Plans to move Truckee’s corporation yard are moving ahead as one of the town’s top priorities.

The corporation yard, where the town’s heavy equipment is stored, is currently located near the Martis Valley Estates neighborhood and the Truckee River. Town plans call for the corporation yard to be moved and operational by the fall of 2009 on land purchased from the U.S. Forest Service off of Glenshire Drive.

Public Works Director Dan Wilkins said town council will vote in February or March on purchasing the 19-acre parcel from the Forest Service at a price of about $6 million.

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“We have been working with the Forest Service for about three years on utility infrastructure, planning, and environmental work,” Wilkins said. “The council decision will be a major milestone in the next one-and-a-half months or so.”

While the town has the funding to purchase the property and do the preliminary site work, council will need to identify new sources of funding to complete the project in 2008 and 2009, Wilkins said.

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“We need to determine how much to finance or how much to pay as we go on construction,” Wilkins said.

The completed corporation yard will consist of a large parking area for equipment, office space, a shop for equipment maintenance and repairs, vehicle washing and painting facilities, and a sand barn, Wilkins said.

He said he would also like to see covered equipment storage buildings and a snow containment area where snow taken out of downtown could be stored.

Truckee has outgrown the current five-acre site, Wilkins said, and while the town won’t immediately need all the additional space, council and staff are looking ahead to be ready for future town growth.

Other reasons for the move are a desire to move away from the Truckee River and residential development near the old location, Wilkins said.

Town Manager Tony Lashbrook said the new corporation yard shouldn’t generate too much traffic, but the town may consider a roundabout on Glenshire Drive at the access point.

Additional uses for the new property include the animal shelter and police equipment storage, Wilkins said.

Stephanie Hiemstra, executive director for the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe, said while the town has shared its animal control facility at the current corporation yard, the move would allow the Humane Society to have its own space.

“The deal is: As long as the relocation happens there will be a space for the Humane Society,” Hiemstra said.

She said once the purchase is finalized, the Humane Society would be able to begin a campaign to fund the construction of the new shelter, which she hopes will be built by 2009.

In addition to the Humane Society shelter, three acres of the town’s parcel would be occupied by the Truckee Fire Protection District, Wilkins said.

Rick Maddalena, Truckee Ranger District’s recreation and lands officer, said the fire protection district is looking to move its primary office to the new site, and is also considering a fire station.

Wilkins said the remaining 53 acres of Forest Service land would be used by the forest service to relocate the visitors’ center and administration buildings from north of I-80.

Maddalena said the Forest Service’s first priority is an office, which he hopes will break ground next summer.

He said other plans include a Forest Service fire station and eventually a visitor center, but said the visitor center is planned for a later phase of the project and will likely require collaboration with the town and/ or the state.

While the sale to the town is imminent upon council’s approval, one stumbling block has been the clean-up of waste materials from a 1930s dump, Maddalena said.

Wilkins said plans for the old corporation yard have yet to be determined, but expects the town will continue to use it for a short period of time while the new one gets up and running, after which the town may sell the property to another public agency.

“There is talk of selling the property or turning it into a park,” Wilkins said, “so we may get no revenue out of it or we could get $1 million out of it.”

Regardless of which route is taken, Wilkins said the town council is committed to ensuring use of the old property is more compatible with its neighborhood surroundings.