Neighbors appeal city shop

by Brad W. Gary<br>Herald Staff Writer
| February 14, 2006 8:00 PM

Public hearing set for Thursday

MOSES LAKE —A new shop is something the city of Moses Lake hopes to have complete within the next year, but nearby neighbors of the future complex want to ensure it has a minimal impact on their existing properties.

"We'd like to see them turn it," said resident Dan Sloane of the project. "Put in a decent green belt between that site, Road 4, and this community."

Outside of his front window, Sloane will be able to see the proposed operations and maintenance complex. His is the closest of several dozen homes in the Skyline Acres community, a more than 50-year-old neighborhood that sits across Road 4 NE from the Moses Lake City Limits and the proposed facility.

Sloane feels his community can't stop the city from putting in the complex, but said the neighborhood is seeking changes to the proposed site plan which they feel would have less of an impact. Residents of the neighborhood recently filed an appeal of the project's environmental checklist, and plan to address concerns at 7 p.m. Thursday at the meeting of the Moses Lake Planning Commission.

The complex encompasses three buildings, including one 22,000-square-foot building, on a 12-acre site adjacent to the city's municipal airport. The site will abut both Road 4 NE and Airport Hangar Road, housing storage, equipment rentals and maintenance shops for the city. It will replace the current complex Moses Lake City Manager Joe Gavinski said has become antiquated and energy inefficient. The current undersized facility once sat on the edge of town, before city growth occurred around it. The new complex is one Gavinski called an across the board update for the city.

In addition, he said the city also wants to create a complex it can be proud of.

"The city's going to be proud of that facility, and we're going to make it as nice as we can for what we can afford," Gavinski said. "And I think it will blend in very well."

The project has been in the works at the city for several years, and the neighbors' appeal will be discussed along with a site plan review for the project Thursday night. The city estimates completion of the facility about a year after construction commences.

Gavinski said last week that the city is trying to satisfy the concerns of the neighbors. As a result of a meeting with Skyline Acres residents last week, the city has made some changes to its proposed site plan, including the expansion of landscaping along the entire length of Road 4 NE and updating the level of that landscaping so as to obstruct the neighbors' view of the facility grounds. The complex will be surrounded by a chain link fence along the road for site protection.

Curtis Robillard has been elected as the spokesperson for Skyline Acres, and he and more than 30 other residents gathered Sunday to discuss their response to the proposal. He said the group wants to have their voice heard, and will be proposing changes they feel are needed to maintain the standard of living in the community. A wider green belt, trail, movement of buildings and crosswalks across Road 4 NE are among the neighborhood's wants for the project.

The neighborhood also has a number of concerns about safety and maintenance along the road, where the city would be adding traffic. The proposed site would add approximately 80 vehicles per hour during peak times, according to city documents.

The residents are worried about foot traffic along the roadway, which Sloane said already gets its fair share of pedestrian use from families and horse riders. But Road 4 NE is a Grant County road, and city staff said in documents it is built to county standards for a rural road, and not conducive to pedestrian travel.

Documents indicate the road sees about 1,200 car trips per day, for a road that has a capacity of 3,700 vehicle trips per day. The complex is scheduled to add approximately 200-300 vehicle trips each day, which documents indicate would be a minimal impact on the road. Representatives from Grant County public works told residents at a recent meeting that the road would meet the needs of any traffic on it, and improvements would be made when circumstances warrant.

Sloane said he isn't as concerned about the number of cars, but the type of big trucks that will go by the roadway.

"It's already dangerous enough," Sloane said. "Start pulling big trucks out there, and it's going to make it worse."

The quality of the road is an issue Robillard said the neighborhood continues to be concerned about, and said the meeting was a first step in a dialogue with both Moses Lake, and Grant County, regarding improvements.

"This is the first step," Robillard said of the residents' efforts. "We appreciate the city allowing us to voice our concerns."