Concerns raised over number of parking spots in combined park-school plan on Yelm Hwy
After three years of collecting public input on a new city park off Yelm Highway, a master plan has been drawn up. And with a targeted opening date of 2025, Olympia is on its way to having dedicated fields for a variety of sports.
The Olympia City Council recently heard a presentation on the master plan for the Yelm Highway Community Park, led by Parks Planning and Design Manager Laura Keehan. The plan includes a soccer field, bike skills area, basketball courts and more on the 86 acres.
But some of the council members were caught off guard by the size of the parking lots for the park and adjacent high school on the site.
The plan proposes a total of 880 parking spots, which include parking for the school campus that is expected to be constructed in 10 to 20 years. The city is proposing 390 spots for the park, and the Olympia School District wants 490 shared spots at the high school. The first batch will cost just shy of $1 million, with a total of nearly $2.5 million being spent on parking lots.
Council member Lisa Parshley objected to the size of the parking area as well as the footprint of the future high school, promoting building up, not out.
Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Priddy said construction of the school is a long way out, so the design could easily change. But it is planned to be at least two stories tall. She said the nearly 500 parking spots are required based on Chapter 20.44 of the county’s zoning code.
According to that code, for high schools and higher education facilities, 1 parking spot is required per classroom and office, as well as 1 per 10 students. The school is expected to have 1,400 students, which require 140 spots.
Mayor Pro-Tem Clark Gilman said the number of parking spots is surprising, unless the parks department plans to have concerts in the lot or something similar. He suggested designing the lot so it could easily be turned into something else in the future.
Council member Jim Cooper said the council was told the new high school would be a walking campus when they discussed the partnership. He’d like the number of spots to be reduced to encourage more walking and use of public transportation. Cooper said he’d like for the city to mitigate for the loss of working farmland, too, since that’s what the land originally was and is now home to Spooner’s Berry Farms.
Parks director Paul Simmons said the city is always looking to preserve urban farmland, and that the strawberry stand will be able to stay until the school is built.
The school district will share the parking lot with the public outside of school hours and on weekends. It also will share a publicly accessible tennis court, community gym, and track and field.
Keehan told The Olympian the plans may change and smaller parking areas could be built. But it ultimately comes down to county zoning codes. The first phase of the joint project is estimated to cost about $21 million, and the final phase is estimated at nearly $15 million.
.jpg)