Help make the Pine Hills bus station something special

A new day is coming to Pine Hills and it looks like it might be starting with a bus – a new bus station, to be exact.

Pine Hills bus stop

Next month Pine Hills residents and Evans High School students will meet with transit officials to begin planning a new bus transfer station for the Pine Hills community.

That new bus transfer station has the potential to become the focal point for a Town Center for the community, something planners and leaders have discussed for years.

The transfer station would be located on Belco Drive, behind the Winn-Dixie supermarket shopping center on Pine Hills Road.

The Lynx bus system bought the vacant lot next to the Urban League offices several months ago for $530,000.

San Bernadino bus station is one example

Now the bus system has $3 million to build the transfer station, which must be able to accommodate 8 to 10 buses. That location will also connect with the Pine Hills Trail. The first phase of that pedestrian and bicycle trail opened last fall at Barnett Park.

Design specifications say the transfer station must include:

·        transit center building

·        safety and security elements

·        accessible to the disabled and people using bicycles

·        art/cultural elements

·        sustainable elements – solar and rain gardens

·        space for community events

The transit officials and planners are holding a daylong meeting April 21st at Evans High School to brainstorm on the design of the transit center and to discuss how to use it to boost other efforts to reinvigorate Pine Hills’ quality of life and local businesses.

They will consider examples of what other communities – from Denver to Hamburg, Germany – have done to build dynamic bus stations.

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