Fire Department Requests After-the-Fact Permit for Patio

The agenda for the Woodbridge Inland Wetlands Agency (IWA) meeting scheduled for Wednesday night includes the consideration of an application submitted by the Woodbridge Fire Commission for an after-the-fact permit to cover the patio and fire pit built behind the Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD) on Center Road.

According to records on file with the Woodbridge Land Use Department, the fire department constructed a shed and concrete patio area behind the fire station without gaining the appropriate permits from the IWA. According to the records, the project includes the addition of approximately 900 square feet of impervious area, 150 square feet of which falls within a wetland protection area.

“There are major wetland impacts that have been caused by the construction of this facility and appear to be creeping into the inadequately-sized wetlands buffer,” ecologist and zoologist Dr. Michael Klemens wrote in a January letter to the IWA after assessing the site in December 2012. “It adds a large amount of impervious surface that drains directly into the proximal arm of the wetland, without any buffering… this places the wetland at risk from adverse increases in storm water quantity, as well as diminished water quality from water running off the patio.”

According to Woodbridge Fire Chief Sean Rowland, the patio does fall partially within the wetlands setback, however it does not abut the wetlands directly.

“We’ve been using that area for the last four years,” since the department was moved from the old firehouse across the street, “and it was all mud and rocks,” Rowland said. “We thought we were doing a good thing cleaning up the back.”

Rowland, who has been WVFD chief for the last two years, said the patio and fire pit were built in order to provide a place for the volunteers and their families to congregate and socialize.

“The families are an integral role” in ensuring the department functions properly, he said, as “the more involved the families are, the more likely they are to let our firefighters go out for a call late at night,” for example.

Rowland declined to comment further on the permit application, leaving the discussion for Wednesday night’s IWA meeting.

The Fire Commission applied for the after-the-fact permit in November 2012.