DeKalb City Council votes down $1M transit center proposal

DeKALB – DeKalb aldermen voted down a proposed $1 million agreement with a Canadian-headquartered architecture company for a new transit center, saying they’d like a revised proposal which that would be lower impact to surrounding areas.

According to City documents, the City currently owns 25 transit vehicles and leases another 25 transit vehicles from Transdev Services Inc. City officials wrote the municipality relies on Transdev to lease their own facility because the City does not have a designated transit facility to house its vehicles and equipment, leaving most of the 50 vehicles used for transit services exposed to the elements year-round.

“With little to no weather protection, the vehicles are more prone to costly maintenance issues that could be minimized if the vehicles were stored in a climate-controlled environment when not in service,” city staff wrote in the agenda.

The DeKalb City Council voted, 1-6, against the agreement with Stantec Architecture, Inc. Seventh Ward Alderman Tony Faivre was the lone “yes” vote and all aldermen were present in person for the vote.

Pam Verbic of the 800 block of North Tenth Street in DeKalb wrote in a letter to the council she knew city officials were told there was a marsh located on the proposed property but proposed construction would not affect the marsh or bike path.

“However there is no way any construction in this area would not affect the marsh as well as the surrounding area property,” Pam Verbic said. “Runoff from a building and parking area would carry polluting deposits along with additional water, adding to the flooding nature of the entire area.”

Verbic wrote she has observed nearby corn fields become saturated enough where it affects crops planting already. With school buses and students coming and going from the DeKalb High School parking lost and traffic coming from a nearby church and DeKalb County government buildings, she wrote all of the traffic feeds onto First Street.

“Even with no kids going to school, no activities at other locations and less people working, there’s still considerable traffic on North First Street,” Verbic said.

Verbic wrote it might make more sense to have residences on the site instead of a transit center. She also expressed air quality concerns due to busses idling and more exhaust coming from passing busses.

“This is certainly not an environmentally friendly use of the property,” Verbic said.

DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas said during the Monday City Council meeting he would recommend that City staff talk to Stantec, ask them to create a new proposal and come up with three or four options that might have less environmental impact for residents but are still nearby the Northern Illinois University Holmes Student Center, which is where bus routes begin. He said each option could have general descriptions and listed pros and cons and the council would then narrow it back down to one preferred site from there.

“I don’t know what that would cost, but it wouldn’t cost $1 million,” Nicklas said. “It would be a fraction of that.”

DeKalb Mayor Jerry Smith said he wanted to point out that the City recently was awarded about $5 million in Rebuild Illinois capital funds, with $1 million of that allocated toward architecture and engineering. Between that and other available federal and state grants, he said that would mean there would be minimal to no impact on the City’s general fund.

“So I think we have to keep that in mind going forward,” Smith said.

Aldermen expressed they were agreeable to vote against the agreement in favor of considering other alternatives that Stantec might bring forward.

“I do have the utmost confidence in Stantec,” Third Ward Alderman Tracy Smith said. “They’re a proven engineering firm. So I think they’ll definitely come back and they know the area very well. They are going to definitely do us justice in this site location.”