A new urban farm park property off Yelm Highway? Olympia leaders propose new partnership
It has been just over a year since the Olympia School District backed out of a partnership with the City of Olympia to locate a new high school on park property off Yelm Highway where Spooner Berry Farms has run a stand for more than 30 years.
Now there’s a new plan for the park, and the district has agreed to be a partner.
The school district board of directors and the City Council agreed Thursday, March 6, to move forward with a partnership to potentially expand its Freedom Farmers educational program at Centennial Elementary into an urban farm.
The property is located near the school off Yelm Highway.
Director of Parks Planning and Maintenance Sylvana Niehauser said the urban farm park feasibility study the city conducted last year found the project would only be feasible with strong partnerships. She said that’s because the city’s parks and recreation department hasn’t ventured into farming before.
Niehauser said there are a number of organizations in the community that focus on farming, including the Freedom Farmers high school program, where students engage in the production of fresh vegetables for the district cafeterias, the Thurston County Food Bank, Safeplace, and the City of Olympia.
But that program is on property that’s challenging to develop on and turn into a fully functional educational space. That’s where a partnership with the city could be beneficial.
She said the city’s peak park property use is at the opposite time as the school district’s peak use time, and there’s an opportunity to share facilities or property, as well as the costs.
“We know budgets are tight, and I know that they are for the school district as well. I’m also a parent of a student,” she said.
Niehauser said the first step with a new partnership would be to further the commitment to a long-term lease.
“We’d have an agreement between the city and the school district that would venture into the planning phase, and the planning phase would take us all the way through the permitting at the county of getting that habitat conservation permit, which would then allow us to build over the next 10 to 15 years,” Niehauser said.
She said the resource commitment for the planning phase is a little more than the city’s typical site planning, because it takes the two partnering bodies through SEPA and initial habitat conservation permitting.
The high-level cost estimate for continuing with the partnership would be $248,000, and the city proposed splitting the cost and future planning down the middle.
Niehauser said if the district is on board with a new partnership, the plan is to continue discussions and enter into an agreement, then start Capital Facilities planning for the long-range plan in the spring of 2026 for the 2027 fiscal year.
Superintendent Patrick Murphy said it’s not required that the district do things like take kids to the Nisqually Reach or invest in outdoor farming programs. However, he said many of the kids that are in the farm program say it’s the most important thing happening in their school life.
Running the farm program is expensive, though. Murphy said the district is interested in exploring a way to share the costs and responsibilities of a larger-scale program.
He said his two daughters graduated from Seattle Public Schools, and it’s common in Seattle for a school to share a community center or athletic facilities with the neighborhood.
He said the concept of the school district sharing a farming and outdoor project with the city is “very Olympia.”
Council member Dani Madrone said she’s been out to the Freedom Farmers’ space a number of times, and there’s a need for a classroom on the Siskiyou Street property near Centennial Elementary. She said there are obvious costs associated with development, but if plans come to fruition, the space could have multiple uses that could make the cost worthwhile.
Madrone said the Tumwater School District is facing budget cuts and is considering cuts to its outdoor farming program as well.
“If there’s a way that we can figure out how to move this forward for the Olympia School District and the city of Olympia, we’re going to be preserving something that is going to become even more rare and even more valuable in terms of the student experience and the community experience,” Madrone said.
School board member Maria Flores said these types of outdoor programs allow the district to retain students.
Flores said the Freedom Farmers program serves as an alternative education program, which keeps secondary students in school, earning credits. She said it’s part of one of the district’s Career and Technical Education pathways.
Niehauser said the city’s feasibility study found that the region has fewer people going into agriculture and farming. An urban farm park could be the city’s way of supporting future farmers and those looking to get into agriculture through apprenticeships and further partnerships.
OSD board president Scott Clifthorne said the board clearly supports further discussions around an urban farm park. He said now that there aren’t plans to co-locate a school on the Yelm Highway park property, it seems fitting to move forward with this project.
Niehauser said next steps will include drafting an interlocal agreement and then identifying funds in the Capital Facilities Plan for further planning and development.
This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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