Olympia City Council OKs negotiating to share Yelm Highway park with school district
A proposal to locate a school at a planned park on Yelm Highway remains in the works after the Olympia City Council voted unanimously this week to negotiate a partnership with the Olympia School District.
Plans for Yelm Highway Community Park at the longtime site of Spooner Berry Farms have been in the works for years. On Tuesday, the council went against the Olympia Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee’s 7-1 recommendation to decline the partnership.
The city purchased the 83-acre property at 3323 Yelm Highway for $10.7 million in 2018. Public surveys led the city to pursue building athletic fields, open lawn space, tracks and trails, a dog park, playgrounds and more.
But in 2020, the Olympia School District approached the city’s Parks, Arts and Recreation Department with a request. They proposed trading some property so they could locate a high school on some of the park site’s land, sparking fears among some the plan may limit the scope of the park.
During the Tuesday meeting, City Manager Jay Burney recommended the council approve negotiating a partnership with the district on the co-location plan.
Burney said he decided on his recommendation after receiving a detailed proposal from the school district that outlines a potential real estate transaction along with shared costs and commitments.
The latest proposal was informed by the concerns raised by the advisory committee, Burney said. Though the council’s action isn’t the outcome some hoped for, he said he is thankful for their perspective.
“I want to just take this moment to express my sincerest appreciation and gratitude to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee for their work and their input over these last two years on this really important decision,” Burney said.
The school district has offered to buy 22.91 acres of the Yelm Highway property by transferring 27 acres of property near Harrison Avenue Northwest and Kaiser Road to the city, said Parks, Arts and Recreation Director Paul Simmons.
The city also may have a chance to buy back the property from the district if the district eventually determines it doesn’t need a school there in the next 10-15 years, Simmons said of the district’s offer.
This transfer would allow the city to develop a park in west Olympia with one or two soccer fields and perhaps even an aquatics facility, Simmons said.
“With this co-location offer, we still get four fields at Yelm Highway, so there’s not a reduction of fields being built,” Simmons said. “One of them would be shared with the district, but we think that can be more than made up for by developing the property on the west side.”
If the transaction is approved, Spooners Berry Farms could continue to lease the land owned by the district for about 10 years, he said.
The school district also has offered to share development costs with the city, which is estimated to save the city about $6 million.
These costs would be associated with gopher mitigation, infrastructure improvements, road access and pedestrian crossings. Additionally, the district has offered to fund one field with an added track as part of these costs.
“Not having to spend $6 million on these infrastructure items means that we can invest the resources that we do have into more of the park amenities, which means that the community will get more park and faster,” Simmons said.
A gym annex belonging to the school also could be opened to allow community access, Simmons said.
By approving negotiations, the council has not yet committed the city to completing this vision.
The council still needs to approve a real estate transaction followed by a development agreement and a joint-use agreement. Each of these steps will involve “lengthy negotiations,” Simmons said.
The approval also allows the city to move forward to complete its master plan and eventually start on an initial design phase, he added.
Each council member expressed support for the decision, but some noted it was a tough decision.
Council member Dontae Payne said he wasn’t initially supportive of this step and called this his “first tough vote.” He said he is appreciative of community interest and hoped the public felt heard in this process.
“We are trying to do our best to honor both sides because as elected officials we have an obligation to think ahead and to think about our future,” Payne said.
Part of those future considerations involve the climate. Payne said he believes having a school in a location that’s easy to commute to will help the city reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Though it was a difficult process, council member Yển Huỳnh thanked the advisory committee for its input and called the outcome a “sweet partnership.”
“This is really a beautiful thing and I always believe that we get more together than without,” Huỳnh said. “I think everyone has to give a little, but I think with this everyone benefits.”
