SILVERDALE – The Kitsap Transit board gave their approval to move forward with a plan to build a Silverdale bus transfer station on a 2-acre plot of forested land to the south of the Harrison Medical Center in Silverdale.

Previously, the board had been split between the location near Harrison and a different plot of land on the other side of town near Applebee’s restaurant.

The decision is not final, however, and may change following an evaluation of the site. The board will have further input on the final choice later on.

Board members briefly considered directing Kitsap Transit to simultaneously make plans for both sites, but the final decision was to focus solely on the site near Harrison first, and then to look at the Applebee’s location if the first choice doesn’t work out.

Kitsap Transit official said each site evaluation would cost around $100,000, so evaluating both sites simultaneously had they chosen to do so would have cost twice as much.

The evaluations are required as part of a process that would allow the project to make use of federal funding. As part of those requirements, deciding on which site to use must be based on which site benefits the community the most, not on which site was cheaper, Kitsap Transit officials said.

Kitsap Transit is seeking a new home for a transfer station because they have to move out of their current temporary location along Greaves Way, which will become unusable in early 2016.

Kitsap Transit does not own the current temporary location at Greaves Way. Kitsap Transit hopes to purchase their own plot of land so they have a permanent location and can avoid the high costs associated with jumping from temporary station to temporary station as they have done recently.

One drawback to building a transfer station south of Silverdale Harrison is that traffic congestion along Ridgetop Boulevard there is troublesome. The traffic signal lights may need to be adjusted, or the road may need to be widened.

One advantage of the location is that it already has access to major utilities. The spot near Applebees does not.

Some homeowners who live near the Harrison-area site had previously expressed dismay that their suburb might one day be affected by noise and diesel fumes from buses.