Melbourne needs a new fire station and Jimmy Moore Park on Sarno Road is being explored as an option once again after the location was rejected last year.
Melbourne City Council in July of 2025 voted against building a new fire station at the park because of resident concerns. This year, the city is still hoping to find a compromise that would see some park acreage dedicated to a fire station as other locations have prohibitive costs.
Melbourne’s current fire station at North Wickham Road and Sarno Road dates back to 1965. Without upgrades, the current 3,167-square-foot, one-story fire station is too small to meet the city’s future needs.
The proposed new station would have been 18,525 square feet of space and be two stories tall. Area residents pushed back at losing the park space and raised concerns about the building blocking their access to the popular neighborhood recreation spot.
Now the city, having explored other options and found them costly, is revisiting the idea of building a new fire station at the park without sacrificing too much space to the new construction.
City staff, including the city manager and attorney will meet with residents at city hall, 900 E. Strawbridge Avenue, on Monday, April 20 at 5:30 p.m.
The purpose of the meeting will be to address “previously expressed concerns regarding: size/height of the building, noise, buffering/wall, loss of green space, and more” if the city chooses to move forward replacing Fire Station 72 at the location.
No decision will be made at Monday’s meeting, which is scheduled to create a dialogue between the city and local residents.
“It is on the table for discussion. I don’t want to lose the park in that manner. It’s important for us to have this kind of discussion,” said Mayor Paul Alfrey.
“One thing about this is I want to make sure that we’re fully transparent with the community and have this discussion. I don’t want to lose sections of the park. We just also have public safety concerns,” Aflrey added.
Alfrey acknowledged that many people in the community will be concerned that the issue is being revisited after it seemed to be settled last year. Other locations for a future fire station have proved to have their own high costs, prompting the city to reinitiate a dialogue around Jimmy Moore Park.
“We would also invest into the park. The schematics are really nice. There’s a cost with that of losing part of the park,” he said.
“We’ve done our due diligence and this is where we’re at,” Alfrey added. “But until the community weighs in more, we won’t know.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Melbourne to hold community meeting on Jimmy Moore Park fire station
Reporting by Tyler Vazquez, Florida Today / Florida Today
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