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Working group flags school‑adjacent site as preferred option for new Weston fire station
Summary
A town working group presented a new strategy to consolidate fire operations on a primary site potentially adjacent to the middle school, saying a consolidated primary station plus renovation of the other station could be significantly cheaper than replacing both in place; the group cited wetlands, Article 97 and MassDEP wastewater constraints for north‑side options.
Tom Palmer, co‑chair of Weston’s fire station working group, told the school committee the town has re‑examined an earlier 2018 recommendation to tear down and replace both existing stations and is now exploring a consolidated primary station on a south‑side parcel near the middle‑school entrance. He said consultants’ test fits show a roughly 3‑acre site could support a ~23,000‑square‑foot primary station while allowing renovation of the town‑center station as a secondary facility.
Palmer said the earlier 2018 Tecton report estimated replacing both stations on their current sites at just under $60,000,000, which prompted the select board to pause and seek alternatives. The working group identified about 14 candidate sites and applied criteria that accounted for response times, wetlands, program consolidation and future flexibility. For some north‑side options the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) flagged the case campus as requiring an active wastewater treatment facility — an added $10–$20 million cost — making those locations less viable.
Working‑group members and the committee discussed traffic impacts at the school entrances, wetlands permitting and the technical challenge of septic or sewer connections for a new station. Jim (working group member) said the design team is still testing percolation/permitting assumptions and will produce order‑of‑magnitude costs in the next two to three months. Tom noted the site adjacent to the middle school would be on school property and that, if selected, coordination with the school master plan would be essential to avoid conflicting uses.
Committee members urged sequencing the fire‑station and school master plans to avoid suboptimal outcomes and requested traffic engineering and septic/permitting analysis. The working group said future meetings will refine cost comparisons between the consolidated approach and the prior plan to rebuild in place, and that public meetings are posted and open to the community.
