More than a decade after Palo Alto agreed to replace the aged fire station near Mitchell Park, the project is finally moving ahead.

The city and its consultant, Brown Reynolds Watford Architects, unveiled on Thursday the proposed design for the new Station 4 at a Thursday public hearing in front of the Architectural Review Board.

The designs show that the new station at the corner of Middlefield Road and East Meadow Drive would have glass-paneled doors flanked by wood-tile cladding and plaster siding. A report from the Department of Planning and Community Environment notes that the design is meant to be compatible with surrounding buildings, including single-family homes across the street to the north and east, the Palo Alto Little League ball field to the south and Covenant Presbyterian Church to the west.

The station's floor-to-ceiling glass windows and flat roof lines would be evocative of mid-century modern homes in south Palo Alto, particularly those developed by Joseph Eichler.

The proposed station's angular features are meant to mirror the tower elements of the church and its wood materials are intended to match both the church and the baseball field buildings, the report states.

Once completed, the facility would have larger bays to accommodate modern fire equipment, a landscaped park area and a community room.

The new station would also include a third bay, with no exit to Middlefield, for storage of a reserve vehicle, according to staff.

The project is estimated to cost about $10.2 million, according to the city budget, and is slated to be completed by December 2025.

Constructed in 1953, the Mitchell Park station is one of two that the city has identified as obsolete and ripe for replacement in its 2014 infrastructure work plan. In March 2020, the city completed the reconstruction of Station 3 in Rinconada Park.

The board didn't take any actions on the proposal as part of its "preliminary review," though members were generally pleased with the design. Chair David Hirsch lauded the site plan but urged bolder design elements at the well-traveled corner. Board member Peter Baltay called the plan "excellent proposal" overall, though he and others suggested that the city and its consultants may be going too far in making the building look like the Eichler homes that distinguish the nearby Greenmeadow neighborhood.

Baltay acknowledged: "It's a nod to the Eichler design motif and it's all quite appropriate. That's what Palo Alto is."

At the same time, he said that he is dismayed that the city isn't doing more to distinguish the new building for what it is — a fire station. He suggested that the city and its consultants may be a little too constrained by the "Palo Alto Process" and the need to make everyone happy.

"Right now, it looks like a fancy residence, a little bit larger, on steroids, but boy does it look like an Eichler," Baltay said. "I'd like to think a fire station could look like a fire station, could look like an important civic part of our community. Right now it doesn't. It looks like a house."

Board member Kendra Rosenberg agreed and called the proposed design "an opportunity not taken."

"You can go bigger. You can go bolder. You can go more modern, more stark, more interesting, more architectural. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the design as it is. It's a good design. Is it a great design? That's the question."

But board member Yingxi Chen argued that the new station's "Eichler feeling" is perfectly appropriate and makes the station feel like it really belongs in the neighborhood. She called it a "successful design," though she suggested additional landscaping around the new station.

The 25-foot-tall building would also include a fitness center, a captain's office, a training room, a kitchen and dining area and five bedrooms for staff.

The replacement of the fire station has been a city priority for well over a decade. In 2005, a study commissioned by the city found that the station fails to meet California's building code as well as various federal laws, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. A 2011 report by a specially appointed infrastructure task force identified the replacement of the station as the city's third-highest priority, behind a new public-safety building and the Rinconada Park fire station.

The new fire station was also included on the City Council's 2014 list of infrastructure priorities, which also included recently completed items such as the bike bridge over the U.S. Highway 101, the Rinconada fire station and the new garage near California Avenue.