By Allison Perrine
FAIR HAVEN – The borough is one step closer to finalizing plans for a new police station in town after the planning board received refined proposals for the Fisk Avenue site March 16 for capital review.
The presentation was led by Eli Goldstein, professional planner with The Goldstein Partnership, a Maplewood-based architectural and planning firm. He and his team offered advanced schematic plans detailing what the future police station could look like should the council proceed with the project. Planning board members provided feedback and critiques for professionals, facilities committee members and council to consider.
“I think all of the comments tonight will be taken to heart. We’ll try to address as many of them as possible,” said Christopher Rodriguez, councilman and facilities committee chair, at the closing of the presentation. “We’re also trying to not burn the bank down and be economical about these things but not to spite ourselves.”
According to Doug Kovats, planning board attorney, the existing structure is “outdated and suffers from a strange configuration of small rooms.” About 1,800 square feet, the facility has inadequate storage and jail cells only accessible from the outside. It is deteriorating in some areas, has mold issues and is not ADA-compliant.
The process to build a new station began in spring 2016 when the borough authorized a building facilities study to examine key structures in town, according to Theresa Casagrande, borough administrator. 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 facility 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 police department and public works building projects, allowing borough facilities committee members to meet regularly with borough professionals and other committees in 2021 to review facility details.
“The decision to rebuild a new police department on Fisk Street as well as draft plans that will be presented by the various borough professionals tonight, are the result of a great deal of thought, time, public input and professional expertise,” said Casagrande.
As presented March 16, the plan is to demolish the existing police building. The new two-story facility – or three-story when including the basement – will be erected slightly to the west of the current building. This will allow the old station to remain open while the new one is being built. Parking will be increased from 28 spots to 33, including two handicap spaces with ramp access to the building. The existing basketball court on site will remain in place. Some solar panels are being considered on the roof, as well as the use of recycled plastic shingles to make the building “highly energy sufficient” and more sustainable, according to Goldstein. Its life expectancy is at least 50 years.
“It’s going to be much more functional than the current building. It’s larger but also arranged in a more functional manner,” he said. “And it’s also more flexible in that the spaces on the second floor, especially the conference room, are set up that they can be multifunctional, multi-purpose rooms.”
Additionally, the building will include a secure garage so police vehicles can pull in and load and unload detainees and move them to and from a processing area out of public view. There will be two holding cells, Goldstein said, and an evidence storage room with lockers.
One of the main concerns among board members that night surrounded the narrowness of a proposed 4-foot-wide sidewalk path on the westerly side of the building, which children often use as a thoroughfare to reach a nearby park.
“This area is highly trafficked by children and I really can’t put enough emphasis on that. Four feet strikes me as particularly narrow,” said Todd Lehder, planning board chairman, noting that there will be “a fair amount of traffic” throughout the day. “This access for the kids is not wide enough. You can’t pass two bikes, and when you landscape all of this it’s going to be even tighter…I’m very concerned that these kids are going to be in that driveway unnecessarily because we’re not providing enough space for them.”
Rick Adelsohn, project manager at Frank H. Lehr Associates, said there is room to expand that to 6 feet wide but that it would narrow the landscaping a bit to do so. But shifting the building over is not an option, he said, because the town wants to keep the existing structure in operation while the new one is being built.
Questions also arose about lighting at the site, as officials recognized that the station, open 24/7, requires light but is also located in a residential neighborhood. Professionals plan to install LED downlight fixtures and bollards to maintain light levels that will not be intrusive to the neighbors. Adelsohn said the lighting will likely not be motion detector-controlled but can be programmed to operate as such.
Borough engineer Rich Gardella said while they have not done light-level analysis at this point, the proposed lighting will be “better from a safety standpoint but it’s also going to be better because it’s efficient… while maintaining the lighting within the site and not spilling it out onto the neighbors.”
“There’s no question that this needs to be lit up in order to be safe, no question. But we have seen instances where things that look OK on paper, in reality aren’t so OK. And it’s difficult to go back,” said Lehder. “For example, on this piece of paper with a lot of numbers on it, it’s hard to really understand the impact of what some of the choices are. That’s why the general statements that we’ve been as efficient as we can be… or to the extent that it’s adjustable matters, because we know that we’re not quite as locked in and we’re doing as best we can.”
On the flip side, Lehder complimented the way the professionals designed the station to have a more commercial look from the backside of the building but a more residential look from the front. “It’s clear that you’ve made an effort to make it fit in,” he said, adding that the existing building has some “history” and “specialness” to it.
The public also had a chance to weigh in on the proposals during the March 16 meeting. One resident, Richard Fuller, echoed Lehder’s concern about the wideness of the sidewalk proposed on the westerly side of the building. Its width should reflect that it’s an area that children often pass through, he said.
“It really needs to reflect the fact that it is an area through which kids pass. I don’t think you can plan on putting bicycles on a sidewalk. If it’s not illegal it should be,” he said. “And I think that’s the one thing perhaps that’s missing, is any evidence of thought about how bicyclers are supposed to get through the area.”
Other upgrades are also in the works in Fair Haven, including to its public works facility. The two projects are being planned in concert by The Goldstein Partnership professionals, but during the three-plus-hour March 16 meeting, time did not allow for a review of public works plans. Board members will hear that at a later date.
This article was originally published in the March 18-14, 2021 edition of The Two River Times.
