Denton County Transportation Authority officials met with members of the Southeast Denton Neighborhood Association on Monday night to discuss plans for DCTA’s bus operations and maintenance facility.

While DCTA officials saw it as a meeting to keep the neighborhood informed of developments, residents still have questions about the facility’s impact on the community.

The presentation included plans for the facility, to be constructed in early 2010, and DCTA’s measures to deal with the community’s concerns about sound, light and the environment.

“I know we’re doing everything we can to minimize the impact. We’re charged with spending the taxpayers’ money,” said Tom Spencer, Denton’s representative on the DCTA board. “I got involved in this thing from the get-go to watch out for John Doe taxpayer.”

Spencer was among the entourage of DCTA officials who attended, along with about 11 residents.

“We’re trying to save money; I make no apologies. We’re trying to get it as cost-effective as we can,” he said. “I understand the impact — the older you get, the worse it can be. The young people in this neighborhood are going to have all the benefits.”

DCTA plans to build an $11 million, 14,000-square-foot bus operations and maintenance building, a fueling station and a parking lot on 15 acres bordering the southern end of the Southeast Denton neighborhood. Construction is expected to begin early next year.

A second phase of the project, involving a separate office building, could come within seven to 10 years.

The project, at 1101 Teasley Lane, would replace a bus facility that DCTA leases at the city landfill on Mayhill Road. The new facility would serve as the primary location for all DCTA bus maintenance and house the offices of the agency’s bus operations staff, officials have said.

Carolyn Phillips, who leads the neighborhood group, had a rebuttal waiting for Spencer when he finished. Phillips conceded there were some positive points to the facility, and said that even the facility’s strongest critics look at those points favorably.

“What we would beg to differ on is the positives look different when they are in your back door and front door,” she said. “We need to keep in mind the perspective of those affected.”

Dee Leggett, vice president of communications and planning for DCTA, said the goal of Monday’s meeting was to provide residents with an update on the bus facility as promised.

“As far as the opportunity to inform the public, we felt we did that,” she said. “Are we ever able to fully address all their concerns? No. But we’re committed to continuous dialogue with the residents. We come out there not to check a box, but to address the concerns the community has.”

Leggett mentioned multiple changes made to design plans to accommodate neighborhood concerns.

“Southeast Denton was at the forefront of our minds even before we met with the community,” she said. “We have worked with that community from the very beginning of the rail project because we know it’s a sensitive issue.”

Some residents reportedly chose not to attend the meeting because they felt DCTA was not listening to their concerns. Phillips said she would speak to those she knew who did not attend for this reason and make sure they knew absence was not the way to handle concerns.

Leggett attributed the low turnout to the holiday week and some residents’ being sick.

“Our commitment is provide information to the public. I will do that if the public consists of two people or 200,” she said.

The agency is in the process of working with the city to hash out some other developmental concerns.

DCTA officials anticipate going into final design at the end of this year and beginning construction in the spring.

BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .