Thursday, October 1, 2026
To address growing enrollment at St. Michael Parish School, a local architect from MSGS Carve presented a proposal for expanding the school at 1208 11th Ave. SE in Olympia.
Architect Donnie Hull gave an overview of the project at a Site Plan Review Committee presubmission conference on Wednesday, July 23.
"The big picture behind this project is that enrollment at the school has been growing rapidly in the past couple of years, along with demand for enrollment. The school is looking for some increase in classroom space," Hull said.
St. Michael Parish is proposaing a two-story school building with site circulation improvements. The new building would replace a portion of the existing school, maintaining a similar footprint. It would include additional classrooms, expanded administration and entry areas, as well as a larger library.
A new one-way, drop-off lane along the west property edge would accommodate increased student capacity and reduce traffic congestion in the lower parking lot. The drop-off lane would exit onto 10th Avenue at an existing auxiliary parking exit.
City of Olympia Planner Casey Mauck informed the applicant that the project requires a Type 3 Conditional Use Permit due to the significant increase in building size, which necessitates a hearing examiner review and notification to nearby property owners.
The land use application must include a narrative that demonstrates how the project meets the conditional use criteria for schools. That includes verifying 2 square feet of open play area for every 1-square-foot of classroom.
Mauck said the applicant should provide detailed calculations of student capacity and space requirements, with the option to request a reduction if they can justify that less space is needed.
City of Olympia Engineering Plans Examiner Tiffani King, Engineering Plans reviewed the project, which included transportation and frontage improvements.
She pointed out the low pavement ratings on 10th and 11th avenues would trigger half-street easement reconstruction, require upgraded pedestrian ramps and need additional street lighting.
City of Olympia Planner Jackson Ewing, who acted as the meeting's facilitator, said the review committee would prepare and send a comprehensive written package of comments from the planning, engineering, building and fire departments within the next two weeks.
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longtimeresident
Four Olympia City Departments are involved in this potential project? Oh, my....Times have definitely changed.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025 Report this
36098501
These Site Plan Review Meeting notes provide considerable insight into why building within the City of Olympia is extraordinarily challenging.
The requirement of offsite improvements seems to have derailed several projects recently. On example was a project by a local non profit, Habitat for Humanity, to build affordable housing for those with low income.
If the City chooses not to maintain the streets and infrastructure to meet their own City "standards" then the next big project that comes along suddenly becomes financially responsible to accomplish what the City seems unable to manage with local infrastructure. I would think road maintenance would be a primary responsibility of the City of Olympia.
The comment of "low pavement ratings on 10th and 11th avenues would trigger half-street easement reconstruction, require upgraded pedestrian ramps and need additional street lighting" speaks volumes.
Thursday, July 31, 2025 Report this
longtimeresident
In reference to one of the comments in this thread, I wondered why the Habitat for Humanity Project on Boulevard Rd. had not been started yet. This is nonsense. Do better City of Olympia!
Monday, August 4, 2025 Report this