Next stop: City Council for GCSC bus barn project

Friday, May 6, 2016
Old bus barn facility on North Vine Street for GCSC still features an old-fashioned quonset hut. (Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE)

Greencastle school officials are nothing if not proficient by now in the operations of City of Greencastle government.

After all, come Tuesday night the school corporation's transportation facility (aka bus barn) will be going before a city governing body for the fifth time since the project was first proposed for the 10.49-acre site along the south side of State Road 240 (Veterans Memorial Highway) just west of its intersection with Tennessee Street. And a sixth meeting is on the horizon.

The school corporation is purchasing the 10.49 acres -- along with an adjacent 12 acres that will go undeveloped -- from Hanson Aggregates on the condition the rezoning and all occur.

Earlier this week, the Greencastle Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) gave a thumbs-up to a special-exception use variance to allow for the transportation facility as a large-scale, auto-oriented use in a General Business (GB1) zoning district.

With that variance in hand, GCSC officials will now proceed to Tuesday's 7 p.m. City Council meeting at City Hall where they hope to see Ordinance 2016-2 adopted on second and final reading and amend the city zoning map to change the real estate in question from single-family dwelling district 2 (SD2) to General Business (GB1).

After starting their city government sojourn with a March 10 appearance before the Technical Review Committee, GCSC officials got approval by the City Plan Commission on March 28, and secured passage on first reading by the City Council on April 12.

Even after second reading before the City Council on Tuesday, the GCSC project will still need to go before the Technical Review Committee to have construction plans reviewed. That is tentatively scheduled either May 12 or June 9.

Supt. Dawn Puckett again explained the need for a new GCSC transportation facility to replace the landlocked bus barn structure that has been in use for 70 years "in a very tight residential area" on North Vine Street. She displayed a 1948 photo showing the quonset hut that has long passed for a garage and noted that he only thing that would be different had that photo been taken today would be the buses themselves.

The three-building transportation facility project calls for a 100-by-55 foot office building with a drivers' room and a two-bay shop and barns designed to keep 36 buses under roof while allowing room to grow.

The only entrance to the new property will be at the corner of Tennessee and State Road 240 with no upgrade necessary in the actual intersection. While there is a concrete apron already in place at the entrance to the land GCSC is buying, the 41-foot entry will be widened, officials said.

Meanwhile, both city and school officials noted that the only traffic that will use Tennessee Street will be the bus that picks up students along that street.

Some of the most interesting aspects of the project discussed at the BZA session was what might happen to the current property on North Vine Street.

The school corporation, Supt. Puckett revealed, has "been approached by two potential buyers."

So while selling it remains a prime option, the school corporation will probably not be out of the existing facility under the fall of 2017.

Meanwhile, a local farmer, Puckett said, has come forward interested in purchasing the quonset hut and moving it should it not be sold with the real estate.

Attorney John Zeiner, representing the school corporation, called the new facility "a significant improvement for the community," suggesting that the new building site being "out on the Southern Highway seems suited for that."

He also noted that the new facility "fits well with the comprehensive plan" and will be tucked comfortably between a church on one side and an apartment complex on the other.

BZA member Margaret Kenton made the motion to approve the use variance, which was made unanimous after votes by John Phillips and alternate members Bill Hamm and Eric Wolfe.

Hamm and Wolfe were called upon as alternate members and sworn in for the meeting Wednesday night after BZA regulars Wayne Lewis, Donnie Watson and Brian Cox all expressed conflicts of interest in voting on any issue involving the school corporation.

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  • Do you just pull two names out of the hat to sit in and settle a vote?

    -- Posted by canttakeitanymore on Sat, May 7, 2016, at 7:42 AM
  • The only bus to use Tennessee street will be the one bus dropping off kids after school? What about the other 35 buses returning after delivering the children to their homes? The entrance to the facility is going to be widened to 41 feet?

    The intersection of the proposed GCSC Transportation Building project is a disaster waiting to happen. Each afternoon, traffic will be tied up back to the already congested High School intersection as buses stop to turn left onto Tennessee street.

    Now, the Veterans Highway is a Greencastle traffic jam when the factories let out and the High School dismisses each afternoon. It will only be worse in the future.

    It's too bad this is a project being rammed thru the process with alternate members on the BZA. Government at its worst.

    -- Posted by Lookout on Sat, May 7, 2016, at 9:03 AM
  • The school board should of tried to buy some land from Ascena Retail Group west of Area 30 then they would have a stop light to help with the traffic flow.

    -- Posted by luvmycountry on Mon, May 9, 2016, at 3:21 PM
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