Two Bloomington Council members are questioning the future site of the Connect Transit Transfer Station.
Donna Boelen and Grant Walch aren’t sure there was enough data or preliminary work done by Connect Transit to justify saying “yes” to Market Street parking garage being home to the new site. It passed anyway on Monday.
However, General Manager David Braun said Connect Transit started the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) process 14 months ago.
This process is where the agency look at the proposed site and determine any “environment” issues and how the site will “fit in” with the neighborhood.
Through this process, the agency nixed the old Pantagraph building.
“We asked a consultant to determine a potential budget for the site because it was a much larger site than the Market Street site,” said Braun. “We learned that in order to do what we were hoping to do it would cost in excess of $40 million and we recognized that we only had $18 million. We didn’t want to go back to the community and ask for more.”
The Historical Properties portion of the NEPA process is what led to Connect Transit learning the project cost at the Pantagraph site would be prohibitive.
Connect would have been required to keep a portion of the Pantagraph building and couldn’t tear it down even if they wanted to. On top of that they would have had to restore some of the building to its original form.
According to Braun the NEPA study is now at the state historic preservation office. That office will determine whether or not building the transfer center at the Market Street site will impact any nearby historical neighborhoods.
If the state historic preservation concurs with Connect Transit’s plans, the study will be forwarded to the Federal Highway Administration for their review.
“Before we can get a government concurrence that allows them to obligate the grant we needed the city’s concurrence so that we are not saying, ‘hey we are going to build on this site without the city’s knowledge,’” said Braun . “They need to know that the city agrees with that.”
The NEPA process also considers potential impacts on; air quality, traffic, minority populations, populations living below poverty, parks, recreational areas, wetlands, floodplains, and aquifers. Factors such as noise, vibration, hazardous materials, environmental justice, threatened species and endangered species are also considered.
What will the new site look like
Connect Transit would operate the transfer center.
The center would include waiting, customer service and reception areas along with a visitor lobby. There would be route information signing, a sales booth, public restrooms, and conference room as well as areas required by employees.
Buses would enter and exit from Market Street.
The center will be able to hold 10 buses. There will also be real-time arrival signing and a bicycle storage area.
The City of Bloomington will manage the parking deck.
The project will require an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) or similar document. The resolution passed this week by the council among other things indicates it supports city staff meeting with Connect Transit to enter into discussion with them regarding these matters.
The Market Street property will have to be rezoned.
Parking spaces not available during construction would not be temporarily replaced as there is available capacity elsewhere in downtown Bloomington.
Unlike the Pantagraph site, the Market Street site will not significantly impact any historic properties.
Connect Transit will have to provide a temporary location for the Post Office currently located on the property.
The Post office may wish to work with Connect to move back to the Market Street site or it may choose to stay permanently at the temporary relocation.
