BETHEL – At Monday night’s Planning Board meeting, planners tentatively approved the town’s $1.3 million new fire station project.

Following two public hearings on other matters, planners conducted an impromptu public hearing during their regular meeting to consider relocating the fire station’s driveway away from an abutting driveway.

Architect James Reuter of Bethel who is representing the town, said the new driveway will be buffered on either side by plantings to separate it from the entranceway into Adam Alder’s Bistro L’Auberge Lodging and Fine Dining establishment and the town common.

At a public hearing two weeks ago, Alder had raised two-way traffic safety concerns about the town’s initial proposal to butt the fire station’s driveway against Alder’s entranceway. Another abutter Jenna Smith said the station’s driveway should be separated from the town common.

Reuter and town officials agreed, revamping the design to create a 35-foot-wide driveway that runs perpendicular to the common.

Reuter also answered an abutter’s question concerning the method fire truck drivers would use to return to the station. He said that instead of backing up through the driveway, the trucks would return via Mill Hill Road through the station’s 40-foot-wide entrance there, then back into their bays.

After explaining the new proposal’s particulars concerning lighting and planting revisions, abutter W.H. Black asked Reuter if the town could plant junipers ahead of the station’s parking area for firefighters to screen headlights from flooding his home.

“I’m willing to accept the parking, but not the headlights,” Black said.

Alder also questioned the town’s desire to place light poles around the station and its driveways. He was concerned about the type of lights, pole height and the intensity of illumination.

Planner Al Cressy said that while Bethel’s site plan ordinance restricted site lighting, there are no limitations regarding pole height.

“This is a community setting so we want to reduce illumination as much as possible but there is a trade off” for safety reasons, he said.

Reuter said the pole lights would not be more than 12 to 15 feet high. However, they would remain on throughout the night. But before Alder could raise another question, Reuter said the pole lights would not be brighter than the town’s street lamps.

“The lighting will not go beyond the immediate confines of the property,” Cressy said, providing greater clarification.

Then after moving out of the impromptu public hearing, planners resumed their normal meeting. However, Cressy quickly ran into flack from Planners Sarah Tucker and Stan Howe when he attempted to require Reuter to meet a condition of approval for the project.

Tucker argued that the board could rather address Cressy’s concerns in an upcoming fact-finding process. Reuter argued that he had already produced all the required documentation and measurements, albeit on previous maps and papers that the board had already examined.

Cressy then acquiesced but sought to stave off approving the project until Town Manager Scott Cole had finalized a deed for a land swap with the adjacent Opera House.

Cole said that within 10 days the deed would be finalized.

But after Tucker motioned that the board grant Reuter and the town preliminary project approval, planners voted 6-0 doing just that.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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