The Design Advisory Board (DAB) is reviewing plans for the town’s new $15.1-million police station, a project that will involve expanding and modifying an existing vacant office building at 191 South Main Street to replace the police department’s outdated facility in Town Hall South at 3 Main Street.

DAB members held a June 11 session to discuss the architectural and landscaping aesthetics of the new facility, which would house the town’s 45-member police department. The town has hired Kaestle Boos Associates of New Britain to design the complex that will be situated at a 11.74-acre site. Besides the 7.35-acre 191 South Main Street, the town has acquired the abutting 4.39-acre 61 Pecks Lane.

Plans call for expanding the 21,200-square-foot building, which was built in 1981, by about 4,700 square feet. The new construction would hold features including a secure garage designed for prisoner transport, plus several prisoner holding cells. A new main entrance for the building also would be constructed. Ninety-one parking spaces would be provided, with 63 of those spaces reserved for police use. Police occupancy of the structure is expected by October 2020.

DAB members at the June 11 session raised a number of issues about the project, according to DAB records. Those questions included: whether it is possible to use materials other than chain-link fencing and crushed stone at the police-only parking lot gate; what elements of the project would be visible to the public when viewed from South Main Street and from the public parking lot; could the style of planned outdoor lighting fixtures be changed; and whether there is an alternative to using metal siding for some parts of the building.

DAB members said they want to see a sample of the corrugated metal siding that would be used at the building’s entrance. Also, they want to see a rendering of the planned secure garage, among other requests.

DAB members are scheduled to visit to the new police station site at 5 pm on Monday, June 24. Two hours later, at 7 pm, they plan to meet at Edmond Town Hall to further review the police station project.

The town is soon expected to submit a development application for the police station to the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) for its review. New construction at the site has not yet begun.

The town’s acquisition of 191 South Main Street and the abutting 61 Peck’s Lane, plus plans to construct a new police station, received easy approval from voters at a November 2018 referendum, drawing 62 percent support from those voting.

The current police station at 3 Main Street had been a farm equipment dealership and was converted into a police station about 40 years ago. The 191 South Main Street site is on the northern corner of South Main Street and Ethan Allen Road. That site is 2.7 miles south of the existing police station.