Plans Unveiled For Fleet Maintenance Complex In/Around Garry Park

A rchitects unveiled drawings and a model to show Garry Park neighbors designs for the city’s proposed operations complex at a meeting last week.

Although many residents seem comfortable with the layout of the buildings, the dramatic increase in traffic remains a key concern for most neighbors.

About 400 cars and trucks are expected to arrive at and depart from the facility each morning, around the same time children walk to school.

In an effort to ease traffic and noise concerns, none of the complex’s entrances are designed on the north side of the complex facing Desmet. A wide planting strip separates the buildings from the street.

The complex will house the fleet maintenance facility for repairing and refueling city vehicles, including motorcycles, cars, trucks, garbage trucks, snowplows and road repair equipment.

It also includes shops and storage areas for the city’s solid waste, transportation, water and hydroelectric departments.

The parks department will be located in the northwest corner of the complex. There will also be a wash bay, fuel island and a tank farm where road de-icer will be stored. The entire yard will be blacktopped and water runoff will be contained on site with swales.

The complex will consolidate offices and facilities that are now spread at four locations.

There are two proposed designs, both of which require traffic to enter and exit from Broadway on the south and Nelson on the east.

The main difference between the two designs is the location of the maintenance facility. In one of the designs it’s centered on the lot, in the other it’s on the southeast corner.

The traffic study for the neighborhood surrounding the complex is expected to be ready Monday. In late March, the City Council is expected to decide whether to locate the complex in the Garry Park neighborhood.

The city has placed $50,000 earnest money on the property for the proposed site and has an April deadline to decide to buy.

No construction date has been set. However, once construction begins, it will take about 18 months to build the complex.

“I was very pleased with the kinds of questions being asked,” said Julie Broxson, one of the neighbors opposing the complex. “I hope they schedule another meeting for the whole community when the traffic study is ready.”

Broxson, however, was disappointed by the turnout for the meeting. Some neighbors complained they weren’t notified. The city’s Neighborhood Services office printed more than 2,200 flyers and hired New Media Ventures to distribute the notices door-to-door.

Questions at the meeting focused on traffic. City vehicles will be instructed to head south when exiting the complex.

But, city officials noted they can’t force employees to take a certain route when they go home. Some will drive through the neighborhood.

Others asked about the life-expectancy of the facility.

City Engineer Jim Smith said the current facility has been used for 75 years. He guessed the new complex will be used for a “long, long time.”

“If the city limits expand, then a satellite facility will be added,” he said.

“We need a central facility to serve the city as it is now,” said Smith, adding that the other sites will be shut down and probably sold.

The cost of building the complex in Garry Park is estimated at roughly $35.9 million, said Smith. The cost of building at the Foothills site in the Logan neighborhood was around $33.6 million.

Options for funding the project will be discussed at the March 16 city council meeting. Choices include using some of the $14 million the city received in 1992 when it settled with an insurance company in connection with the Superfund cleanup of the North Side landfill. That money can be used only on garbage related projects.

City officials estimate they will save $700,000 a year by consolidating operations at one site.

“I think we can live with either site design,” said Walt Shields, chairman of the neighborhood committee in charge of the project.

“The city didn’t always agree with our ideas, but they were willing to work with us, and I think we came out pretty good, in all honesty.”

Shields said he’s heard mostly positive comments about the complex. “A lot of people have indicated they have no problem with what we’re doing,” he said.

Shields is confident the operations complex is by far the best option for the neighborhood.

“With anything else that goes in there, there won’t be a hundred feet of landscaping in the front,” he said. “It really makes it nice looking from across the street.”

Some residents fear that promises made now will be broken later.

Shields said the neighborhood committee will remain involved through construction, making sure neighborhood concerns are addressed.

“I’ve never known the city to work with a neighborhood like this,” said Shields.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map of city operations complex