Title
Yelm Highway Community Park Update
Recommended Action
Update only- no action requested
Report
Issue:
Update on Yelm Highway Community Park
Staff Contact:
Laura Keehan, Parks Planning & Design Manager, 360.570.5855
Presenter(s):
Laura Keehan
Background and Analysis:
In late 2018 Olympia Parks, Arts and Recreation Department (OPARD) purchased 83 acres located at 3323 Yelm Highway for a future community park. The park master planning project launched in September 2019 and was delayed in March of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Shortly thereafter, OPARD was approached by the Olympia School District (OSD) with a request to consider allowing the School District to utilize a 23-acre portion of the park site for a future secondary school to be constructed in ten years or more. City Council ultimately approved the colocation proposal from the School District in March 2022.
In November 2023, the Olympia School District withdrew from the partnership with the City for co-location of a high school at the Yelm Highway Community Park site. Despite the loss of OSD's partnership, the City remains fully committed to and enthusiastic about the development of the Yelm Highway Community Park and the many recreation amenities it will bring the community.
The Parks, Arts and Recreation Department is nearing the end of the County's Special Use Permit and gopher mitigation process (showing the school development). Once this is completed, we will submit a design revision without the school and a proposed Phase I development to the permitting agency. Because much of the public engagement process happened before the City pivoted to a partnership with OSD in 2020, we already understand the community's original vision of an 83-acre community park with dedicated soccer fields. The return of the 23 acres reserved for the school district will allow us to return to that vision, and even expand upon the amenities the City outlines in the Yelm Highway Community Park Master Plan. ...
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