RICHARDSON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT Where all students learn, grow and succeed Operations Center FAQs Richardson ISD is constructing an operations center on vacant district land between Greenville Avenue and Abrams Road, north of Walnut Street. The operations center will provide additional space and consolidate a number of functions currently housed at different locations around the district, including Facility Services, Child Nutrition, Library Technology, Bond Project Management, Purchasing, Testing/Accountability, Textbooks, Warehouse, Print Shop and Transportation. Part of the consolidation plan includes the closure and sale of an aging 2.8 acre district facility that would otherwise require repair and construction exceeding the value of the property. The operations center would utilize 14.6 of the existing 43 acres owned by the district at the location. The district zoning change request was approved by the City of Richardson, and construction could begin as soon as December 2015, with final completion by May 2017. Planning includes consideration of surrounding property owners through inclusion of 60 to 100 foot building setbacks from property lines instead of standard 20-30 foot setbacks, increased landscaped areas over city requirements that include partial green screening by trees, enclosure of service areas by 10 foot masonry screening walls instead of standard 6 foot screening walls, and site plan elements designed to mitigate the traffic impact on Abrams Rd. The facility is being funded with existing resources and will not be part of a bond package. How will the operations center impact traffic in the area? The firm of Halff & Associates conducted initial and updated traffic impact studies, and determined that the facility would not change the classification of traffic loads on either Greenville Ave. or Abrams Rd. The Dallas County Schools bus parking facility (the bus barn) will not be part of the operations center and will continue to operate bus routes throughout the district from its current location approximately.7 mile away at Buckingham Road and Greenville Ave. The operations center is designed to mitigate the traffic impact on Abrams Road and utilize the main entrance on Greenville Ave. for most traffic. Bus traffic travelling the.7 mile between the operations center and bus parking facility will utilize Greenville Ave. in both directions. Employee parking, visitor and delivery traffic will enter and exit via Greenville Ave. Both driveways on Abrams Rd. will be restricted to district vehicles only though access gates. The northern driveway to Abrams Rd. will be right turn only, exit only. No left turns by any vehicles will be permitted into the facility from Abrams Rd., which means all northbound vehicles, including buses, traveling to the facility will use Greenville Ave. to enter. The restricted access
measures on the Abrams Rd. side will have the effect of substantially limiting the traffic impact on Abrams Rd., especially northbound, which mitigates the possibility of vehicles turning right onto residential streets to avoid buses or traffic related to the operations center. Can the southern driveway on the Abrams Rd. side be restricted to right turns only? Yes, RISD will add that restriction. Both Abrams Rd. driveways will be gated, only used by district vehicles, and right turn only. In addition, no vehicles can turn left into the facility from Abrams and the northern driveway will also be exit-only. Will any buses operate out of the operations center? How many buses will refuel each day at the site? Part of the responsibility of the Transportation department is to repair and maintain buses. Regular daily bus routes will not be scheduled or run out of the operations center. Approximately 12-15 buses would be located at the operations center at a given time. Regular daily bus routes will continue to originate from the bus parking facility (the bus barn).7 mile away at Buckingham Rd. and Greenville Ave. which has operating from that location since 1997. Buses will travel to the operations center to refuel as needed. In the 2014-15 school year, an average of 31 64 buses were refueled per day, depending on the month. Overall, an average of 53 buses were refueled per day in the 2014-15 school year. Will the operations center increase the number of buses in RISD or bus routes running in RISD? No, the operations center will have no impact on the number of buses or routes running in the district or where routes occur. Bus routes will continue to originate from the bus parking facility (the bus barn).7 mile away at Buckingham Rd. and Greenville Ave. Due to a difference in distance that buses will travel to refuel at the operations center, RISD anticipates a decrease of approximately 2,880 bus miles driven annually, with a corresponding decrease in bus emissions. Will bus traffic impact funeral processions related to Restland Cemetery? The RISD bus parking lot (the bus barn) has been located across Buckingham Rd. from Restland since 1997, and its location will not change. Like other traffic, buses operating from that location will continue to stop/yield as directed by law enforcement personnel escorting funeral processions. Has RISD tested air quality at the current transportation/refueling location? Yes. In response to residents questions and concerns about the impact of a refueling site on air quality, RISD retained the environmental consulting firm Ecosystems Environmental, Inc. to test air quality at the current refueling/transportation location on Greenville Avenue. The air quality test results indicate that air quality at the current refueling location is better than the U.S. EPA average for air quality in urban areas like Richardson. The testing information is available on the RISD website. Do buses & vehicles have guidelines related to idling? Yes, Dallas County Schools buses and RISD vehicles have guidelines designed to prevent emissions through idling.
Can an operations center be built in a different place, or constructed at one of RISD s current administrative sites? The proposed site on Greenville Ave. was purchased by RISD in 2001 as a location central within district boundaries to accommodate future growth. It is the only location that RISD owns which is large enough to accommodate an operations center that consolidates district functions. RISD s student enrollment has grown significantly in recent years, and additional physical space is also needed for central functions related to technology and instruction. Consolidating operational functions in an operations center not only provides needed additional space for departments housed in the center, but also frees up space in the district for other central department needs. While a portion of the facility at 400 S. Greenville Ave. is large enough to accommodate the addition of a potential school, it does not have the space to accommodate an operations center. The district professional development center facility on Belt Line Rd. could not support additional structures or parking. What would the operations center look like? The main entrance would be located on Greenville Ave., and the service and non-public parking areas would be enclosed by a 10 foot masonry screening wall. Buildings would be set back 60-100 feet from adjoining property lines and the site would include trees and landscaping. A site map and conceptual design of the operations center is available through the RISD homepage at risd.org. Can the site plan be flipped so the main entrance would face Abrams Road and limited access gates face Greenville Ave.? The site cannot be flipped because it is designed for most of the traffic entering and exiting (visitors, employees, deliveries and buses coming to refuel) to use the main entrance facing Greenville Ave., which is a larger (six lane) road compared to Abrams Rd. (four lane). Flipping the site would place substantially more traffic onto the smaller Abrams Rd., which is counter to a primary design goal of the facility. Will the operations center generate noise? The facility would adhere to City of Richardson ordinances related to noise, and most functions will close by 4:30 p.m. It would also be surrounded by a masonry screening wall that will subdue any sounds generated by vehicle traffic at the facility. Other work performed at the facility will primarily be done indoors. Service and repair performed on vehicles & buses will be done in service bays with doors closed when possible to further mitigate the impact of noise. Is the bus parking facility (the bus barn) currently located behind Buckingham & Greenville moving to the operations center? No, the bus parking facility will not be part of the operations center and RISD has no plans or intention to move it. What is the average age of RISD s bus & vehicle fleet? Buses and vehicles have an average age of 9.6 years.
What happens to used motor oil or fluids resulting from oil changes/servicing of vehicles at the transportation portion of the operations center? The transportation service areas will not have grease pits under vehicles, and as is currently done, used oil/fluids will be captured in containers and disposed of in accordance with government regulations. What type of mulch would be available in the community mulch bin? Would it be mulch or compost? If the community mulch bin is included, it would contain chipped wood and would not contain compost. As RISD crews trim trees at schools around the district, the limbs are put through a wood chipper and the chipped wood would be placed in the mulch bin. Who would be able to take mulch from the bin? If included, the mulch bin would be in a publicly-accessible location. Signage could indicate the mulch is available to Richardson ISD residents. A staff member would not be hired/assigned to verify the residency of people interested in taking mulch. Could the mulch bin be moved to the Greenville Avenue side? If included, the mulch bin could not be moved to the Greenville Ave. side. The potential mulch bin was included in the plan design on the Abrams Rd. side because of the much higher volume of traffic anticipated on the Greenville Ave. side. Locating a bin where people would pull in, stop & load mulch on the busier Greenville side is more likely to impact traffic flow & parking. What is RISD planning to do with the remaining vacant property adjacent to the operations center site? RISD has no current plans to utilize the remaining 28 vacant acres and has no plans or intention of moving the bus parking facility (the bus barn) to that location. While RISD has been approached in the past by developers interested in utilizing the property for multi-family housing projects, the district intends to continue to retain the land to provide future options if space is needed to accommodate continued growth. Will hazardous materials be stored at the operations center? Bags of grass fertilizer used by grounds personnel at schools will be distributed from the facility three times a year for approximately three weeks. Fertilizer is not stored year-round. Bags will be delivered to the facility and then taken to campuses for use. The district also maintains pesticides for use in pest management efforts at schools. RISD employs certified pest management personnel and complies with federal/state regulations in the safe storage & handling of the materials. The storage location is subject to inspection by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Why did RISD request a change in zoning for the site? Zoning at the site permitted 25 foot tall one-story structures and 35 foot tall two-story structures. RISD requested a change to allow up to 35 foot tall single-story building heights and one structure on the site to be no higher than 45 feet tall in order to make more efficient use of warehouse space. The tallest structure at its highest point would be 40 feet tall and located at the interior of the site, approximately 220 feet from the closest property boundary.
How were adjoining property owners formally notified about the district s zoning request? How long were signs posted on the site? The City of Richardson handles formal notification of adjoining property owners related to zoning change requests and per information received from the City: The notices were mailed out on August 21, 2015 for the September 1, 2015 City Plan Commission meeting. The legal notice of the public hearing for the September 14, 2015 City Council meeting was published in the Dallas Morning News on August 28, 2015. With the exception of owners of property within the City of Dallas, all owners of real property in the City of Richardson as identified on the approved municipal tax roll and located within 200 feet of the subject site were included in the mail out. The City of Dallas was also sent a copy of the notice as a courtesy. The posting of zoning change signs on a site is not mandated by State Law. The City of Richardson posts zoning change signs as a courtesy. The signs were posted on the site by the (City) Transportation Department on August 21, 2015, the same day the notices were mailed out to the owners of property within the City of Richardson located within 200 feet of the subject site. The zoning change signs were removed by the (City) Transportation Department on September 17, 2015, approximately 3 days after the September 14, 2015 City Council public hearing. Initial publication: Sept. 2 Last updated: October 28