Josue Valdez, the civil engineer from Fuss & O’Neill, explains the new Westfield Police Department proposal to the Planning Board during its March 3 meeting.
Photo credit: Westfield TV
WESTFIELD — A new police station is well on its way in Westfield after the city’s Planning Board unanimously approved the site plan, stormwater permit and special permit for the project.
The new 25,000-square-foot facility, which will be located at 6 Union St., will have two stories and cost around $45 million to build.
“This project has been in the planning stage for almost two decades. I’m very happy to see that it will be completed in September 2027 to the benefit of our community,” said Mayor Michael McCabe in a recent statement about the project.
According to the project proposal, the new station will have a one-story auxiliary building on site, which will be approximately 4,700 square feet, and associated parking lots, sidewalks, landscaping, stormwater infrastructure and utilities. The proposal states that 111 new parking spaces are included with the new station.
At the March 3 Planning Board meeting, a civil engineer from Fuss & O’Neill and representatives from Tecton Architects — the designer of the project — outlined the logistics of the project in front of the board.
Josue Valdez, the civil engineer from Fuss & O’Neill, explained to the board that an electronic sign and a “mini plaza area” will accompany the proposed new police station.
“[The] proposed electronic sign … will be used pretty much for information pertaining to police safety that the Police Department will want to relay to the city overall, “ Valdez said.
The proposal calls for a main driveway that has three lanes, one lane that vehicles will use to enter the police station, one for a left turn out the station and one for a right turn out the station.
“That’s pretty much to avoid any queuing as vehicles are coming out that could [cause] a significant delay on police safety responses,” Valdez explained.
In addition to that entrance, the proposed plan includes a secure gated entrance that will be constructed from the Columbus Street side, and Valdez said that visitor parking will be available at the front of the station. Meanwhile, the parking area east of the proposed station will be fenced and gated to provide a secure area for the department that can only be accessed by authorized vehicles.
Valdez said that the proposed fence will be metal instead of a typical chain link fence, given the proximity of residential neighbors.
“Once you get into that area, [that’s] where you get into the operations of the actual Police Department,” Valdez said, of the fenced-off area.
The site also includes sidewalks, concrete walls for vehicle protection, covered patrolled vehicle parking, signs and landscaping, according to the proposal.
Aside from those amenities, the new site will have an improved stormwater management system, utility service and electric vehicle-ready parking spaces.
During the March 3 meeting, the Planning Board offered a few logistical questions before unanimously approving the project. The board said that the DPW and city engineer had already OK’d the stormwater plans.
No one from the public spoke during the meeting.
The process for building a new station, including securing the funding, began in 2022. According to previous Reminder Publishing reporting, when the current station on Washington Street was built in 1972, it was designed for a force of about 40 people. The department’s force has now more than doubled, and the current station doesn’t have separate locker room facilities for men and women.
- Ryan Feyre
- Ryan Feyre
- Ryan Feyre
- Ryan Feyre
- Ryan Feyre
- Ryan Feyre