir. The vast majority of Hideout’s 911 calls are for medical emergencies.
“For each minute you are in a medical cardiac arrest, your chances of being resuscitated drop by 7-10% for each minute,” he said. “And if you think about it, the response time from over there to over here is 15 minutes. Don’t have to be a math genius to know what your chances are.”
The permanent station is a prefabricated building waiting in Las Vegas. It will sit on a 3-acre site along state Route 248, near the Klaim neighborhood.
With the setback exception granted, construction can go forward. Hideout Mayor Ralph Severini said the Wasatch Fire District’s goal is to have the station in place by the end of the year.
In addition to the station itself, the project will include widening part of state Route 248 for acceleration and deceleration lanes. The fire district will also install a warning beacon to help emergency vehicles safely leave the station.
Hideout is working with the Military Installation Development Authority and the Wasatch Fire District to pay for road improvements. Details of the plan will be approved by the town council at a future meeting.
