Original plans for the 20,000- square-foot police station at the corner of Stanwood and Pleasant streets would reconfigure a driveway adjacent to the property that provides access to a home at 79 Pleasant St., but owners of the home say that will come for a price.
In an email to Town Manager Gary Brown, owner Jacqueline Heuer wrote that she intends to make improvements to the property, last valued by the town at $88,600, and list it for sale at a price of $165,000.
“If the town is interested in purchasing the property for the police center complex let me know before I make any improvements and list the property,” Heuer wrote.
Heuer and Justin Fenty, owners of the property, did not return multiple calls and emails requesting comment.
After talks with the owners, Brown told The Times Record that town officials have no plans to make a deal for property that is not essential to the police station project.
“They want to sell it and we don’t want to buy it,” Brown said.
The original station plans would have incorporated that driveway into the police station parking lot, adding a small paved driveway at the back of the park- ing lot to provide access to the home.
The property in question is a small driveway that would include trees and other landscaping to provide a buffer between the police station parking lot and a vacant building at 77 Pleasant St., from which the town evicted residents in January after deeming the structure a public health risk.
At a May 1 meeting of the municipal subcommittee charged with oversight of the police station project, architect Jeff Shaw said excluding that portion of the project would leave the driveway intact and leave that side of the site without any remaining screening.
Brown said the change won’t significantly affect the project and that the town has no interest in acquiring rights to that driveway.
The subcommittee continues to refine plans for the building to reduce its overall cost from an initial estimate of $7.2 million to $5.5 million.
dfishell@timesrecord.com
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