Hope DAC asks Tracy council to sell two city lots for drive-through garage to improve client loading

LEDE: LEL Freeman, who identified himself as working for Hope DAC and Echo, told the CH City Council on Nov. 12 that his nonprofit recently purchased three parcels and is pursuing the purchase of two adjacent city-owned lots in Tracy to add a drive-through garage so staff can safely load and unload clients in ice and snow.

Nut graf: The council heard the informational presentation during staff reports; members agreed no decision would be made tonight and discussed scheduling a public hearing and confirming site details and price before any sale. The project is presented as an operational improvement for a local social-services provider rather than a land-use change request at this meeting.

Body: "We just bought these three Parcels," Freeman said, describing the parcels and the two additional 25-foot-wide city lots he said the nonprofit would like to buy. He said the plan calls for a drive-through garage that would let a Transit van pull through so clients can load and unload without walking on icy alley surfaces. "We'd like to put an additional garage along here... it's like a drive-thru kind of thing so we don't have this backing into the alley," Freeman said.

Freeman said the addition would include office space, locker/storage space for staff, and a conference room; he said the bathroom and furnace/sewer/water connections need to be near the existing utility locations. He described lot dimensions on the drawings shown to council (each city lot he cited as 25 feet wide and the combined depth running from alley to street) and said the long-term plan would include parking on the property to reduce street parking on Fourth Street.

Council members asked about vehicle access and curb cuts. One councilmember said a curb cut at the alley entrance would help vehicles exiting the proposed garage and better safeguard a narrow alley; Freeman and a councilmember discussed the potential for engineering/architectural drawings and the timeline.

Freeman estimated a possible start "maybe next summer" if architectural or engineering plans are needed, and asked that the council call a public hearing (he suggested placing it on the Nov. 25 agenda and holding the hearing after the new year). The council agreed the matter would return for a public hearing and a later discussion of price and terms; no final action or sale authorization was taken tonight.

Ending: The council did not vote on a land sale; the council indicated it will schedule a public hearing and review price and any required architectural plans before any transfer. Freeman thanked the council for hearing the request and said he would follow up with staff about next steps.

Quotes used above are verbatim from the transcript and attributed to LEL Freeman, who introduced himself at the meeting.