SOMERS – Plans for a compressed natural gas fueling station on a 20 acre parcel along First Street, just east of the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks moved ahead during the Village Board meeting by a 5-1 vote.
Plans call for facility with 170 time-fill truck cab parking spaces, 74 time-fill box truck spaces and 202 passenger vehicle spaces. An additional 20 passenger vehicle parking spaces are provided for the office building.
More than 150 future box truck spaces and 168 future passenger vehicle parking spaces are also in plan documents.
The proposed facility includes an 8,590-sqaure-foot service and office building, to be constructed at the northeast portion of the project site, including four truck service bays, a parts warehouse and office space for employees.
The facility is split into two types of fueling operations, time-fill and fast-fill. In time-fill, semi-trucks are parked in a secured private parking area and fueled while parked, similar to charging an electric vehicle.
People are also reading…
The commercial fleet fast-fill is located outside the private fenced area, for use by other commercial fleet customers. Fueling would take place over a matter of minutes.
Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a California-based energy company, will operate the facility. Across North America, the company operates nearly 600 compressed natural gas truck fleet fueling stations.
Village Trustee Jackie Klapproth Nelson voted against the project, citing issues with meeting standards for similar projects relating to design and employee entrances.
“The standards that we expect and have on other warehouses, they have articulation in design and color and materials,” Nelson said. “I understand it’s a fuel station, but this is a business with 12 offices.”
Village President George Stoner said the project had been in the works for about two years, and the developers had accommodated extensive alterations to plans and designs in that time.
“The building itself, it’s better than anything that we’ve already approved in this village,” Stoner said. “I’ve been in this business for over 30 years, and this building, for what it is, is outstanding.”
The project ultimately was approved.
Residential lots
Two residential lots will be split from a 23-acre parcel along 12th street, between 93rd Avenue and 88th Avenue, for the construction two single-family residences.
Village trustees approved a rezoning request, certified survey map and development agreement between the village and Mastercraft Builders LLC during Tuesday’s meeting.
According to village documents, in late 2020, Mastercraft Builders LLC had approached Somers about building a 44-lot subdivision on the parcel, a plan that ultimately fell through due to the cost of bringing municipal water to the site.
Now, Mastercraft has requested two 16,800-square-foot be split from the larger parcel along 12th Street. Each will be served by wells and will have a shared driveway.
The requests and agreements were approved unanimously.
Lift station payment
A final payment of $139,512 was approved for Camosy Construction, Inc., for the Lift Station 1A and Water Transfer Station projects, which were about $1.75 million and $1.25 million respectively.
Flint payments
The board approved a request for a $31,570.50 payment to Globe Contractors, Inc. for public utilities work at the Flint 94 Commerce Center, at the southwest corner of Highway E and West Frontage Road.
As part of the development agreement for the Flint 94 project, the developers agreed to bring offsite public sewer and water to the center. While the improvements are paid for by the developer, public utility projects have to be publicly bid.
The contract was awarded October of last year to Globe Contractors. This is the fourth partial payment to Globe, with payments now totaling over $1.2 million.
Stormwater
The board also approved a stormwater culvert replacement project for a property east of the Union Pacific Railway line and northwest of the Hawthorn Creek subdivision.
The project, requested by Root Pike-WIN, will upsize the existing culvert, which was “blowing out” during rainstorms according to Stoner, causing extreme erosion.
“It’s washing everything away,” Stoner said. “There’s three homes where it’s washed away the banks.”
Root Pike-WIN previously secured funds to design the project, and requested $40,000 from the Stormwater Utility for construction. According to plan documents, the village money could help the organization obtain additional grant funds.
During the Stormwater Utility meeting, Stoner, responding to concerns about the village’s efforts regarding stormwater, said they were “constantly working” on stormwater projects.
“Every single meeting that (Village Administrator) Jason Peters and I are in, we bring up stormwater,” Stoner said.
