City of Milford Planning Commission approved a conditional use request from Carlisle Fire Company to convert a 2,400 square-foot storage building into a fire sub-station. The property is located on the north side of Cedar Beach Road approximately 185 feet east of the South Rehoboth Boulevard intersection.
“The property is currently zoned R1-Single Family Residential,” City Planner Rob Pierce said. “The property currently contains a single-family home with a couple storage buildings. It is comprised of three different parcels that make up about 3.86 acres along the north side of Cedar Beach Road. There are no proposed modifications to the site.”
The reason the company had to come to Planning Commission was that the zoning does not permit mixed use and that was necessary for the substation to exist there.
“Over a year ago, we started on an endeavor to find a location for a substation,” Dwayne Fox of Carlisle Fire Company said. “A gentleman had bought the property, and we approached him about possibly doing the substation because it already had the building and the area would work for us. We went into a short-term lease agreement, but we found out after doing some research that the City of Milford zoning and the county zoning were not the same. The county says commercial, so we didn’t think we needed to do anything.”
After learning that the city had the property zoned residential, the owner of the property was not interested in going through the necessary steps to change the zoning and agreed to sell the property to the fire company. Before purchasing the property, CFC went through the process with the State Fire Commission to be sure they could use the property for a substation as it had to meet certain parameters. The company may combine some of the parcels in the future, but currently needed the conditional use to begin using the building as a substation. Fox was asked about a fire siren at the location.
“We don’t plan to install one at this time, but the property belongs to the Carlisle Fire Company, so it is a good thing you brought that up,” Fox said. “We had a meeting with the owners of the property next door, and they were also concerned about that. We have no immediate plans to put a fire siren there, but we cannot rule it out in the future.”
Fox was asked why the company was not consolidating the lots rather than an easement on the property. Pierce explained that if the fire company wants to make any other improvements to the property, they would have to come back to planning. Commissioner Charles Hammond asked how many pieces of equipment would be stored there.
“The State Fire Commission says we have to have two there,” Fox said. “They have to be able to park in the engine bay without having to move one out of the way. We’ve tested this out and we will have an engine out there and a smaller apparatus, either a utility brush truck or some smaller type. We could put two engines in there, but it would be really tight. During the public hearing portion of the request, Cliff Mumford spoke in favor of the application.
“I just want to say I support this project and the fire company’s efforts to improve their service to our community,” Mumford said. “Obviously, it’s not an easy job to find land around here with the price of things. It’s gone up significantly in the last five years. So, they found a good piece of property here. You have easy access to Rehoboth Boulevard and off of Cedar Beach Road to get to Route 1. Rehoboth Boulevard used to be Route 1, so that used to be the way through Milford. That is a major corridor here and they have quick access to south Milford. I think this is an important project for Milford.”
Planning Commission approved the request unanimously. Commissioner Mark Redden voted in favor “as long as there was no fire siren placed there.” Hammond voted yes as it provides additional safety in the area while Commissioner Shelby DiCostanzo voted yes as the request matched similar adjoining uses.
