A meeting Monday in Southeast Denton will let residents ask questions and raise concerns about a new neighbor: Denton County Transportation Authority’s planned $11 million bus maintenance facility.

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The Denton County Transportation Authority is planning to build an $11 million bus maintenance facility in Southeast Denton.

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DCTA officials will discuss the project during the monthly meeting of the Southeast Denton Neighborhood Association. Officials have held other neighborhood meetings on the project, but Monday’s gathering will give them a chance to discuss the plans in detail and present the newest design drawings, said Dee Leggett, DCTA’s vice president of communications and planning.

The agency plans to build a 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. It 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 Southeast Denton neighborhood group, said she’s willing to hear the agency’s latest presentation. But she’s upset that the project won’t require a complete environmental impact study, she said.

The Federal Transit Administration approved a “categorical exclusion” for the project in October, meaning it won’t have to go through the most stringent environmental review. For a project to receive the exclusion, federal officials must determine that it wouldn’t significantly impact the environment, among other findings.

“You can apply for that status and you can receive that, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not going to affect people,” Phillips said. “It’s not out of the radar screen for us to do our own appealing, and that may happen.”

Neighborhood leaders are considering a plea to the Environmental Protection Agency or U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Phillips said. Residents are worried about noise and air pollution from the bus facility and DCTA’s planned passenger rail line, which will cut through the neighborhood, she said.

The area is home to a large population of minority and low-income residents.

“This involves an underserved and underprivileged neighborhood,” Phillips said. “We want to make sure that children and others in this neighborhood are as protected as they would be anywhere else.”

Leggett said DCTA’s plans would address concerns over noise and other negative impacts. For example, most maintenance work will take place at the back side of the property, toward Dallas Drive and as far away from homes as possible, she said. The area closest to homes will be used mostly for employee parking, and a screening wall will serve as a visual and sonic buffer between the neighborhood and the fueling station, she said.

Also, the agency uses an ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel in its buses that is consistent with EPA standards, Leggett said.

“We’re burning clean diesel,” she said. “Another point to make is that by having this facility we’re going to be able to maintain our buses better. By maintaining our buses better, they’re going to operate more efficiently and smoother, using less fuel.”

City Council member Charlye Heggins, whose district includes Southeast Denton, said she doesn’t share the neighborhood group’s concerns.

The bus facility “is far enough away from the actual community, and I know that will not be an impact,” Heggins said. “It’s going to be a very pretty building, and also that’s going to bring in some more jobs.”

Heggins said she believes that DCTA’s mass transit projects will benefit the community in the long run.

“I’m just waiting with bated breath to get this train in here,” she said. “Whether they [critics] realize it or not, it will be advantageous for the community.”

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.

IF YOU GO

What: Southeast Denton Neighborhood Association monthly meeting

When: 7:15 p.m. Monday

Where: Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center, 1300 Wilson St.

Why: Denton County Transportation Authority officials will discuss a bus maintenance facility planned for construction on land bordering the neighborhood.