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City of Vancouver outlines design and purpose of new Public Operations Center
Summary
City staff and contractors described a 9-building public works campus off 94th Avenue, including maintenance shops, fleet storage, a fuel/wash station and a geoexchange heating/cooling system; neighbors pressed for details about noise, truck routing and signal timing.
Jason Olson, the City of Vancouver’s capital projects manager, opened the meeting and laid out the project scope for the planned Public Operations Center, saying the site will include nine primary structures and a secured campus with a southwest entry off 94th Avenue. "The site is fully secured," Olson said, and staff have planted trees and other buffers to screen perimeter properties.
Olson described the programmatic layout: two two-story buildings on 94th with parking and vehicle storage beneath, a single-story fleet building to house large vehicles, a warehouse and a large fleet maintenance shop for service and repair. He also described an underground ground‑source heating and cooling system: "there's a series of 400 feet wells that are drilled to help take the heat the heating and cooling from the earth to help supply heating and cooling to the building." City operations manager Tim Buck said the campus was sized for future growth and an initial operating staff of roughly 250, with capacity planned for more over 10–20 years.
Why it matters: the facility centralizes vehicle maintenance and public works operations for the city and will change traffic patterns on nearby county roads. Residents asked specific questions about visibility from the eastern edge of the site, landscaping timing and whether the campus will increase overnight or weekend noise; city staff said most vehicle and maintenance activity will occur during daytime shifts, with emergency operations only as needed.
