Olympians chime in on Yelm Highway park-school co-location concept

Concerned residents attended the Olympia City Council meeting on Tue., March 1 to voice opposing stands on whether the city’s Yelm Highway property should make room for a proposed school site along with its original use as a soccer field and public park.

Claire Beagle, an Olympia resident, said that while discussion on what to do with the property has been going on for two years, recent studies show the need for a new school to be built in the area for the growing population.

“A survey on a website is not a substitute for reaching the city’s communities of concern,” remarked Beagle. 

Bob Jacobs, an Olympia resident and former mayor, argued that demand for football fields has been going on for 20 years.

“We have a dozen diamond-shaped fields for tournament-level softball and baseball,” pointed out Jacobs, “but zero rectangular-shaped fields for soccer, lacrosse, football and etc.”

Jacobs said the Olympia School District (OSD) “has badly mismanaged school site acquisition program for decades, and now wants to cannibalize our park system,” and that the city would be penalized for having the foresight of securing park sites.

“If they get park land now, where will they look next? Approval of the OSD request would create a scary precedent,” Jacobs warned.

OSD Director Patrick Murphy offered several options to recompense the city for the proposed school co-location during a meeting between the OSD and the city council last Feb. 8; such as buying the land; providing upgrades for the park; trading school-district owned real estate, or any combination of these.

“I think co-locating now I think is counter to the lengthy long-standing park public process debate,” said Cristiana Figueroa-Kaminsky, adding that the site does not have enough space to adequately meet the needs of both students and park goers.

Olympia School Board President Maria Flores pointed out the colocation proposal includes the promise for soccer fields at the site that will allow the city to be able to provide some of the soccer benefits earlier than expected.

“One of the things that we are committed to doing is to be able to begin the building of a high-quality turf field right away,” promised Flores.

Asked to comment, Clark Gilman, mayor pro-tempore said he appreciated the discussion, remarking, “This is the best crowd of public comment we've had in a while.”