The Cheney planning department has received mitigated determination of non-significance (MDNS) application materials from the Cheney Depot Society for approval to relocate the 1929 Northern Pacific Railroad depot from its current location along Front Street downtown to donated property along First Street at Union Street.
The society acquired the 26,800-square-foot property from Sunshine Investments earlier this year. They were also the low bidder on an adjacent parcel of land at First and I streets in November 2016, and together have almost 40,000-square-feet for relocating the depot.
According to the application, the Union Street site was used by the Union Oil Company from 1929–1997 as a bulk fuel oil storage facility. It consisted of three approximately 10,000 gallon above-ground upright storage tanks on a concrete pad, with a fourth tank added between 1940 and 1946.
A warehouse on the southeast side of the property served by a short rail spur stored 55-gallon drums of petroleum onsite as well. The site was a supply depot for refueling local gas stations and heating oil customers via truck, with all of the tanks removed when Cheney businessman Gary Geschke, a partner in Sunshine Investments, purchased the site in 1979.
Since then the site has been leased to Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge as a storage facility, agricultural biocides supplier Ag Enterprises and most recently Dow Excavating, Inc. and Dow Landscaping Materials. A residential structure currently exists on the I Street property and would either be removed or demolished.
Much of the Union Street site sits below the First Street grade. According to application information, approximately 2,500 cubic yards of fill material would be brought in to level the site.
The proposed timing for the project is within the next two years, and city planner Brett Lucas said there is generally a five-year time limit within which these types of applications can be acted upon. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, the depot’s current owner, applied for a similar MDNS in 2014 to demolish the depot, but agreed to hold off pursuing the work until such time that it was determined the effort to move the depot would not be successful.
The Cheney Depot Society has been raising funds for the relocation of the depot since April 2014, and was buoyed by an offer in April 2015 from Alaska resident and Cheney-native Dr. Peter Hansen to match every dollar raised by the society up to $500,000.
Depot Society President Dr. Charles Mutschler said they are cleaning up some items in order to eventually take title of the Union Street property. The society has been talking to some potentially large donors to help with the relocation, but is in sort of a Catch-22 right now.
“They don’t want you asking for money until you have a place to put it,” Mutschler said.
The society has been working on the relocation since 2014 and promising the public a place to preserve a piece of Cheney’s history and heritage -- an endeavor Mutschler said is coming closer to fruition.
“I think things look promising and things are looking like they’ll come together, which is a good feeling,” he said.
Comments on the relocation application can be made until 5 p.m. on Sept. 1. Comments can be directed to Lucas at blucas@cityofcheney.org.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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