A Bus Station 'Trans-feration'

The city of Flagstaff, Ariz., is helping change the way people perceive getting around town—and its revitalizing a 100-year-old brownfield property in the process.

A parcel of land—located at 116 West Phoenix Ave. in Flagstaff—is proving to be an ideal location to situate a new bus transfer station, deemed so for several reasons, one being that it's in close proximity to the city's new NAU Drury Convention Center as well as the Amtrak rail station. In addition, the transfer station is located in the heart of the Southside Community, which makes it a centralized location.

"The former bus station was not located within central downtown Flagstaff—the new location is. This means easier access for a larger population and direct bus service to most jobs located within the downtown area," said April Arroyo, the city of Flagstaff's brownfield specialist. "The city of Flagstaff is really trying to ease parking downtown and moving the bus transfer station location was one of the ways we hope to accomplish this. It was a space and accessibility issue that prompted the move."

Arroyo said the bus transfer station was positioned in a centrally-located area to motivate more people to park downtown and take the bus the rest of their destination—be it to work or to social or recreational destinations.

To add to the overall renewable aspects of the project, Flagstaff's public buses are all electric-powered, while the lighting in the adjacent parking lot are powered by solar energy. The city was awarded $45,000 in 2008 to conduct a carbon inventory, and the bus line will factor into the city's carbon reduction efforts, said Arroyo.

Long history
The property on which the bus transfer stations sits has a history that dates back to the 1890s, when the railroad was the likely first owner. The railroad maintained an active rail spur, and a steam and electric power generating facility was located on the southeastern portion of the site from 1916 to 1950. The generating facility included a warehouse, sawdust pit, conveyor, furnaces, engines, and a wood preservation vat. Another building was located on the southwestern edge of the property, where the new bus transfer station is located. The structure was used to store fuel and oil until the late 1940s, and from 1948 to the late 1950s the building was used commercially as a fuel, feed, and poultry store.

In 1992, the city of Flagstaff purchased a property located at 116 West Phoenix Avenue. The property, a 3.37-acre parcel located within the Southside Neighborhood between West Phoenix Avenue and the railroad tracks, had recently been used as a dirt parking lot.

"Some of these uses may have contributed to the formation of brownfield property, which is defined as real property that may contain environmental contamination that hinders sale or redevelopment," said Arroyo. "With any redevelopment activity, and especially on a brownfield property, the potential for contamination should be assessed prior to development."

The city recently began a Phase I environmental site assessment (ESA) which looks at historical data, property ownership, environmental databases and other factors to determine if potential contamination exists, added Arroyo.

ESA recommended
In response to the necessary Phase I, the city of Flagstaff Brownfield Land Recycling Program applied for and was awarded $88,963 from the Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality for the Phase I assessment activities. The Phase I ESA revealed a wide range of historical uses and potential contaminants and recommended that the city perform a Phase II ESA on the property.

The Phase II involved digging trenches and taking soil samples, and eventually contamination was found on the east side of the property where the historic wood preservation vat borders the Rio de Flag wash. The area of environmental contamination is localized to an approximate 20 feet by 20 feet area. No contamination was found at the former fuel, feed, and poultry store; therefore the bus transfer station was able to move ahead with their project, said Arroyo.

According to Ron Knights, planning director for Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority (NAIPTA), although the environmental contamination on the east side of the property is not a direct human health risk, it must be remediated to allow for the successful completion of the Rio de Flag Flood Control Project. This project will lift building restrictions within the Southside area by channelizing the Rio de Flag and removing the potential of a harmful flood.

In response to the remediation and cleanup needed to enable the Army Corps of Engineers to complete the work for the Rio Flood Control Project, the Brownfield Program submitted a cleanup grant application to the Environmental Protection Agency in November 2008. "We expect to hear from them this month (April 2009)," said Arroyo.

Ultimately—due to the Rio Flood Control Project—the bus transfer station's location at 116 W. Phoenix is not likely to be the permanent site for the transfer station. However, the current redevelopment of the site is a great example of interim use and supports NAIPTA to best serve the community, noted Arroyo. Once free of historical contamination, flood plain zoning and building restrictions, the property will be developed to its fullest potential. In the meantime, the city of Flagstaff is providing 92 much-needed parking spaces for downtown employees.

Inhabitat.com, a weblog devoted to the future of design and green technology innovations, recently revealed its list of Top 10 Green Transportation Trends. They include:

THE GREEN CAR WILL SAVE THE INDUSTRY

The Toyota Prius has long been hailed as the hallmark of hybrid vehicles, and now others are following in its steps. This past year, the Mini-e, the Ford Fusion, the Audi A1, and the Honda Insight were all revealed as the latest and greenest, but none caused as much ruckus as the Chevy Volt, reports Inhabitat.com. General Motors has built an electric platform that they hope can be deployed throughout their entire line, first in the Volt, and then in cheaper and cheaper cars.

COMPACT IS COOL

Inhabitat.com said that "2008 was the year that clearly showed how silly it was to drive hulking vehicles for personal transport in our cities. We declared the SUV dead (we stand by that assertion), and we saw all car manufacturers look towards the future and envision smaller vehicles as integral to our way of travelling."

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT FUEL EFFICIENCY

Everyone is looking at emissions as the greatest contributor to global warming, "but there is so much more that we can do to improve our methods of transportation," Inhabitat.com reports. This past year Mazda showcased the Kiyora, a car that cleans water, while BMW showed a car that not only ran on hydrogen but also cleaned the air as it moved through the city. "But none was as exciting to us as the super-environmentally friendly Eco-Elise, which was revealed by Lotus in July of this year. The vehicle was not just an energy-efficient vehicle, but was created with the greenest materials that the company could find," Inhabitat.com reported.

GET YOUR MILEAGE ON

Inhabitat.com said it was "thoroughly impressed with the Solo by the Hungarian company Antro, which clocked in at an impressive 150 miles per gallon. Next we were ecstatic to hear that Volkswagen's 235mpg concept, the VW 1L would actually go into production, albeit in limited numbers."

BREAKING THE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RECORD

2008 saw an impressive array of record being broken: The Zephyr solar plane was able to beat its own unmanned flying record. The Xof1 solar car went around Canada to break the longest distance travelled by a solar vehicle. And finally, the Earthrace biodiesel boat recently completed a carbon-neutral tour of the world. "Clearly alternative energy is ready for prime-time in the field of transportation," said Inhabitat.com

MUSCLE CARS GO GREEN

Tesla finally started distributing production vehicles. Honda showed the FC Sport, Chrysler rolled out the Dodge EV, and Fisker introduced the Karma. "If there is one trend worthy of being called wicked cool, this is it. 2008 clearly showed that sleek and incredibly high-performing vehicles can not only be green, but are worthy of competing against their fossil fuel counterparts," Inhabitat.com comments.

WE LOVE BIKES

Mercedes-Benz's Trailblazer, Yamaha's City-C bike and Strida's sleek offerings were examples of bikes of all types that "came out better looking than ever."

THE SKATEBOARD GOES GREEN

Inhabitat.com "never thought that the skateboard was an item with a large environmental impact, but after learning that the skateboard industry is the largest contributor to maple deforestation we started to pay attention." Both the BambooSK8 skateboard and the Dry Leaf Skateboard present eco-friendly alternatives that "look way cooler than their standard counterparts," they reported.

DO-IT-YOURSELF

One trend that really caught Inhabitat.com's eye: if you can't buy it, do-it-yourself. Phil Bridge's cardboard bicycle and Kyle Dansie's electric bike are examples.

BIG THOUGHTS

While many of the year's transportation trends focused on the personal vehicle, it is governments that that produced the biggest news. China and Germany both banned cars—the former in order to reduce pollution in time for the Olympics, while the latter aimed to reduce congestion. London recently announced a new hybrid double-decker bus, while three cities in California announced plans to become the electric-vehicle hub of the nation. Additionally, Californians recently voted to create an 800 mile high-speed rail system that will link every city from San Diego to Sacramento.

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