Fairfield Hills—

P&Z Approves Ambulance Garage/Headquarters

By Andrew Gorosko

Following a June 21 public hearing, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members unanimously approved plans to construct a new garage/headquarters building for the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps off Wasserman Way at Fairfield Hills.

P&Z members endorsed the application from the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Association, Inc, following discussion after the hearing. The association is the financial organization that raises funds for the corps, which provides volunteers for the ambulance service. The ambulance corps typically responds to seven or eight medical calls a day.

The P&Z placed two stipulations on its approval.

The P&Z is requiring that the Police Commission, serving as the local traffic authority, approve the driveway for the project.

Also, the P&Z is requiring that the landscaping for the project be approved by the Fairfield Hills Authority and by the town’s land use staff. The applicant did not present landscaping plans for the project at the June 21 P&Z hearing.

The applicant also needs approval from the state Department of Transportation (DOT) because the driveway would intersect with Wasserman Way, which is State Route 860, but is not posted as such.

Silver/Petrucelli+Associates of Hamden developed plans for the ambulance garage/headquarters project.

Engineer Donald Smith, Jr, representing the applicant, told P&Z members that the 1.2-acre site for the garage/headquarters would occupy the area which now holds the Newtown Victory Garden. The garden would be relocated elsewhere at Fairfield Hills to make way for the ambulance facility.

The ambulance site lies west of the Fairfield Hills tennis court and Newtown Hall.

The 14,559-square-foot ambulance facility would have garage space for six ambulance corps vehicles. There would be three double-depth garage bays, each of which would be able to house two vehicles. Each double-depth bay would have garage doors on both the north and the south sides of the garage wing of the building.

A 150-foot-long driveway for the ambulance facility would be linked to Wasserman Way. That driveway would connect to Wasserman Way at a 90-degree angle. Four trees would need to be removed to build the new driveway.

The former main entrance road to Fairfield Hills, which is now closed to traffic, would be used as an area for stormwater flow control for the ambulance site.

The town would construct a parking lot at the rear of the ambulance garage/headquarters.

Landscaping plans for the ambulance site will be prepared, Mr Smith told P&Z members.

Mr Petrucelli described nighttime illumination for site, which would comply with the lighting standards for Fairfield Hills. 

Mr Petrucelli said a design goal of the ambulance project is making the garage/headquarters blend well with the design elements of the 1930s and 1940s period architecture of the Fairfield Hills campus.

The town bought the 185-acre Fairfield Hills core campus and its many buildings from state in 2004 for $3.9 million. The state had run Fairfield Hills as psychiatric hospital until 1995.

The planned ambulance building has a formal, symmetrical design in keeping with the Fairfield Hills architectural style, Mr Petrucelli said. The two-story building will have an elevator to comply with access provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act, he said.

The building will be equipped with an electrical generator. The structure will not have a basement.

The building is designed with public spaces on the upper level and with ambulance corps spaces on the ground level, he said.

The building would rise to 55 feet at its highest point. The structure would have brickwork on all exterior sides. White trim would accent the exterior walls. A set of fiberglass columns topped by a pediment would indicate the main entrance to the building. Mechanical equipment would be housed in the area above the garage bays.

 

Traffic

Traffic engineer Michael Galante of Frederick P. Clark Associates, Inc, representing the applicant, explained the traffic-related aspects of the project to P&Z members.

The point where the ambulance driveway would intersect with Wasserman Way would have sufficient motorist sight lines to meet traffic safety standards, he said.

Accidents that have occurred in the area have tended to happen on the section of Wasserman Way lying just east of its intersection with Mile Hill Road South. Those accidents have tended to happen on westbound Wasserman Way due to travel speeds and due to slippery road conditions, Mr Galante said.

Mr Galante recommended that the posted speed limit in the area be reduced from 30 miles per hour to 25 mph.

Mr Galante said he would seek approval from the State Traffic Commission for the traffic aspects of the ambulance project. The ambulance facility would not generate much traffic, he said.

Also, the ambulance association will seek traffic approval for the project from the Police Commission, he said.

Following the applicant’s presentation, P&Z members complimented the association on the project’s design.

Resident Salvatore Manganaro of 160 Brushy Hill Road asked whether the facility would be able to function in the event of a power outage.

Mr Petrucelli responded that a planned electrical generator would power the entire building in such situations.

P&Z member Michael F. Porco, Sr, asked whether the site design would allow for the facility’s expansion in the future.

Mr Petrucelli responded that the design would meet the ambulance corps’ needs for at least 30 to 40 years.

The project is estimated to cost $4 million-plus. The association plans to conduct a fundraising drive.

The push to build a new ambulance garage/headquarters stems from the ambulance corps having outgrown its existing facilities at 77 Main Street. The building the corps occupies there formerly housed a gas station/auto repair shop.