By Allison Perrine
FAIR HAVEN – Elected officials and residents alike shared positive remarks about the borough’s latest plans for a new police department and public works facility during the Monday, May 10 council meeting.
That night, professional architects and engineers gave a presentation about updated plans that have both been reviewed and critiqued by officials and the public for months. With Mayor Ben Lucarelli absent from the meeting, no decisions were made on whether or not to move forward but officials are expected to do so at the next council meeting.
The presentation was led by Eli Goldstein, professional planner with The Goldstein Partnership, a Maplewood-based architectural and planning firm. Goldstein was joined by junior architect Margaret DeSantis, also of The Goldstein Partnership, and engineer Luke Butler of Frank H. Lehr Associates.
The night started with an over view of plans for the new police station, which would be built about 22 feet west of the existing department on Fisk Street. This will allow for the continued use of the existing structure while the new one is under construction. According to the presentation, the two-story building will have a footprint of about 3,700 square feet and will have a nearly 30-foot front yard setback “to match the character of the surrounding residential lots,” said Butler.
The parking lot at the police department will have 29 total spaces, two of which will be ADA-accessible. The southeast corner of the site will include a storage garage with a 900-square-foot footprint, with nearby restrooms available for the public, including anyone visiting the nearby community center fields. There will be an 8-foot-wide walkway along the western side of the site to provide a safe route for pedestrians to walk to the community center fields. Beyond that, the property will be landscaped along the east, west and south property lines of the site.
“Unlike the existing site, pedestrians will not have to walk across the police parking lot in order to access the fields,” said Butler.
For security reasons, the professionals did not show the floor plans of the building. However, they did review some components of the plans. The first floor will have public access and the second floor will include a training room and other police facilities. On the basement level, there will be storage and mechanical functions, according to DeSantis.
The professionals then reviewed plans for a new public works department before hearing questions and comments from council members and the public. According to Butler, the new public works building will be 6,600 square feet and will be located about 50 feet north of the existing structure. An outdoor recycling area will be built to the west of the facility which will contain dumpsters for residents to safely use.
To the north of the facility, there will be a public parking lot with 30 spaces, two of which will be ADA-accessible and three of which will be designated for recycling with loading and unloading zones. Community members will have access to the lot while visiting the community center fields. Additionally, a 2-foot-deep retention basin will sit to the north of the parking lot to accommodate for storm water.
The public works yard will sit south of the facility and will include a wide center aisle with perimeter parking for maintenance trucks “due to the activity of the yard,” said Butler. A fueling station will be installed along Allen Street along with a salt storage shed in the southeast corner of the site. The yard will be accessible with a one-way in from Allen Street and one-way out onto Allen Street. The yard will be fenced and landscaped for buffering and screening, and there will be 22-foot side yard buffers on Maple Avenue and Allen Street.
According to Goldstein, the public works garage will have five vehicle bays that are each 50 feet deep. At the front of the building, there will be offices, a workshop mechanical room, workspace for employees with a window for public service and a break and training room.
Both plans received positive feedback from residents and officials. Councilwoman Meghan Chrisner-Keefe called the plans “beautiful” and said she loved the proposed incorporation of globe lights at the front of the police department, similar to the lights that exist there currently.
Similarly, Councilwoman Laline Neff said the professionals and committee members did a “fantastic job” incorporating suggestions and comments made by council members and residents during meetings past. “It really looks like it will flow really well relative to the residential neighborhoods that these two buildings will be part of,” she said.
During public comments, resident Tracy Cole said she appreciated that the team made the effort to blend the façade of the police station with styles of nearby residential homes. However, she asked if the team considered other materials for the siding of the structure, to which DeSantis and Goldstein responded that the materials to be used have not been finalized yet.
“We want it to look a little more formal than a house but not so formal that it emphasizes the fact that it’s in a residential – it’s a public building,” said Goldstein.
Resident Tina Brendel said the profes- sionals did “a great job” of considering previous comments made about the plans, but questioned the planned entrances to the public works parking lot. She acknowledged that traffic often accumulates on weekends and when baseball games are held at the nearby field.
The process of looking to build these new structures began in spring 2016 when the borough authorized a building facilities study to examine key structures in town. By the fall of 2017, the borough appointed Goldstein for the improvements. In 2018 and 2019, site plans and design locations were examined for the facilities and for most of 2020, options were still reviewed but plans slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By December 2020 the council bonded for the two building projects, allowing borough facilities committee members to meet regularly with borough professionals and other committees in 2021 to review facility details.
This article originally appeared in the May 20-26, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
