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09/25/2021 12:00 AMAfter hitting pause on plans to locate the new North Branford police station on undeveloped town land cleared earlier this year at 305 Forest Road/Route 22, North Branford is funding an evaluation of two alternate locations for the new building project.
The two alternate locations being considered are open space at the town's Augur property on Forest Road/Route 22 in Northford (roughly across the road from the current project site); and redeveloping a town-owned parcel at 1599 Foxon Road/Route 80 on the south side of town in North Branford. The evaluations will include developing renderings orienting the town-approved architectural design for the 15,000 square-foot new police facility to best fit each site.
At its Sept. 21 meeting, the Town Council unanimously approved appropriating $16,700 from funds allocated for the new police facility project so that project engineer Criscuolo Engineering, LLC (Branford) and project architect Silver, Petrucelli & Associates, Inc. (Hamden) can research and develop documents, reports and renderings summarizing siting the new police facility at each location.
Developing a segment of the Augur property as an option has been a subject of discussion since June. The new police department would require about 4 acres of property, likely on a portion of the current Potato and Corn Festival grounds, and at a point near the Route 22 access driveway for the town's Public Works facility (as part of the current plan to develop 305 Forest Road, the driveway and drainage would need to be relocated to accommodate better alignment with the new police facility). An alternate potential future use for the Augur property, which continues to be discussed by the Town Council and is conceptualized in the Town's 2019-2029 Plan of Conservation and Development, is to create a "town center" on the site, potentially to include some municipal buildings.
The land at 1599 Foxon Road was cleared in early 2017, when the town pulled down the former Community Center, together with the former Center School building at back and remnants of the former Wall Field Little League diamond. The parcel totals 5.9 acres. In 2018, following attempts to market the parcel to developers, the Town Council agreed to treat it as open space town property, with the possibility that the land could be sold off or developed in the future, if the town found the need.
Since June of this year, North Branford's Permanent Projects Building Committee (PPBC) has been working to whittle down increased costs tied to building the new police department at 305 Forest Road. As previously reported, project bids opened this summer turned out be considerably higher than the $7.5 million project cost projection. The bid increases were based in part on an unanticipated expense for grading excavation and material removal on a portion of the hilly, 13-plus acre property, as well as spiking construction market costs. Meanwhile, as a safety measure, the Town Council voted on June 29 to amend the project's approved total bonding appropriation of $8,525,000 to allow for appropriating up to $12,250,000, if needed, for the project to continue to go forward.
On Sept. 7, citing additional issues with street sight lines and current and future grading needs at 305 Forest Road as well as police input, the PPBC recommended working with the project engineer and architect to evaluate the 1599 Foxon Road parcel as the first option for relocation, together an evaluation the Augur property as the second option. The facility would require about 4 acres of property use where ever its situated.
Committee spokesperson Al Rose said the PPBC had sought input from North Branford Police Chief Kevin Halloran about potentially siting the new facility at 1599 Foxon Road, and based on that input, had voted, as a committee, to recommend 1599 Foxon Road as the first choice for an alternate location, should the evaluation show it's feasible.
Speaking to the council on Sept. 7, Chief Halloran outlined why he felt 1599 Foxon Road could be a good location for the new facility.
With regard to siting the facility on the Augur property as part of a future new town center, Halloran said, "If you're going to have a town center, a town center doesn't necessarily have to have a PD [police department] in it. There are lot of towns where the PD is not part of the town center."
He noted the Augur property will have the same line of sight issues as those found at the 305 Forest Road property, and is located in close proximity to Totoket Valley Park and its playing fields, which often draws vehicles, families and children to the area. Locating the facility at 1599 Foxon Road instead of Forest Road would not cause an impact to responses or cost of services, as police officers are deployed out in the field rather than waiting at a station house, he said. While response time won't differ regardless of location, Halloran did note that the business district on the south side of town has twice the number of calls to police for service. Another benefit to the 1599 Foxon Road location is that it's in a business district rather than a residential area; and the site's terrain provides some natural security as its backed by a river and wetlands, he added.
Halloran also said he felt there would be some "significant cost reductions" at the 1599 Foxon Road site vs. the other sites on Forest Road/Route 22. The facility's estimated operational cost for the heating would decrease as it would be able to tie into the Route 80 corridor's natural gas infrastructure. A building at 1599 Foxon Road would eliminate the septic system installation that's in the plans. The hillside location of 305 Forest Road requires a large retaining wall estimated to cost $175,000; moving the facility to 1599 Foxon Road would eliminate that cost; as well as eliminating the need to install a cistern, pump and retention pond required for the fire suppression system. Choosing 1599 Foxon Road over the Augur property site would eliminate the expense of realigning the current Public Works driveway and moving related drainage. Locating the police station in the Foxon Road area may also help to spur more business development in the vicinity; especially if the Town can direct some federal funding to increase utility infrastructure in that area, he noted.
"The only critique that I heard [tonight] is exiting from the driveway," said Halloran. "Again, we don't normally deploy to calls for service from the police department. It might be a little bit of an issue for the community coming into the police department. However, I know the fire department controls access to the traffic control signal at [Route] 139; if we could ask the state if we could also control both control signals, it would assist us in emergency situations exiting and crossing Route 80."
Coming out of the current police facility at 260 Forest Road in Northford is "not an easy task" at present, due to high traffic, Halloran also noted.
The new police facility will replace the town's aging, outmoded and outgrown police headquarters at 260 Forest Road, first built in 1974 and last renovated in 1993. In early 2021, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans for the 305 Forest Road site and the new police facility building design.
As noted by council members on Sept. 7, both the Augur property and 1599 Foxon Road need to be evaluated equally, rather than as a first and second choice approach, to determine which site could yield the best results for the town.
"We're happy wherever you want to put," said Halloran. "I just thought it was important to bring this [1599 Foxon Road] location up as a viable option for a police department resolving some of the issues that we may have, and for potential economic growth in town without tainting what we call our pristine lands in North Branford."