Residents at a public hearing next week will have an opportunity to comment and ask questions about Newtown Hook & Ladder, Company No. 1’s proposal to build a firehouse at a 3.16-acre site with frontage on Church Hill Road.

The Borough Zoning Commission (BZC) has scheduled the public hearing for 7 pm on Wednesday, December 10, at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.

Under the proposal, the fire company would buy undeveloped land for firehouse construction from Trinity Episcopal Church at 36 Main Street. After selling the fire company the 3.16 acres for $500,000, the church’s property would then decrease from 8.06 acres to 4.9 acres.

The new firehouse site would then have a street address of 12 Church Hill Road. The site is on the south side of Church Hill Road, across that street from its intersection with Wendover Road.

The firehouse project has gained endorsements from the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Borough of Newtown Historic District Commission. The project also has received a wetlands/watercourses protection permit.

Police Commission Chairman Paul Mangiafico said a Hook & Ladder request to place the firehouse proposal on the Police Commission’s December 2 meeting agenda for a review of the traffic aspects of the project had been received too late for inclusion on that lengthy agenda. The Police Commission serves as the local traffic authority.

At the December 2 Police Commission session, Mr Mangiafico told commission members he would contact Hook & Ladder to invite them to a planned December 16 special meeting. If a fire company representative could not attend that session, the traffic matter would be addressed at a following meeting, he said. The commission’s next regular meeting is scheduled for January 6.

Mr Mangiafico said it is unclear if the Police Commission would require Hook & Ladder to have a formal traffic study performed.

Hook & Ladder proposes constructing a firehouse on Church Hill Road to replace the structurally unsound town-owned firehouse at 45 Main Street which the fire company now uses, and is thus seeking a special permit from the BZC to do so.

The proposed firehouse would enclose approximately 16,000 square feet of floor space, of which about 13,000 square feet would be at ground level, and about 3,000 square feet would be in a partial second story, according to George Benson, town director of planning.

Mr Benson said the firehouse application does not require a formal traffic study.

The firehouse construction project would allow the fire company to own its firehouse. The town’s four other volunteer fire companies — Dodgingtown, Hawleyville, Sandy Hook, and Botsford — each own their firehouses. Each of the five fire companies use both their own equipment and town equipment for firefighting.

The overall price of a new Hook & Ladder firehouse project is yet unclear. So that Hook & Ladder could effectively make the transition from housing its equipment in municipal quarters to housing the equipment in quarters which the fire company owns, the town would provide an overall $1.5 million subsidy toward the firehouse project.

According to zoning documents submitted by the fire company, the presence of the firehouse would not have any adverse effects on property values in the area. The plans call for 28 parking spaces at the site. The facility would be served by public water and public sanitary sewer lines.

J. Edwards & Associates, LLC, of Easton is the engineering firm. Claris Construction Inc of Newtown has done the architectural drawings.

The construction application lists the names of people who own 122 properties which lie within 1,000 feet of the development site. Those people are being formally notified of the BZC’s public hearing.

In November 2013, Trinity Episcopal Church members endorsed selling land to the fire company for firehouse construction. The firehouse site lies generally south and east of the church’s rear driveway.