The Warren Select Board is in the process of creating an RFP for a new town garage on a 78-acre parcel of land off Vaughn Brown Road.
Moving the town garage from its current location on School Road in the village to a new location could free up that 3-acre parcel for housing, one of the only places in the village where any housing could be created.
The current maximum density for housing in Warren Village is four units per acre as stand-alone units or multi-family units. Since 2019 Warren has been working on revising its land use regulations and the new regulations, expected to be adopted by the end of 2024, include some density bonuses for the village area which could increase the allowed units per acre.
A Warren town garage planning committee held a site visit this week, followed by a select board meeting on July 23. At that site visit and the subsequent meeting, the group discussed preliminary plans for creating a town garage at the site as well as the process of creating the RFP for engineering services as well as construction of a garage.
The board will ask voters to approve a bond vote for a new town garage at Town Meeting in March 2025.
At this week’s meeting board members discussed other towns’ recent town garage construction costs which ranged from $3.2 million in Georgia to $7.25 million in Milton inclusive of architectural and engineering costs of about $200,000 which Warren Planning Commission co-chair Jim Sanford said was not out of line with industry rates.
Waitsfield is also in the process of pursuing a new town garage as is Fayston. Waitsfield has issued an RFP and Fayston established a committee to begin the work in 2018 and 2019 which was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Board member Devin Klein Corrigan offered to work on preparing the RFP with town administrator Rebecca Campbell.
The town has owned the Vaughn Brown parcel since 1986 when the land was conveyed to the town from its previous owner, with the understanding that the town could use the property for a gravel pit, according to select board member Camilla Behn.
Behn said there had been an Act 250 permit running with that land that expired and the town revisited a previous attempt to relocate the town garage to that site. She said it is possible that the existing town garage site in the village will need cleanup as a brownfield site when the town relocates its town garage operations.
The site currently hosts a town gravel pit and fire pond and is predominantly wooded. The RPF the town issues will include an 80- by 150-foot building and it is possible that the south side of the building will be built partially below grade to reduce the impact of noise on the neighbors.
After the site visit, the board also discussed, with road foreman Andrew Bombard, whether the new town garage would be connected to the town’s existing municipal wastewater system or whether it would operate on a stand-alone wastewater system. Town trucks will need to be washed on site and that will require an adequate wastewater filtration system.
Additionally, Bombard told the board that realignment of the town access road may be required to reduce the grade and improve the intersection of Vaughn Brown Road with Route 100.
