Design Review Board approves GLS bus garage, allows masonry exemption

The Design Review Board on Feb. 5 voted to recommend approval of plans for the GLS bus garage and an associated school bus repair facility, allowing the project to proceed under a masonry exemption. The board approved the recommendation by roll call, with members Dotovich, Wartko, Glassner, Pickett and Weesecker voting yes.

Andrew Lolitan, an architect with Seoul Harris State Architects, presented revisions the team made since the board's previous review. "We went ahead and provided an additional row of arborvitae along with some of the white pine," Lolitan said, describing added landscape buffering intended to screen the fueling area and views from nearby residences. He also described added masonry at a door head height on the school repair bay and a change from white to darker metal siding to improve compatibility with existing city buildings.

The project includes two new buildings on the shared site: an approximately 9,000-square-foot city storage building with nine overhead garage doors for equipment storage, and a school repair facility that incorporates a bus wash bay, a pull-through full repair bay, a secondary single-load bay and a driver lounge and office. Lolitan said the site will also provide shared single-use restrooms to support a nearby park.

Board members asked detailed questions about scope and site impacts, including lighting and parking. The project team clarified an existing parking lot northeast of the site is not part of the redevelopment; that lot will remain in place to supplement the new parking. The architect also confirmed three existing city buildings and the school's current repair garage would be demolished to make way for the two new structures and bus parking.

A committee member noted the design falls short of the board's usual masonry standard. "So we're giving an exemption to around 30% versus our 60%?" the committee member said, citing the project's approximate masonry coverage. The committee member moved for a favorable recommendation "with the understanding that we've employed the exemption that's allowed to us by the code," arguing the limited public-facing views (the south side borders an existing cemetery) supported the waiver. The motion passed on a 5-0 roll-call vote.

The board did not impose additional conditions beyond the design adjustments discussed. With the recommendation approved, the project team may proceed to the next steps required by other city review processes.

What happens next: the board's favorable recommendation allows the project to move forward in the city's permitting and construction-review pipeline; no further action was recorded at this meeting.