Plans for public works maintenance facilities to be displayed at open house Wednesday, Mar 20

Hamlin Maintenance Yard
Photo by Jerry Picard

Shoreline City Maintenance Facility Project Open House is Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 6:30 to 8:00pm at the North City Water District office 1519 NE 177th St.

Come learn more about plans to address the City’s maintenance facility needs and provide input on the preferred designs. If you are unable to attend the open house, you can find all the material on the City Maintenance Facility Project webpage. You can also provide feedback. The feedback page will remain open until March 22.

After listening to community concerns regarding impacts to Hamlin Park and doing a thorough analysis, we developed two alternatives that will have much less impact on Hamlin Park.

The new approaches would both minimize tree impacts; however, the preferred alternative (Scenario A) will impact the fewest number of trees even though it will require a small expansion of the Hamlin Yard site.

The Hamlin Yard expansion under Scenario A is also offset by a larger expansion of Brugger’s Bog Park into the North Maintenance Facility property. Scenario A provides the greatest and most efficient use of the Hamlin Yard property and best meets the needs of our maintenance crews while still limiting impacts to Hamlin Park.

Purpose of and need for the City Maintenance Facility Project

Since 1996, the City’s maintenance crews have shared space at Hamlin Park. This facility is called Hamlin Yard. Its main users are Parks and Public Works crews. Maintenance needs have grown over time, and Hamlin Yard can no longer serve these needs safely and efficiently. In 2015, we began to study building a new Public Works maintenance facility.

North Maintenance Facility
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

The location first chosen for building was the North Maintenance Facility property (19547 25th Ave. NE), which the City purchased in 2013. The study found that building a maintenance base at this property had higher cost and risk than the City was comfortable with.

After further Council discussion, we looked at ideas to use other properties for a maintenance base. Overall, we found that:

• There isn’t a single City-owned site that would enable us to build a one large maintenance facility; and
• It isn’t feasible to purchase new property to construct one, large facility.

How to address this need

Following the earlier studies, in 2017 the City Council asked staff to look at making the most of the three existing maintenance properties the City currently owns, plus the Ronald Wastewater District (RWD) property.

Ronald Wastewater property
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

The RWD property is not owned by the City at this time but will be upon the completion of the City’s assumption of RWD. Property ownership is expected to transfer within the long-term timeframe of this project.

These four properties (below) will serve all facility needs for the City’s Public Works and Parks crews, including the new Grounds Maintenance crew, and the utilities crews.

• Hamlin Yard (16006 15th Ave NE)
• North Maintenance Facility (NMF) (19547 25th Ave NE)
• Brightwater Portal property (20031 Ballinger Way NE)
• Ronald Wastewater District (RWD) property (17505 Linden Ave N)

Our analysis showed:

1.  Ronald Wastewater District site is best suited for the City's Wastewater and Surface Water Maintenance crews.

2.  Brightwater Portal site is best for snow/ice operations, fueling, vehicle wash, and sweeper decant/spoils.

3.  NMF site is best shared between multiple priority uses. These uses include expanding Brugger’s Bog Park and restoring Ballinger Creek. The back half of the NMF site is needed for City maintenance storage and parking needs.

4.  Hamlin Yard is the best location for a 20,000 square foot new building. This building would include Parks, Streets, and Grounds crew spaces and shops. This site would also have covered areas for priority vehicles, equipment, and storage.

We developed eight alternative layouts for Hamlin Yard and NMF sites. Our goal was to find the best overall configuration. One high priority was reducing tree impacts at Hamlin Yard. The preferred alternative that will be presented at the open house achieves those goals.

For more information visit the City Maintenance Facility Project page. For questions, contact Project Manager John Featherstone at (206) 801-2478 or jfeatherstone@shorelinewa.gov.

--City of Shoreline