Hook & Ladder Seeks Zoning Variance For New Firehouse

By Andrew Gorosko

The Newtown Hook & Ladder Volunteer Fire Company is seeking a zoning variance from the Borough Zoning Board of Appeals (BZBA) to allow it to construct a firehouse on Sugar Street closer to the street than the zoning regulations would normally allow.

Obtaining a zoning variance would be the first step in a land use review process requiring approvals from the Inland Wetlands Commission and the Borough Zoning Commission.

The BZBA has scheduled a public hearing on the fire company’s zoning variance request for 7 pm on Wednesday, August 26, at Town Hall South, 3 Main Street.

Hook & Ladder members have been considering the prospects for a new firehouse for years, in view of the deteriorated condition of the existing firehouse at 45 Main Street, behind Edmond Town Hall. The decaying firehouse has been internally braced with steel beams to stabilize the structure.

Hook & Ladder is one of five local volunteer fire companies.

The fire company is seeking a zoning variance from the BZBA which would allow it to construct a firehouse that would be set back 20 feet from the property’s front boundary line at 12 Sugar Street (Route 302). The normal minimum setback distance in that area is 50 feet. The area has R-1 (Residential) and B-½ (Business) zoning.

The site is on the north side of Sugar Street, northwest of Sugar Street’s intersection with Elm Drive.

Under the proposal, the Borough of Newtown Land Trust, Inc, and the R. Scudder Smith Family Partnership would donate land to create an approximately 9.4-acre site for the firehouse. The site has extensive wetlands.

Larry Edwards of Easton, a civil engineer, represents the fire company in its application to the BZBA.

In a May 12 letter from Rob Sibley, the town deputy director of planning and land use, to Richard Camejo, the fire company’s president, Mr Sibley explained that recent soil testing at the site indicated that the construction project would require a wetlands permit.

To minimize the physical disturbance of wetlands, Mr Sibley recommended that the fire company seek a setback variance for the property.

Basic plans for the project submitted for BZBA review depict a semicircular driveway, one leg of which would carry entering vehicles, with the other leg carrying exiting vehicles.

An architectural rendering submitted to the agency shows a traditional-style structure with multiple windows, gables, dormers, and cupolas facing Sugar Street. Garage bay space for fire trucks would be located at the rear, on the northern side of the building.

The firehouse would be near Town Hall South at 3 Main Street, the municipal building that holds the police station. Also, the firehouse would be located near the major intersection of Sugar Street, Main Street, Glover Avenue, and South Main Street.

In a statement accompanying its BZBA application, the fire company explains that the transfer of land from the land trust and from the Smith partnership would be contingent upon the fire company receiving required land use approvals for the firehouse project.

“The majority of this property is designated wetlands. The only usable area of this site, which will afford acceptable access, is that [land] along Sugar Street,” it adds.

If the proposed firehouse were to be built under the terms of the borough’s zoning regulations, a significant amount of wetlands would need to be physically disturbed, it states. Consequently, the local wetlands protection agency suggested positioning the building on the site to minimize the wetlands disturbance, it adds. “The only way to reduce the wetlands impact is to position the building closer to Sugar Street,” than the zoning regulations would allow, it states.

“This property poses a unique condition in that the extensive wetlands on the site restrict the available building area. The existing wetlands and the [Inland Wetland Commission’s] requirements to minimize the impacts to [the wetlands], has created an environmental hardship for which we feel a waiver is justified,” the fire company statement adds.

Bill McCarthy, who represents the fire company, stressed that the BZBA application is the first step in a long process through which the fire company would seek approvals for the project.

Details on the cost of the project, its source of funding, and the size of the proposed firehouse were not available.