HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-12-2005-9aORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: April 12, 2005
Action Agenda
Item No. q-p
SUBJECT: Solid Waste Operations Center Conceptual Planning
DEPARTMENT: Purchasing & Central Services/ PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
Solid Waste Management
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
Pam ,Jones, (919) 245-2652
Staff Memorandum Gayle Wilson, (919) 968-2885
Master Plan Site Drawing TELEPHONE NUMBERS:
Hillsborough
Chapel Hill
Durham
Mebane
732-8181
968-4501
688-7331
336-227-2031
PURPOSE: To consider endorsement of the proposed building conceptual plan for
administrative offices of the Solid Waste Department,
BACKGROUND: The University of North Carolina is requiring the Town of Chapel Hill to
vacate their current Public Works site on Airport Road at the expiration of the lease on January
1, 2007, thereby necessitating the relocation of the County's Solid Waste Department, which is
currently housed in a modular building at the same location. The new building is to be sited on
Eubanks Road Landfill property, pursuant to the Solid Waste Facilities Master Plan as approved
by resolution by the Board in October 2001, Plans far a new administrative building have been
included in the enterprise fund's Capital Investment Plan (CIP) since 1996.
The Town of Chapel Hill intends to vacate their current facilities by the lease expiration date.
This includes dismantling of all existing infrastructure, including stnactures, paving, parking,
utilities, etc, and reverting the property back to as near its original condition as practically
feasible. The existing Solid Waste Management administration building is located in the center
of the Public Works site. Solid Waste currently also piggybacks onto the Chapel Hill Public
Works Department's phone and messaging system.
The County's Space Needs work group, which includes Commissioners Jacobs and Halkiotis,
reviewed the specific needs for this facility during a meeting in early February 2005. The new
building is intended to house full time employees, an intern, and the intermittent
temporary/volunteer personnel presently located in the existing modular facility. It is also
intended to allow the consolidation of all Solid Waste administrative, enforcement, and
supervisory personnel in the department, currently housed in two temporary construction trailers
and in the parts room of the maintenance building. The construction trailers do not have
sanitary facilities and their inhabitants must drive or walk to the crew building for bathroom and
other amenities, The building will include expanded meeting room facilities (conceptually, on
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the order of the size of the Public Meeting Room at the Government Services Center in
Hillsborough) to accommodate various departmental meeting and training functions as well as
community meeting space for the Landfill Neighborhood Group, etc. Details are provided in the
accompanying staff memo, and staff will be prepared to respond to BOCC questions about
conceptual planning to date.
The Constn~ction and Demolition Recycling Task Farce made recommendations to the Board of
Commissioners in August 2000 that included, among others:
• aggressively pursuing partnerships with other entities, public and private, inside and
beyond Orange County to increase opportunities for recycling, reuse and reduction of
C&D wastes;
• considering locating a retail used building materials collection and resale point at or near
any future C&D management facility;
• finding a location at which to condtact C&D waste management, with Orange County
taking responsibility far reuse and disposal of its own C&D wastes; and
• promoting deconstruction and greenbuilding as sustainable alternatives to traditional
approaches.
To those ends, the Solid Waste Facilities Master Plan of October 2001 contemplates the
construction of a recycled material resale facility on property acquired by the County in 2003 on
the north side of Eubanks Road, immediately to the west of the current recycling pad. With
development of the new construction & demolition landfill there and resulting siting constraints,
it may be prudent to review if there are other opporttanities in the same general vicinity to locate
a resale facility. The County has also engaged in a number of highly successfial deconstruction
projects in recent years, and has stockpiled a fairly extensive inventory of used building
materials that need permanent storage. The construction of the new solid waste operations
center may provide an opportunity also to construct cost-efficient, convenient, and appropriate
storage space for deconstructed building materials for use in future County projects.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no direct financial impact associated with the review and
endorsement of the solid waste operations center conceptual plan, The subsequent
submission (tentatively planned for the April 19, 2005 regular meeting) to the BOCC of the
recommendation to award the architectural contract will explain anticipated costs related to the
planning and construction of the new operations center.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board consider the proposed
solid waste operations center conceptual plan, provide any additional guidance for staff, and
endorse the plan so that staff can proceed to submit a contract for architectural services for the
Board's consideration at the April 12, 2005 regular meeting.
Memorandum
To: Tolm Link, County Manager
From: Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Director
Subject: New Solid Waste Operations Center
Date: February 7, 2005
In 2001 the Board of County Commissioners approved a Eubanks Road Solid Waste Facilities
Master Plan that was recently reviewed with the BOCC at the February 8 work session. Among
the various components of the Plan was the placement of a new Solid Waste Operations Center
on a 4-acre parcel directly adjacent to and west of the southern portion of the Orange County
Landfill.
Architect Selection - In November of 2004 staff interviewed architectural fums to design the
proposed facility. Three firms submitted proposals, Staff hopes to be malting a recommendafion
to and receive approval from the BOCC sometime in March 2005 on a design firm..
General Location Issues -The proposed operations center was originally recommended to be
located on Eubanks Road because it has long been assumed that the Eubanks Road Solid Waste
Facility will continue as the central base of operations for county provided solid waste services
into the foreseeable future. Even though the MSW landfill is scheduled to reach capacity and
close in 2010, significant other waste management operations will continue, such as the
construction & demolition (C&D) landfill, vegetative waste processing, C&D recycling, HI-IW
collections, electronics recycling, possibly a transfer station, and perhaps even a recyclable
materials processing facility. It seems reasonable that the administrative and operations hub for
such continuing operations would be located in the Eubanks Road area. While there could be
some advantages to integrating this operations center with other county facilities in Hillsborough,
these advantages seem to be outweighed by the need to actually be located physically near solid
waste operafions.
Fundin - It is anticipated that the design costs will be paid from existing FY 2004/05 budget.
Construction costs are proposed to be debt financed. All previous capitaUfinancial planning has
included this facility. The current working assumption of total project cost is approximately
$1,000,000 (including design and permitting), however, in-house site grading and the notion of
several hundred squaze feet of unheated storage space should reduce the cost somewhat. Other
opportunifies to reduce costs will be pursued throughout the design and construction process..
The square foot cost seems to be in-line with other recent projects of a similar nature.
Utilities -The property has asuitable pere-site for a septic system and, if not located just within
the rural buffer (eastern property line is actually the rural buffer boundary), could be relatively
easi]y connected to a nearby sewer line. Public water service is available and will be provided to
the property.
Conceptual Space Requirements -The preliminary conceptual space requirements envision
approximately 5,500 sq. ft, of heated space and approximately 1,000 sq. ft, of unheated storage
space..
Fourteen offices of about 11X12 in size, with tluee additional offices slightly larger (12X15,
12X14, 12X15) based on demonsfrated need for additional space (e,g. Engineer for storage of
plans and drawings, and to accommodate drafting table). The fourteen offices are proposed to
house existing administrative and supervisory personnel from the department's three divisions,
and includes an office for intern/temporary employee use, an office for future expansion, and
offices for two Public Works-Sanitation Division supervisors who are being considered for
reorganization transfer to Solid Waste, It is expected that the organizational assessment regarding
consolidating all solid waste operations into the Solid Waste Management Department should be
completed by eazly spring 2005 and ready for Manager decision.
A reception area of about 18X24 would provide space for storage of one weeks worth of curbside
bins, a display area for compost bins/rain barrels, space for a waiting area, employee mailboxes,
fax and copy machines, etc.
A small meeting room/library of about 12X20 would be provided for smaller meetings (6-8
persons) and a repository of solid waste literature, technical texts, historical and research
documents, etc. Space could be also used as workspace f'or public completion of RRMO
license/permit/certification facility applications, accident review committee meetings,
disciplinary and other employee counseling discussions, 3-R Fee appeal hearings, employee
applicant interviews, etc.
A larger fraining and education room of at least 30X40-sq. ft. is proposed to conduct numerous
multi-purpose training functions and meetings such as:
• departmental employee training and instruction
• senior staff meetings
• division meetings
• confractor, waste hauler, hoteUmotel, etc, waste reduction and ordinance related workshops
• community informational meetings
• SWAB meetings
• task force/work groups
The new building envisions both men's and women's bathroom facilities and a ltitchenette/break
room area.. An assumption of unusable hallway space and mechanical closet space has also been
made.
Storaee
Based on existing experience the storage utilization of the new operations center would have
about 1,000 sq. ft. of unheated storage space and about 400 sq. ft. of heated storage, including a
,janitorial closet..
Existine Snace Utilization
Current office space allocation is:
• Modular Building- 1,850 sq. ft
• Temporary construction trailer - 224 sq. ft.
• Temporary construction trailer #2- 320 sq. ft.
• Maintenance Building - 400 sq. ft.
• County Sanitation Division - 460 sq. ft.
Total Estimated Current Space = 3,254 sq ft
Current unheated storage space allocation is:
• Out Building #1 - 160 sq. ft
• Out Building #2 - 320 sq, ft.
• Out Building #3 - 140 sq. ft,
• Maintenance Building - 600 sq. ft.
• County Sanitation Division - 225 sq. ft.
Total Esfimated Current Storage = 1,445 sq. ft
Public Access
The facility would be designed to accommodate the considerable number of citizens that visit our
current offices dai]y to pick up curbside bins, obtain hauler licenses, welting information of waste
reduction and various county programs, submit 3-R Fee appeals, etc.. If/when the Sanitation
Division transfers to Solid Waste landfill permits will be issued from this office. Additionally,
the department hopes to offer rain barrels and compost bins for sale that will draw additional
citizen traffic.
Deparhnental employees will also ufilize the Operations Center for training and other
administrative matters.
Green Building (High Performance-Sustainable Building) Concept
Historically, the Solid Waste Department has placed strong emphasis on environmentally friendly
practices, including the use of recycled products. The proposed facility (and the recommendation
of an experienced architectural firm) presents unique options for the utilization of recycled
building products as well as other sustainable design elements such as those included in the High
Performance Building Standards for Sustainable Design of Public Facilities (as developed by
Triangle J Council of Governments). Staff realizes that pursuit of these sustainable design
elements must balance long term environmental and fmancial benefits with up-front cost..
Neighborhood Compatibility
The Solid Waste Department has previously been made aware of the importance of ensuring that
any new Eubanks Road waste management facility should be in harmony with Rogers Road
Neighborhood community standards of appearance. Therefore, the deparhnent will coordinate
design and site development issues with the SWAB (which includes a member from the
neighborhood) and will develop a design and consfruction process that not only allows, but
invites input from the neighborhood,.
Staff has allowed for one additional office for a possible future employee and another to be used
by temporary help/interns that could be converted to a separate office in the future.
tJNC Property Lease Expiration and Restoration Requirements
The property leased by the Town of Chapel Hill on which the current modular building sets is
scheduled to be returned to UNC by December 31, 2006. The Town currently projects moving
into their new facilities in November 2006 and having the site cleared restored (except the
~7
Animal Shelter site) by the Dec. 3ldeadline, subject to completion of'the new Public Works
facilities on schedule and not finding anything untoward in the cleanup (fuel tank issues, for
example). Unlike the Animal Shelter site, the Solid Waste facility is physically integrated with
Public Works and cannot reasonable be left free standing/untouched.
Miscellaneous Issues
• Landfill staff are capable of performing rough grading of the site, saving an as yet
undetermined amount of expense.
• The building is being planned to accommodate a modest growth in spacial needs by including
one extra office space.
• The site layout and entranceway would be significantly improved with the acquisition of the
adjacent property, which has previously been available for sale.
• Anew, fully integrated phone and messaging system is envisioned to replace the two existing
(administrative offices and landfill facilities) systems. The primary phone system is
incorporated into the Town of Chapel Hill Public Works system.
• existing furniture will be utilized to the extent possible.
• Parking for employee's personnel vehicles as well as some county vehicles will be provided.
• The building will be wired with high-speed fiber optic cable for computer system. Capability
with the County system. The new Operations Center will be the hub for all telephones and
computer systems that are currently in place and all future expansions to be located at the
Eubanks Road facility.
This memorandum summarizes the conceptual development plan for the proposed new solid
waste operations center, Staff has recently reviewed this plan with Commissioners Halkiotis and
Jacobs. Staff awaits BOCC endorsement of the conceptual plan prior to requesting award of the
architectural contract.
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