The Warren Select Board received an estimate of roughly $12 million to develop and build a new town garage. The board heard a presentation from consultants at the engineering firm VHB, as well as input from the public, at its Tuesday, January 28, meeting.
The garage will be built on a 78-acre parcel on the west side of Route 100 off Vaughn Brown Road, just south of West Hill Road.
VHB engineers presented a site design that utilizes the parcel’s existing driveway, bringing the cost of labor and materials down while requiring a steeper driveway with less longevity, according to the engineers.
A prior estimate from VHB, based on an initial design that included constructing a new access road with less of a slope, came in at roughly $15 million. That proposal was shared with the town’s garage task force and its members asked for a revised proposal that reduced costs.
Engineers said the question the town needs to contend with is whether the steepness of the driveway in the updated design is acceptable. While the goal was to keep it at a 10% grade, the new design brings it in at 12%. Otherwise, both site design scenarios contain the same 12,00-square-foot garage structure.
OUTDOOR STORAGE
The new site will also have outdoor storage for town-owned equipment, employee parking spaces and several stormwater management ponds. VHB engineers said that locations are selected for a water well, a generator and an electrical transformer.
Homeowners who live near the new site voiced concerns about the driveway egress in the updated site design, and more generally about increasing traffic in the area where Route 100 meets West Hill Road and the village entrance. The existing entrance to the parcel, which the latest design makes use of, is just south of that location.
VHB project manager Dan Heil said that in an initial outreach to the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), the agency said conditions were adequate for trucks pulling out onto Route 100 at Vaughn Brown Road, which is a low crash site.
Select board member Devin Klein Corrigan said the town asked VTrans about potentially reducing speed limits where Route 100 meets West Hill Road and Main Street, but has not heard back. “We hear you,” she told community members, “and want to make it better as well.”
Homeowners also expressed concerns about noise that could emanate from the new site, and questioned whether the town can build a garage on the site at all. The town acquired the property in 1986 and its deed restricts use to municipal water facilities, nonvehicular recreational use, forestry, agriculture and structures associated with these uses. The parcel currently hosts a town gravel pit and fire pond, and is predominantly wooded.
CHANGES IN LAND USE
Select board member Andy Cunningham said that several factors have changed, especially regarding land use and development laws under the state, since the deed was created. “We might have a disagreement with you about what the meaning of that was, and whether it’s binding or not,” he said of the town.
Cunningham pointed out that Act 250 jurisdiction over the site ended with the end of gravel extraction.
Cunningham contextualized the project by adding that the town started looking at moving the garage site from its existing location – a three-acre parcel on School Road in the village – 17 years ago. “It’s been that long of kicking the can down the road and watching our failing infrastructure, and it’s getting to the point where we have to do something,” he said.
Project cost estimates provided by engineers include all site work at the new property, as well as the removal of the existing building and any potential mitigation at that site.
One homeowner said the town should reconsider rebuilding a garage on the existing site – calling aspects of the new project “fiscally out of control,” but Cunningham said the existing site is not large enough for what the town needs.
VHB engineers at Tuesday night’s meeting said the town could use the existing site as green space. Select board member Camilla Behn said the town could consider selling the land, but “we haven’t talked much about that part of it.” Cunningham agreed that use of the existing site is “for a future discussion.”
Previously, the town’s planning commission briefly discussed the possibility of developing affordable housing on that site.
PLANS IN THE WORKS SINCE LAST YEAR
The town’s task force has been working on plans for the new garage site since last year, including hiring Weimann Lamphere Architects, which contracts with VHB, to assist with site design. So far, the town has paid Weimann Lamphere just over $50,000, according to Warren town administrator Rebecca Campbell.
The town was not able to identify grants for the project, Cunningham told community members on Tuesday.
VHB engineers said they expect to bring the total project cost down from the latest estimate of $12 million – 19% of which is contingency costs, or funds set aside to cover unexpected costs that arise along the way.
The town’s five-member garage task force will make a recommendation to the select board about how to proceed and the select board will decide whether to bring a bond vote on the project to voters at Town Meeting Day this March. If the bond vote passes, the town could start building as early as fall of this year.
The select board also approved a $1.1 million capital budget, up about 8% from this year, on Tuesday night. That includes an additional $75,000 for town improvements from this year, for sidewalks, a restoration of the Town Hall front door and other projects; a $10,000 increase to make payments on a new utility truck for the town fire department; and a $5,000 increase to replace rotting fencing at the town cemetery.
