The future City of Ripon Public Works Maintenance Facility plans received endorsement this week from the Ripon Planning Commission.

Commissioners on Monday approved the major site plan permit for construction of the 12,500-square-foot building featuring three maintenance bays, office space, locker rooms, and support spaces located on the city-owned property at 444 Doak Boulevard.

That’s part of the current NGV / CNG refueling station. The Public Works Department has long outgrown the aging Corporate Yard on Doak and Vera Avenue.

Planning Director Ken Zuidervaart estimated that the bidding process for this project is “about 30 to 40 days out.”

He provided some of the details of Phase 1 of the new corporate yard:

• The building will sit approximately 95 feet from Doak and will sit in the center of the corporation yard master plan site.
• The exterior of the building would be a mixture of various metal sidings in different orientations and colors along with concrete masonry block walls along the lower portion of the shop building.
• The building would be 32 feet in height (at its highest ridge) with all setbacks exceeding the minimum.
• Parking would be for cars of employees and customers (40 spaces) not to mention work fleet and maintenance vehicles.
• Access to the site would consists of two commercial driveway approaches from Doak Boulevard.
• The facility will be gated from behind the front parking area, securing the site after each business day.
• About 7.5 percent of the site will featuring landscaping, which is slightly under the required 10 percent.

Additional phasing of the Public Works Maintenance Facility would eventually include water, sewer and other departments, according to Zuidervaart.