10.1. SR 07-05-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ELK RIVER COMMUNITY CENTER CONCEPTUAL SOLUTIONS SITE OPTION 4: LION JOHN WEICHT PARK 0"i" .. N View of Lion John Weicht Park from atop the existing sledding hill. The Lion John Weicht Park site is a very valuable piece of land for the city. It is the most centrally located site for the community and is in very close proximity to existing schools, churches, and other amenities. The site has a well developed trail system and offers some of the community's most desirable green space. The existing pond and green space on the site offer great opportunities for desirable views from a potential new facility, especially for the senior and community spaces. This opportunity is better reflected in the Option 2 layout for this site, where the building is laid out in a linear fashion, parallel to the pond to allow as many spaces in the building a good view. Both options are sited to have the primary entrance facing eastward. This site also has great opportunities for vehicular and pedestrian access and circulation. Vehicle access to the building could occur from both School Street on the north and Jackson Avenue on the east. Both layout options are shown to capitalize on this flow of traffic. Each option takes advantage of the large ice sheet volumes being placed on the north west which would help buffer the colder northwest winter winds from the rest of the building and the entrance side. Locating the ice program spaces on the north side of the building also offers some convenience for access to student athletes coming from the schools directly to the north of the site. The Lion John Weicht Park Site does come with one major drawback that cannot be overlooked. The existing soils are predominantly soft and organic, and ultimately are considered unable to carry the loads of a modern building. Preliminary cost estimates for soils corrections were completed by the design team utilizing existing outdated data provided by the city. In order to more accurately analyze the soils issue on this site, the city procured a geotechnical team to conduct soil borings to supplement this study. Results of the soil borings came back with the soils being poorer for supporting a building than initially considered. Poor soils exist throughout the site at depths varying from 6.5' to 15',which equates to approximately 200,000-250,000 cubic yards of poor soil material that would need to be removed from the site and replaced with select granular material. Based on these approximate volumes, the cost to complete the soils corrections would be between $4.8M and$7M, depending on the final size and scope of the project. One potential option to mitigate some of the corrections cost would be to find a contractor willing to harvest the poor material and donate the suitable fill. This option could save up to 1/3 of the overall corrections costs but would only cover the cost of the waste and new material (additional costs include equipment, hauling, mobilization,and dewatering). Another site issue that would need to be addressed is the existing sledding hill on the west side of the site. All 3 of the layout options greatly encroach on this hill. This would require the hill (constructed of rubble from an old highway) to be removed and regraded to accomodate the project. Although the hill's material could potentially be re-used on site for fill beneath parking lots, there would still be costs associated with moving and crushing this material (costs associated with the sledding hill were not estimated as a part of this study). 38 SITE ANALYSIS