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Homeowners irked by proposed service center
Conner Hammett / Staff Photo - The proposed service center would be south of Bolin Elementary School. This sign was posted on Malone Road in January and sparked opposition from residents living across the street from the proposed site.
By Conner Hammett, chammett@acnpapers.com
Lowered property values. Heavy traffic. Noise caused by buses, fleet vehicles and semi trucks.
These are just a few of the concerns some residents of an Allen neighborhood have regarding a proposed Allen ISD service station that could be built across the street from their homes in 2014.
If approved, the 130,000-square-foot facility would include parking for more than 120 school buses, fleet vehicle storage, maintenance facilities, bulk food storage, a drive-through bus wash, fueling stations and 200 employee and visitor parking spots.
So far, Mastellar said, the website has been a success. Over the last two weeks, he said, he has received 50 to 75 e-mails opposed to the service station's construction.
The center would occupy the field separating Bolin Elementary's east side from Malone Road. Mastellar said the two-lane Malone Road is too small to accommodate the kind of traffic necessary for a service station the size of the one proposed, and the increased traffic would be a nuisance to nearby residents.
“You're going to have commercial semi-tractor trailers coming in and dropping food off,” Mastellar said. “You're going to have [distribution] to all the different schools from this location. You're having a fuel depot there that's going to fuel all 125 buses that they've proposed to put on this property. In no way in the world is that conducive to a way of life around neighborhoods.”
The project, which would be made possible by a land purchase approved by voters in the May 2009 bond election, would relieve campuses like Allen High School and Lowery Freshman Center, which are having to accommodate excess buses that will not fit in the district's current service center on Butler Drive.
Tim Carroll, AISD public information officer, said the district will require more time to address some of the questions and concerns by residents since the project has not yet entered the planning stage. Under the current concept, he said, the district would build its own roads on the property to ease traffic on the nearby residential roads.
Carroll said the school board has received around 30 letters and numerous phone calls expressing concern about the service center site. The board hopes to hold a public hearing about the issue in July to allow residents to voice their concerns and discuss the rationale behind the project almost a year before planning starts, he said.
“We’re trying to be transparent about this and let people know way up front what we’re planning for,” he said.
Mastellar said he plans his group to attend the Feb. 28 school board meeting.
“We were looking forward to that being developed into some nice homes or a park or whatever they would decide to do with it, but not a bus barn,” Mastellar said. “There's no way in the world you're going to tell me you're going to put that type of facility with lighting, with noise, and it's not going to affect our families.”
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