Hook & Ladder—

Public Hearing Rescheduled On Firehouse Wetlands Application

By Andrew Gorosko

A public hearing on the wetlands protection aspects of Newtown Hook & Ladder Company, Inc, #1’s proposal to construct a firehouse at 12 Sugar Street (Route 302) has been rescheduled.

The Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) now plans to conduct that hearing at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, September 22, at Newtown Municipal Center at 3 Primrose Street, Fairfield Hills.

The session initially had been scheduled for September 8, but because the various legal requirements concerning the formal mail notification of nearby property owners had not been met in a timely manner by the applicant, it was necessary to reschedule the hearing to September 22, to allow such notifications to be correctly made.

The volunteer fire company’s IWC application lists 59 property owners who own real estate within 500 feet of the site. They are the people who would be formally notified by mail of the September 22 hearing.

In August, IWC members decided to conduct a public hearing on the firehouse application after receiving a petition calling for such a hearing. That petition was signed by more than 30 residents, about half of whom live in the vicinity of the 12 Sugar Street site.

In an August letter to IWC Chairman Anne Peters, attorney Catherine Cuggino of the Chipman, Mazzucco, Land & Pennarola law firm of Danbury, wrote that she represents Francois and Natalie de Brantes of 13 Sugar Street, who sponsored the petition in seeking a public hearing on the firehouse application. The property at 13 Sugar Street lies across the road from the 12 Sugar Street firehouse site.

The petition signers apparently contend that the presence of a firehouse at 12 Sugar Street would adversely affect the neighborhood and plan to speak in opposition to the proposal.

Hook & Ladder has submitted the wetlands application to the IWC as part of its proposal to construct a two-level 11,414-square-foot firehouse. The firefighters hold that their fire station at 45 Main Street is structurally unsound and does not meet the needs of a modern firefighting organization. They have long sought new quarters.

The fire company has asked that the town provide $1.5 million the toward the overall cost of a $2.6 million firehouse. Through the use of “value engineering” the fire company is seeking to hold the cost of the project down to $2.2 million or $2.3 million.

The firehouse project has been placed on the town’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Under that spending plan, the town would contribute $1.5 million toward the construction project. The funding would be spread across three fiscal years, through three $500,000 increments.

The 9.4-acre site is on the north side of Sugar Street, northwest of Sugar Street’s intersection with Elm Drive. The site lies 950 feet west of the major intersection of Sugar Street, Main Street, Glover Avenue, and South Main Street. Under the proposal, the Borough of Newtown Land Trust, Inc, and the R. Scudder Smith Family Partnership would donate land to create the site for the firehouse. The property has extensive wetlands. The undeveloped site is lightly wooded and contains heavy undergrowth. The property has R-1 (Residential) and B-½ (Business) zoning.

In August 2009, the Borough Zoning Board of Appeals (BZBA) unanimously rejected the fire company’s request for a zoning variance for 12 Sugar Street for firehouse construction. That action came amid stiff neighborhood opposition to granting a zoning variance to allow the fire company to build a firehouse closer to the street than the zoning regulations would normally allow.

In their motion to reject the requested zoning variance, BZBA members cited three basic reasons for turning down the application. They decided that a firehouse would not be in harmony with the general character of the residential neighborhood; the presence of a firehouse and its related fire vehicle traffic would create traffic hazards in the congested area; and that a firehouse’s presence would damage property values in the neighborhood.

Although Hook & Ladder does not need a zoning variance for the current firehouse proposal, it would need Borough Zoning Commission (BZC) approval for a site development plan.

The Police Commission, acting as the local traffic authority, in June unanimously endorsed a traffic study on the firehouse project prepared for Hook & Ladder by Frederick P. Clark Associates, Inc.

The town has five volunteer five companies — Hook & Ladder, Dodgingtown, Hawleyville, Sandy Hook, and Botsford. Each of the four other fire companies owns its firehouse, while Hook & Ladder is based in a town-owned building.