By Niki Cervantes
Staff Writer

March 8, 2016 -- Santa Monica’s 1940s-era City Yards, home to everything from maintenance of City vehicles to training for its firefighters, is winding its way toward a long-sought modernization, with officials taking their newest designs to the public for another look next week.

At 14.7 acres, City Yards is a sprawling site – about twice the size of the famous Santa Monica Pier. Big as it is, though, the collection of 16 buildings near the intersection of 24th Street and Michigan Avenue hasn’t been able to keep up with its needs for at least two decades, officials said.

Buildings have been retrofitted on an as-needed basis over the years, but the same problem persists: City Yards is just too old, they say.

“Today, the City Yards operates seven days a week and currently houses more functions and employees than it was designed to accommodate,” Public Works Director Martin Pastucha told the City Council in a January 20 update.

“The scope and breadth of the operating divisions has evolved over time. Functional and space needs are no longer met by the buildings and structures for any of the operations housed at the City Yards.”

The City is hosting a community meeting -- its second -- to gather input on March 14 at the Thelma Terry building in Virginia Park, 2200 Virginia Avenue. The meeting, which will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., will focus on the proposal’s design concept, officials said.

The City has owned and operated the site at 2500 Michigan Avenue since the late 1940s, and today uses it as headquarters for most field operations, including fleet maintenance, storage, custodial and street maintenance, water and wastewater, recycling, hazardous waste storage (from City facilities only) and Fire Department training.

As early as 1996, the City contracted out the creation of what became a multi-phased master plan for City Yards. The City Council gave preliminary approval to the plan and in January 2015 decided to use it as a baseline for modernization, Pastucha’s report said.

Its primary goal is to replace the “outdated and aging facilities” at the site, he said. In addition, too many users are “squeezed into the existing space creating safety concerns and inefficiencies,” he said.

The City is also hoping to change how the facility interacts with its neighbors.

“Currently, the City Yards is separated and not integrated into the neighborhood instead of modeling the vibrant community resource that it is,” Pastucha said.

Initial concept design for the improvements should be completed in June 2016, he said. The first community meeting was held on February 1, also at Virginia Park.