A proposal to more than double the size of the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company’s fire substation at 249 Berkshire Road (Route 34) is scheduled for public discussion at a Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) public hearing slated for 7:30 pm on Thursday, August 6, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

The fire substation expansion proposal will be the subject of a site development plan review by the P&Z.

The substation, which was built in the late 1960s on a 2.4-acre site in a R-2 (Residential) zone, is no longer large enough for the fire company’s needs, according to Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead.

The fire company’s larger main fire station is located at 18 Riverside Road. Sandy Hook is the only fire company of the five local companies that operates out of two facilities.

Plans on file at the Land Use Agency office indicate that the fire company wants to expand the existing fire substation by 2,000 square feet, increasing the building’s size from 1,568 square feet to 3,568 square feet.

The fire substation is located on the north side of Berkshire Road, between Berkshire Road’s intersections with Nighthawk Lane and Checkerberry Lane.

Plans call for building a 2,000-square-foot two-bay addition to the rear of the existing building. The garage doors on the building addition would face Nighthawk Lane.

The building addition would measure 50 feet wide by 40 feet deep, Chief Halstead said.

The fire company currently keeps Engine 442 at the substation, he said. That fire truck, which is quite large for the space where it is now garaged, would remain at the substation, but would be housed in one of the two new larger garage bays, Chief Halstead said.

The second new garage bay would be reserved for future expansion of the fire company’s fleet. There are no current plans for garaging another fire truck in the second new bay, Chief Halstead said.

After the substation is expanded, the space in the existing building would be refitted to provide for a day room, office, showers, an additional rest room, and storage area. The property’s existing septic waste disposal system would be relocated.

The town’s capital improvement plan for the current fiscal year designates $375,000 in town funding for expanding the fire substation.

Spending those funds for the project would be subject to voters’ approval at a town meeting.