Station plans revised
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
4/18/2008

Fire District scraps original plans for West Side fire station amid citizen concerns

Following months of planning and several community meetings, the Cherry Hill Fire District has announced its decision to revise plans for a new West Side fire station within the Garden State Park development.

Cherry Hill Fire Chief Robert Giorgio said the fire district would look to construct a new fire station somewhere in the Garden State Park Development along Chapel Avenue, but not in the originally proposed location.

“The end result of this project is finding a location that will best serve the entire township, and we have a responsibility to work as hard as we can to achieve that goal,” Giorgio said. “We listened to the concerns of the residents in the neighborhood during the three community meetings we hosted. We went to the site, looked at it from their points of view, and we gained a better understanding.”

In February, the fire district announced plans to construct a new fire station at a piece of fire district-owned property between Chapel Avenue, Third Avenue and Crescent Way in the Garden State Park Development. However, after several community meetings, Giorgio said it was evident residents of the surrounding neighborhood had significant concerns about the project.

Among the main concerns, Giorgio said the removal of a wooded buffer between the residential homes on Third Avenue and the necessity for emergency apparatuses to pull out onto Third Avenue were two deciding factors to find another location in the development.

The district hosted a third community meeting with neighbors of the proposed new fire station on April 8 at the North Kings Highway fire station and once again listened to the concerns voiced by residents near the proposed fire station.

As part of the meeting, Giorgio and several fire district staff members, including the department’s civil engineer and commercial real estate adviser, evaluated other potential sites on and off the Garden State Park site. All five members of the Cherry Hill Board of Fire Commissioners also met at the proposed site and reviewed all the residents’ concerns for the proposed new fire station.

Historically, before a fire station is built in the township, Giorgio said the district meets with members of the public to discuss plans and address any concerns the residents may have with the future station. A station can be at its location for hundreds of years, Giorgio said, and having the support of its surrounding neighbors is of primary concern.

It was clear from the community meetings, Giorgio said, that the residents had some serious misgivings about a possible fire station in their community.

“As for the next step, myself and the fire commissioners will meet with the Garden State Park developers to discuss the residents’ concerns and other potential sites in the development for a fire station,” he said. “We’re really looking at any piece of property along Chapel Avenue so we can properly deploy our emergency apparatus.”

It’s unknown how much the fire station will cost to construct, Giorgio said, but the district is planning on spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million, based on the 2006 construction costs of the Kingston fire station. Despite the setback, Giorgio said the fire district would continue to look for another parcel of property along Chapel Avenue that could best benefit the entire township.

“These are the actions that best serve all of Cherry Hill. We’ve got the sleeves rolled up and we will find a way to make this work,” he said. “I’m comfortable that we’ll be able to achieve this. It’s a work in progress.”