HDC gets peek at Fairgrounds public safety building plans
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
During a preliminary review, five of seven Historic District Commission members got their first look at what the town's public safety complex at 2 Fairgrounds Road should look like.

The rough sketches show the building's exterior will include a 38-foot roof for the police administration area and a 44-foot roof for the fire department's equipment, two ridge heights HDC member Linda Williams said will require variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The HDC said it did not want a monolithic structure in a predominantly residential area. It believed that the bays containing fire fighting, rescue and police vehicles should be of some sort of masonry construction. The building will extend 280 feet along Fairgrounds Road.

Williams said that overall, the HDC seemed to be generally pleased with the direction the town's architect, Kaestle Boos Associates, Inc., is taking. The HDC's preliminary review is akin to the Planning Board's sketch plan review, in which an applicant brings rough plans to the board to seek advice on what final plans for submission should look like.

"I think the sentiment of the board is it seems like it's going in the right direction," said Williams. "They didn't have any elevations to show us, but we did talk about materials. It was generalities for the most part, but the board sort of agreed with the approach they were taking. It's a big building. It's a big municipal building that has a particular use."

One thing that is definite is the building's location. The town chose the corner of Ticcoma Way and Fairgrounds Road, thinking that access onto Fairgrounds Road would be quicker. But as Nantucket Police Chief Bill Pittman explained, the improvements to Ticcoma way and the sight lines for rescue equipment operators just did not work.

"The very first [plan] was when we were talking about the overall usage of the property," said Pittman. "At the time, Ticcoma wasn't anything but a dirt road. We wanted to minimize use of concrete and we thought it would be easier to have an apparatus come out onto Ticcoma Way."

But because the developer of the six-lot Cachelot subdivision off Ticcoma Way only paved it to 20 feet wide, neither Pittman nor Nantucket Fire Chief Mark McDougall felt that rescue vehicle drivers would be able to see well enough to safely get in and out of the driveway. Because of this, the revised concept for placement of the complex moved the 4.9-acre site out onto Fairgrounds Road closer to the former Nantucket Electric Company building.

Construction could begin as early as 2009 if the $27.5 million in building funds are approved by voters at April's Town Meeting, and subsequently approved at a special election, said Town Manager Libby Gibson. Gibson added that the town would need to hire a contractor by next fall in order to keep pace with the estimated construction costs funded by the town.

"I think it's important to note the current conditions of the police and fire departments. They're not adequate for what we do," said Gibson. "We are talking about a costly project and there are a number of other costly projects on the horizon, infrastructure related, so we're sensitive to that. But these things have to get done. If we wait, it's only going to get more expensive."

In 2004, Town Meeting voters' approval of Article 77 gave the town the power to buy 19.8 acres at 2 Fairgrounds Road from Nantucket Electric. On June 1 of that year, voters approved a Proposition 2 1/2 override for the town to pay the $15.5 million bill for the land. Aworkgroup of town officials agreed on potential uses of the land, two of which are the public safety complex and housing. A specific housing plan for the remaining 6.8 acres is still undecided, said Gibson.

"We had to do a bunch of environmental surveys," Gibson said. "The next step is to do an RFP [request for proposals] to engage a professional to assist with choosing

the type of housing development we want." I