(South Operations Center rendering, from city website)

ORIGINAL REPORT, 9:04 AM: Back in September 2015, we reported that Seattle Public Utilities wanted to turn the bus yard at 4500 West Marginal Way SW [map] into its future Drainage and Wastewater South Operations Center. At the time, the city was looking at leasing the land. We hadn’t heard anything more about the project since then, but a notice in today’s Land Use Information Bulletin shows the project has been proceeding. The notice includes this description of the project planned for the six-acre site:

The DWW South Operations Center Project would replace or upgrade the main building’s roof and exterior walls and mechanical systems, including heating and cooling, plumbing, and electrical systems. Exterior space improvements are expected to include installation of new buried utilities, repairs to existing stormwater piping and sanitary sewer facilities on and off-site, retrofitting paved areas with stormwater bioretention areas, adding a 40-foot-tall radio tower adjacent to the main building for dispatch and emergency services, installing solar energy and rainwater harvest systems, constructing several lightly loaded structures that would be used primarily for storage and parking, and removing and replacing existing paved surfaces in areas to facilitate site and utility improvements. New structures would likely be supported with new shallow foundations. Additional site improvements would include enhancing safety at an existing railroad and bike path crossing at the site entrance, planting additional trees, and adding up to four electric vehicle charging stations. The completed DWW South Operations Center would operate seven days every week, would be completely fenced, and would be accessible only to those individuals having required authorization.

An online timeline says construction is expected in 2019. The notice published today advises that there’s been a Determination of Non-Significance for the project, meaning SPU believes an environmental-impact statement is not needed. The notice includes two deadlines for the public – comments on the DNS are due by July 24th, and if anyone wants to appeal it, that has to be filed by July 31st.

The notice points to a website for the project but it has few details, so we’re asking SPU for more, including the site’s purchase price and the project’s estimated cost, as well as the “environmental checklist” to which the notice refers, which isn’t on that site yet, though the notice says it should be. Meantime, you can see a bit more about the design on three pages of the SHKS Architects website.

6:24 PM: Since our morning report, the checklist link has been added to the project website – scroll down this page. Also, SPU says the property was purchased for $11,550,000, and that’s included in the project’s estimated cost of $54.2 million.