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1. Why was the Highway Garage Site chosen?

In short, the Highway Garage property is the Town’s largest unencumbered property, and is the only property that can be adaptively re-used to include a police station. Private property was ruled out as unnecessarily adding to the cost of constructing a new police station.
In July 2009 a report was issued by the Center for Public Safety and Architects Design Group, Inc., Winter Park, Florida detailing a spacial needs assessment of the current police station located at 26 Shank Painter Road. This report also identified potential options that exist in the community for relocation of the current police station including the following:

• The medical office adjacent to the existing police station
• The town’s existing soccer field
• The temporary facility housing hall offices (Jerome Smith Road trailers)
• Adaptive re-use of the existing site on Shank Painter Road
• The parking area adjacent to the fire station, across the street from the police station
Each of these sites was determined to be infeasible.
On August 24, 2009 the Board of Selectmen directed the Town Manager to form a Town Manager Working Group charged with the responsibility of siting a suitable location for a Police Station. Additional sites that were considered were:
• Community Center
• Grace Gouveia Building
• Motta Field
• Grace Hall Parking Lot (Lot 3)
• National Park Service North Maintenance Facility
• Fay’s Garage on Court Street (private)
• Duarte’s Parking Lot on Bradford Street (private)
Once these potential locations occupying sites on town owned land and privately owned land were ruled out, a discussion ensued of the possibility of utilizing the highway garage site on Race Point Road. In February 2011 the engineer’s assessment concluded that the site was indeed viable with some design and layout adjustments including design circulation for vehicles and equipment. An initial and preliminary geotechnical-boring sample did not readily identify any environmental hazards on the site that could not be mitigated.

On April 4, 2011 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article #22 requested the town voters amend the action taken at April 2010 Annual Town Meeting and to authorize the expenditure of this remaining $150,000 appropriation for the securing of design and project management services in connection with the demolition of the existing highway garage and the construction of a new highway maintenance facility and a new police station to be located at the existing highway garage site. In unanimous votes in favor of this action by both the Board of Selectmen and by the Finance Committee, this Article was moved forward to Town Meeting. Town Meeting unanimously passed a motion made by Selectmen Chair Anderson on April 4, 2011.

2. How will traffic be managed?

Access to the site will be split to provide direct public access and parking to the Police Station along Race Point Road. Police vehicles and DPW traffic will have access at the current driveway location, which will be upgraded and widened to allow both an ingress and egress lane.

The project will require a traffic study during its Cape Cod Commission’s Development of a Regional Impact review. The Commission’s traffic engineers will review the traffic study and make recommendation to mitigate any potential traffic hazards.

We would like to proposed extending the CCNSP’s existing bike trail on Race Point Road, and also would like to see the Route 6/Race Point Road Intersection redesigned to remove turn offs.

3. Will the building be LEED Certified or include renewable energy features?

The building will be built to LEED Certifiable standards. The architectural firm will seek to include as many qualifying LEED points as possible to allow the Town to seek Certification if it chooses.
The project is being reviewed for the potential for solar PV arrays on the roof of the highway garage.

4. What is the “right” size needed for both the Police and Highway Garage Buildings?

In determining the appropriate size of each facility, the architectural firm goes through a programming exercise where it assesses each department’s space needs. The estimated cost of the project is based on average public building costs for similar type structures until such time that an actual bid for construction can be submitted.

Existing vs. Proposed Facilities

Existing Proposed
Police Department 5608 sf pending*

Existing Proposed
DPW Highway Garage 4096 sf 16,152 sf*
Highway Garage Sheds 853 sf
Parking Meter Shed 921 sf
Ambulance Shed 600 sf
Water Meter Shed 294 sf
Salt Shed 3200 sf 4,800 sf*
DPW Admin Offices 1500 sf
Cemetery Garage 600 sf
Cemetery Sheds 208 sf
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12,272 sf 20,952 sf*

* As the project is being developed the size of the structures are being refined. The architectural firm is currently reviewing the programming needs to reduce the size of the structures as directed by the Board of Selectmen. The figures listed are as of March 22, 2012.

We are working on providing comparisons of both size and price of other town facilities on the Cape and throughout the Commonwealth, which will be added to this site when available.