With the first public hearing of the Trilogy Repertory Company's plans to adapt and reuse the Ross Farm barn, Bernards is one step closer to having its first year-round community theater.

The plans are to preserve the historic Ross Farm barn and stables at 135 N. Maple Ave by repurposing them for community theater use. Additions will be made to the barn while still preserving the character of the building and the street facade. Once completed, the new barn will have a full stage area, capable of being operated year round. The stables will be the holding area for Trilogy's 1,000 plus costumes that the company has acquired from over 30 years of theater production.

The first hearing on the project will be held at the Environmental Education Center on March 22 and will give Trilogy the opportunity to present their case to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, as well as residents an opportunity to voice their opinions on the project. The DEP needs to approve the project because the farm was purchased by Somerset County using green acres funds for open space preservation.

Hank Barre of Trilogy Repertory said, "We are pursuing the project on several different tracts." The company must seek approval and a variance from the DEP, and also get approval on the county and township levels, as well as undergo a historical review. The Ross Farm (also known as Boudinot-Southard Farmstead) was placed on the state and national registers of historical places in 2009. The farm residences predate the Revolutionary War in America.

Despite all of the obstacles, Barre said, "So far everyone seems to be on board. ... Virtually everyone we've talked to seems to think this is a good worthwhile adaptive use of [the property].

The Bernards Environmental Commission reviewed the project's application on Monday and issued a positive comment. "Just from the historical preservation through adaptive reuse of buildings we should say [we support this]," Environmental Commission member Bert Fonde said.

The project is still in the early stages, however, with the first step gaining approval from the necessary governing bodies. The theater company is also in the process of choosing an architectural design for the repurposed building, according to Jaye Barre of Trilogy. "We are very fortunate that the students at the NJ School of Architecture [at NJIT] are using this as a studio project," Jaye Barre said. Hank Barre said that the repertory company was in contact with a professor at the school who agreed to have his third and fourth year architecture students work on potential designs for the theater.

With the project's planning approval and design process still incomplete, and the necessary permit application, construction and fundraising efforts still to be undertaken, Hank Barre said that Trilogy is expecting 5-7 years maximum before the project is fully complete. "Those are the outside dates," Barre said. "Hopefully it's sooner."

If everything continues to go smoothly for the project, once completed Trilogy will have the scheduling rights to the theater, but it will continue to be owned by the county and open for other local organizations and community groups to stage their own performances.