photo by: City of Lawrence

The facility master plan for the city's proposed 75-acre filed operations campus includes seven components.

The public will soon be able to learn more about the city’s new field operations headquarters, including efforts to mitigate potential impacts on residents living near the proposed site for the project.

The City of Lawrence plans to build a $29 million field operations campus that will span about 75 acres and could house operations of up to a dozen divisions, including solid waste, streets and vehicle maintenance, as the Journal-World previously reported. The headquarters, proposed for a portion of the Farmland site, would be directly adjacent to the east edge of the Brook Creek neighborhood between 15th Street and 19th Street, according to the project website.

The city is planning a virtual meeting next week for all city residents or property owners, in which the project’s design team and staff from the city’s Municipal Services and Operations Department will present an overview of the project, according to a city news release. The presentation will include information about the project’s scope and schedule, and meeting attendees will be able to ask questions following the presentation.

“I think the biggest thing is just to make sure that everyone knows what’s going on and to answer any questions that people may have,” MSO spokesman Josh Carson told the Journal-World.

Carson said city staff and the design team would also discuss aspects of the project to prevent sound and light pollution into nearby residential areas, such as maintaining a tree line between the campus and the neighborhood. He also noted that the facility would not be operating at night, barring an emergency, as crews normally work between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. He said city vehicles that would use the facility included solid waste, streets and utilities vehicles, and that a traffic study would also be discussed.

A facility master plan for the field operations campus on the project website includes seven structures or buildings, including a fueling station and central maintenance garage. Buildings for solid waste, facilities, forestry/horticulture, household hazardous waste and public works — including water, wastewater, streets, stormwater, traffic and inspections — are also included in the plan. City officials have said the headquarters would centralize operations and increase efficiency as well as address multiple issues with the city’s current facilities, in particular the multipurpose public works yard at the intersection of 11th Street and Haskell Avenue.

The city’s 2021-2025 Capital Improvement Plan includes $28.95 million for the field operations facility, $14.4 million of which is budgeted for 2021. The city is currently in the conceptual and preliminary design phase of the project, according to the project website. The next steps will include the development of planning documents and Phase 1 design in 2021, with construction expected to begin in late 2021 and continue into 2022.

The virtual meeting will take place Monday, Aug. 31, at 5:30 p.m. The link to the Zoom meeting is lawrenceks.zoom.us/j/97512472032 and the call-in number, for those who wish to participate by phone, is 312-626-6799. The meeting ID is 975 1247 2032 and the passcode is 409418.