Corona de Tucson's Fire Department firefighter Eric Ganz, paramedic Wren Keller and Capt. Andy Watson discuss rescue procedures during a training exercise.

James Gregg / Arizona Daily Star

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Corona de Tucson's fire chief squints as he surveys the expanse of half-built homes in a big development that's sprouting up on the western edge of the community.

"Here's where we're going to build the new fire station," Bruce Whitehouse tells a visitor, pointing to a vacant lot in the middle of the 1,600-acre Sycamore Canyon development.

The 1.25-acre parcel where the district plans to build its second fire station is in the middle of a 20-acre tract near the intersection of Sycamore Leaf Road and Rustling Leaf Trail, where a commercial/ retail complex is planned.

That's about two miles south of East Sahuarita Road and just west of South Harrison Road — toward the southern end of what some call a "stick farm" of structures rising from the ground like so many wooden skeletons.

Officials with the Oro Valley-based company developing Sycamore Canyon, the Remington Group, plan to build 1,100 homes in Corona.

Building the new station in the development will cut in half the 8- to 10-minute response time — the length of time it takes personnel to get to an emergency — that it now takes to get to there from the firehouse just south of East Sahuarita and South Houghton roads.

Fire district officials know where they'll build the new station, and how much — about $2 million — it'll cost. But they haven't yet decided on how they'll raise the money to build it.

It's needed now, said Bob Suhocki, Corona Fire District board chairman.

The board would like to get to work on the new station by the end of 2007, but won't make a decision on whether to pay for it with a loan or bonds after the county Assessor's Office informs the board of the district's assessed value early next year, Suhocki said.

It's a typical dilemma that Corona fire officials face: trying to keep up with growth in the district, but not getting the money that comes from that growth until a year or two later.

Current residents pay

Meanwhile, district officials must continue working on the day-to-day challenge of protecting a big district with hundreds of new homes under construction and with a small budget.

It's especially tough to provide protection to developments, because the district won't see any revenue from those homes until after they are sold and the new owners pay their first property-tax bill, Suhocki said.

"That new occupant will be in that house for maybe two years before we'll see a cent," he said.

So district residents must pay for the growth that's going on around Corona — and that's unfair, he said.

That's why Suhocki and other fire district officials around the state are hoping that the Arizona Supreme Court upholds an appeals court ruling that would allow fire districts to charge developers a fee to offset the financial burden of temporarily providing fire protection for free.

Paul O'Bert, a member of the Rincon Valley Fire District's board of directors, said that about eight months ago, the board considered but didn't pursue the idea of levying a fee for developers in the booming Vail area, north of Corona.

Suhocki said he and other officials with the Corona district feel strongly about the fee, because it strains the district's budget to provide protection to large developments that are under construction and essentially amounts to providing emergency services for free.

"We get calls all the time for a broken gas main, or a worker falling off a roof, in those developments," he said.

Builders oppose fee

Representatives of the home building industry say they already support emergency services and they strongly disagree about the need for anything like the Facilities Benefit Assessment fee proposed by Northwest Fire/Rescue District.

Ed Taczanowsky, president of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, says there are many reasons to oppose the fee, but he sums them this way: "Is it legal? And, show us the need."

Taczanowsky said Northwest Fire has yet to provide specific data that shows the need for the Facilities Benefit Assessment fee that it has proposed.

One way to show the need would be to document how many of the 800 or so yearly calls originated from construction sites in the Corona district.

Taczanowsky said that even if there were such data, Arizona law doesn't provide fire districts with the legal authority to create special taxing districts where the fees would be imposed.

"If we as an industry allow them to put a new fee on homes, that sets a bad precedent," he said.

Taczanowsky said the home building industry supports emergency services by providing land for fire stations, for example, and helping promote efforts to sell bonds to finance construction of facilities.

The parcel where the second Corona fire station will be built was donated by the Remington Group.

"No longer the cash cow"

Taczanowsky says the fee is especially ill-advised now, during a cooling housing market. Adding another fee that will be passed along to homeowners will boost the cost of homes and further slow the market, he said.

"We're no longer the cash cow," he said. "We're in a down industry right now and this is not the right time to be going after additional fees."

Roger Yohem, a spokesman for the builders association, said doing anything like adding fees to the cost of homes would further harm the home-building industry — and create ripples that would affect the area's overall economy.

Suhocki said he doubts homeowners "would even notice" a $500 fee added to the cost of a $250,000 home, stretched out over a 30-year mortgage.

"This is not a money-making thing, for us," he said. "We're just not able to staff and equip enough to get ahead of the curve. We'd even settle for just staying with the curve."