By Karen Keller
Herald News
Copyright 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.,
All Rights Reserved
CLIFTON, N.J. — Some residents are questioning why the city is planning to build an auxiliary fire station, emergency management headquarters and storage area on a portion of a 5.4-acre farm the city purchased two years ago to preserve as open space.
“I can’t understand why they’re doing this,” said city resident Joseph Yeamans, who lives four blocks from the farm.
“No way. That should not be. It was promised to be open fields,” said Helen Berkenbush, who lives in the Botany Village section. “They’re sticking their feet in their mouths,” she said, of the City Council.
But city officials say residents shouldn’t worry because the proposed construction at Schultheis Farm on Grove Street is only preliminary and a public hearing will take place before the plan is finalized. The farm is a last-resort spot to house the much-needed emergency response facility, City Manager Al Greco said Thursday.
The city has six firehouses and doesn’t have auxiliary members. When the city did have an auxiliary unit, it was housed in a building on Williams Street in the Delawanna section, but the building was deemed unsafe several years ago and was condemned, said Fire Department Capt. Norm Tahan. Auxiliary equipment is being temporarily housed at Station 4 on Main Avenue and at the Department of Public Works garage, he said.
“We have no room for anything,” said Tahan. He lives two blocks away from the farm and said he’s in favor of the city plans to build there.
Both Berkenbush and Yeamans said they wonder why the city can’t put the facility at the former site of Athenia Steel, a piece of property owned by the city that the state Department of Environmental Protection hasn’t deemed clear of contaminants.
Greco said the city is reserving the Athenia Steel site for recreation purposes and doesn’t yet have permission to build on a portion of it.
According to a copy of a feasibility study for the planned facility, dated June 1, the proposed building would measure 10,080 square feet and cost $2.3 million. It would house fire engines, ambulances, a boat, office space for the department, as well as a communications center that could double as an emergency City Hall, should danger strike. The study was created by city-based consulting firm George A. Held, AIA & Associates.
The facility would cover slightly less than a quarter-acre of the farm, a blueprint shows. The remaining acreage would be used to grow city trees and flowers, with a second portion open for either community-based or private farming that someone could lease, Greco has said in the past.
An old red wooden barn, a metal barn, an old white house, and greenhouse currently sit on the site. According to the study, the city plans to raze the red barn and house because they are unsafe structures. The metal barn is in good condition and would be used for general storage. The Department of Public Works is already using the greenhouse to grow flowers to be planted on public soil, Greco said.
City Planner Dennis Kirwin said the city plan is subject to the same building approval process that private developers face, and hasn’t yet been submitted to the Planning or Zoning boards.
The farm sits in a residential zone, said Zoning Officer Daniel Howell. It’s not clear whether any variances would be needed for the planned facility, he said. The plan doesn’t sound like it constitutes an industrial property because no manufacturing would be involved, he said.
The city paid $4.2 million for the farm and has been approved to receive $500,000 from the county’s open space fund to help pay for it. The state’s Green Acres Program has tentatively promised $1.3 million for the farm, said Karen Hershey, DEP spokeswoman. The state is still waiting for the appraised value of the property, she said.
Greco said the city has given notice to both the county and state of plans to build on the site, and will need confirmation from those agencies that the building will not jeopardize the grant money.
The city will likely lose a portion of the funding - based on acreage - as a result of putting a building on the site, said Hershey.
On Tuesday night, residents questioned council members and some wanted to know why the city is using supposed open space for storage purposes.
One of the residents who questioned the city’s plans was Stefan Tatarenko, a former councilman who said open space issues cost him re-election last year.
“We took a lot of heat,” he said.
Councilman Peter Eagler, who’s on the council’s Schultheis Farm committee, said Thursday that the farm already has three buildings on it.
“It’s not like we’re taking a wooded area and putting buildings on the property,” he said.
Greco said the proposed plan would actually see a net increase of 4,000 square feet of open space at the farm, after the barn and house are razed.