A new fire station is headed for the Village of Fenney.
At a meeting of the Wildwood Planning and Zoning Board, Special Magistrate Lindsay C.T. Holt Tuesday recommended approval by the City Commission of a zoning change from residential to institutional for about an acre of land at Warm Springs Avenue and County Road 509 near the community of Adamsville.
The zoning change would allow construction of a 9,000-square-foot fire station that would serve the growing residential area on both sides of Warm Springs Avenue. A site plan is required and will provide details about the station.
The station would be the 10th operated by The Villages Public Safety Department, which has about 150 firefighters.
The department responded to more than 24,000 incidents during the 2021-22 fiscal year and 70 percent were rescue or emergency medical service calls.
On Oct. 1, the department began providing ambulance services after they had been outsourced to private companies for a decade. The Sumter County Fire Department also began a transition to providing ambulance services in the area outside The Villages.
The changes came after slow response times by American Medical Response (AMR), a large national company that had provided the service.
A referendum to establish an independent fire district for The Villages was rejected by voters last month. That rejection means the fire service will continue to operate under contract and receive tax funding from the county.
