Cary school board changes course, approves controversial plans for transportation center

A week after voting down a proposed transportation center at the site of the shuttered Maplewood Elementary School, the Cary School District 26 board reversed course Wednesday and unanimously approved a modified version of the plan.

Board members who had voted against the plan last week, resulting in a 3-3 tie, voted in its favor Wednesday after flexibility regarding its location was written into the proposal. The board approved the measure over objections from a local youth baseball league that will be disrupted by the new transportation center and whose members packed the meeting in a show of opposition.

The proposed Maplewood Transportation Center in Cary is set to include 40 bus parking spaces, a fuel pump, car parking and a building to house transportation staff. The plan also includes the demolition of the long-closed Maplewood Elementary School on Krenz Avenue, turning it into a vacant grassy lot.

Construction on the new transportation center is to begin in the early spring, Superintendent Brandon White said. Demolition of the school is set for next summer.

There are currently no plans on what to do with the lot once Maplewood is demolished, White added.

The plan approved by the school board Wednesday includes to language allowing the proposed transportation to be built at another location, if needed.

"We don't know if we're going to have it on Maplewood or not," board member Kathryn Potter said. "That's an entirely different conversation."

The Maplewood site lies within the new downtown Cary Tax Increment Financing district, an area the Cary village board has targeted for development. The village board also is considering building a new road in the area.

The road would run parallel to Route 14 and south of the train tracks, with a goal of increasing accessibility to downtown Cary. The proposed project, called the Maplewood Extension Project, would extend Industrial Drive and run from Cary-Algonquin Road to High Road.

School board members met with the village board Aug. 23, school board President Deanna Darling said. She said she hopes the village will collaborate with the district in the future.

"It is extremely important that the district continues to move forward with our transportation center concept layout plans and adhering to an established timeline for completion," Darling said at a meeting last week.

The transportation center plans have faced opposition from Cary-Grove Youth Baseball and Softball, which will lose its concession stand, a baseball field and a storage shed under the proposal.

Many of the organization's members attended Wednesday night's meeting. Among them was Eddie De La Rosa, who said the organization created a community for his family when they moved from Sacramento, California.

"We can always build a new building," he said. "You can't replace kids and community."

Darling said that the community will need to get together to figure out the future of the youth baseball and softball organization.

"Nobody is telling baseball to leave," she said.

Cary-Grove Youth Baseball and Softball Vice President Dave King said that the organization will have a spring season.

"It will be scattered. It won't be what we want," he said.

The organization will consider next steps that include talking with the village and Cary Park District for future baseball use. For now, they will use fields around Cary and in neighboring towns, King said.

"What we won't have is a concession stand, a storage shed and a sense of community," he said.