CHA Consulting via Saratoga Springs City Council (2021)
The long porch along the building highlights the entrance to the Emergency Operations Center and, with the day room, at right, breaks up the massing of the building, the architect said.
The Saratoga Springs City Council sent plans for Fire Station 3 to the city’s Planning Board and Design Review Commission at their meeting May 4. The two groups will offer advisory reports on the building, planned for Henning Road, just south of 5th Avenue, as part of the State Environmental Quality Review, or SEQR, review of the project.
"It's such a long time coming,” said Commissioner of Public Safety, Robin Dalton. She credited Mayor Meg Kelly with shepherding this through during a pandemic.
"It really fits within the character of the neighborhood," Dalton said.
The 15,500 square foot building, set back about 150 feet from Henning Road at the east end of the Oklahoma horse racing track, includes an Emergency Operations Center, three bays for vehicles, bunk rooms and administrative offices for EMS staff. The building is one storey, with a mezzanine for storage.
The city will lease the property, about 2.4 acres, from the New York Racing Association.
"I think this represents a pretty good first pass on schematic design,” said CHA’s Alan Kuniholm, who presented the drawings to the board. CHA Architecture won the bid to design the building in January.
Kuniholm pointed out the front porch that highlights the entrance to the Emergency Operations Center and the day room on the north end of the building that breaks up the roofline and keeps the building from looking too boxy.
Tony Stellato, with CHA, said that the company is already putting together the paperwork for SEQR review, which looks at various environmental impacts of the project. The Planning Board and DRC will be offering advisory opinions that will be a part of that review.
SEQR must be completed before the appropriation of funding and a permit to construct can be completed, Stellato said.
SEQR will start now and be finished in July, he said. From there CHA will proceed with detailed building plans. They will be ready in January 2022. The city then asks for bids to construct and construction can begin in April 2022.
The location of the station has been an issue in the past, but that decision has been made, and the council did not take this up.
The estimated construction cost is $5.5 million and an overall budget of $6.7 million, including the design phase.