Elizabeth Hagg, director of neighborhood resources for the town, updated Town Council members last week about the status of the formal day-labor site.
Slated to open Dec. 19 in the former Herndon Police Station parking lot, many things have happened and still need to happen to get the site ready for an opening then, said Hagg.
One major thing is the construction of a new fence proposed to be built along the corner of Herndon Parkway and Sterling Road.
After meeting with residents along Broad Oaks Drive as a part of the town's Public Response Plan, officials learned the residents' primary concerns centered around cut-through traffic. The neighboring corner of Sterling Road and Herndon Parkway is a wooded area maintained by the town, said Hagg. Currently there is no fence to prevent people from walking through the woods and into residential areas behind the intersection. The best way to prevent cut-through traffic would be to build a 7-foot, wooden broad-board fence on the corner lot, she said. The fence would cost approximately $12,000, according to an estimate by the Department of Public Works.
Currently members of Project Hope and Harmony — the non-profit group set to run the official day-labor site — are working with the men to show them the proper routes to get to the new site across town.
During the public hearing process this summer, council members discussed placing a chain-link fence along the border of the former police station property and the neighboring Herndon houses to prevent potential cut-through traffic. Since the hearings, the town has decided to wait to see if there are any problems before placing the fence, said Hagg.
EARLIER THIS MONTH Mayor Michael O'Reilly met with members of the business community along the Elden Street corridor, he said. Because a majority of day workers wait for employment at the 7-Eleven on the corner of Alabama Drive and Elden Street, as well as along Elden Street, O'Reilly sent letters to all businesses in the area.
During the business meeting O'Reilly explained the town's Public Response Plan — initiated as a requirement of the site's approval — as well as the recently approved anti-solicitation ordinance and the town's trespassing ordinance, he said.
Recently the police department has channeled workers from sporadic locations along Elden Street to the 7-Eleven parking lot, said Hagg. Once the new site opens, the police, members of the Department of Community Development staff, as well as Project Hope and Harmony volunteers will monitor the existing locations to identify violations of town code. Site monitors will also inform people acting in violation of the new laws, before citations take place. Town staff is scheduled to give a report to council 30 to 60 days after the official site opens, said Hagg.
"If the town chooses to monitor on some schedule, the citizens are going to be looking at that every day," said councilman Dennis Husch. "If there is a citizen complaint and the town isn't there, we're going to look like we're not doing our job."
Councilman Steven Mitchell also stressed how hard it would be to monitor the sites and determine who is a customer and who is waiting for employment.
"The creation of a formal site is not going to remove every person who looks like they are Latino from the intersection of Elden and Alabama Drive," said Vice Mayor Darryl Smith. "Because a large portion of the population that live around there are Latino."
DURING THE WORK SESSION, the council also briefly discussed the two downtown redevelopment plans before the town. This was the first time they were able to discuss the proposals — submitted by Clark Ventures LLC and Herndon Station LLC — in detail in public.
After discussing land density and the financial packages of each plan — both are drastically different — council decided the best option would be to discuss the proposals further with the town's consultants. Council does not want to ask each development team to move forward to the design phase of the agreement because of the expense it would incur. The hope is, after the consultants review the plans and the financial packages, the council will have a better understanding of which project to choose and move forward with.
But, looking solely at what is before them, certain council members are leaning toward one package over the other.
Council member Ann Null thinks both proposals are too dense, while Smith likes the family-feel of Herndon Station's proposal, but is concerned about finances on both packages. Husch said it is too early to make a decision either way, asking for more information from both sides to better evaluate what would be best for the downtown.
"We need help from the consultants in understanding what the real costs are," said council member Carol Bruce. "I think we need a lot of help understanding the financial aspects."