The Next Fire Drill

To the Editor:

If you’re like us and most of our neighbors, the news that the town and the fire department have decided to relocate Newtown Hook & Ladder right next to The Pleasance on Sugar Street surprised you. As reported in The Bee, they are seeking a variance to change the setback from 50 to 20 feet. While we’re not disputing the need for a new building, we are disputing the inappropriate process employed to date for such an important decision. There are a number of issues with the variance request that The Bee’s article failed to highlight and deserve significant debate and review by all of Newtown’s residents:

1. A portion of the land belongs to the Newtown Land Trust. Apparently, someone has decided that it should be donated to the fire department for this project. Why, we ask, are these decisions being made without the full input of the borough’s residents? Is this the best use of that public land? Has the town considered other options such as donating a portion of the land at Fairfield Hills?

2. The application for the variance calls the site “ideal” and yet specifies that the vast majority of the acreage is wetlands. As such, the 9,000-square-foot footprint building needs to be much closer to Sugar Street to avoid a significant disruption of those wetlands. This will leave the new building without any room for expansion. How ideal is that? Wouldn’t Fairfield Hills be far more ideal?

3. The application states that “the proposed use is in harmony with the neighborhood.” I’m not sure what neighborhood they are referring to, but they cannot possibly be referring to ours. This 120-foot-long, 2.5-story brick building, with full frontage on Sugar Street, will not in any way be “in harmony with the neighborhood.” The neighborhood has houses recessed from the street, not brick industrial buildings. It will ruin the neighborhood’s harmony.

4. Finally, the application states that the location “provides excellent access to a major highway.” That’s important because the majority of calls to Newtown Hook & Ladder are for interventions on I-84. However, saying that tucking the building behind the little bridge covering the Ram Pasture stream provides excellent access to I-84 is simply not true. Anyone sitting in traffic on 302 any day of the week knows you can’t expect a big fire truck to get across — not counting all the events that take place at The Pleasance or Ram Pasture and that block Elm and Sugar Streets regularly. How will the fire trucks get through that? Will they barrel down Elm? Wouldn’t access to I-84 be far easier from Fairfield Hills?

And what about the budget for all this? Who will pay for the massive amount of land development and preparation needed to minimize wetlands disruption? Who will pay for the new building? Is this another budget fire drill in the making? And why in the world is a variance being sought without these questions answered first?

Francois de Brantes

13 Sugar Street, Newtown                               August 17, 2009