Public Hearing: Development Commission – Public Testimony ISD Site Development Permit

The City of Issaquah Development Commission is holding a public hearing related to the Site Development Permit (SDP)/Master Site Plan (MSP) that the District submitted for High Schools #4/Elementary School #17 on March 2nd at 7 pm with continued public comment on March 3rd at 7 pm.

The below email and attachment were sent out by the Development Commission with the details.  The attached document indicates that you can sign up for public comment here.  The meetings will be entirely virtual.  Public comment can also be emailed to Cristina Haworth at cristinah@issaquahwa.gov.  You can also see the Development Commission meeting agenda here.    

An example of some topics to address through public comment (verbal or written) –

• The need to address capacity issues.  We have continued to see an increase in students at the high school level.  IHS and SHS are over capacity and need relief now.  And although we’ve seen a decline at the elementary level this could only be short-term plus we still have many children in portables and we’ve delayed the actual construction of the elementary school for now.
  • For any that have personal stories about the constrained facilities at either IHS or SHS.  For example, I get complaints about the student parking capacity at IHS with people asking me why we don’t build more parking.  I tell them the best way to solve the parking problem at IHS is to build the 4th high school!
• The District has responded to neighbors’ issues by adding more buffer space than is required by code, by aligning facilities to minimize noise and light issues, by making improvements on 228th to reduce congestion, by creating long car queuing lines within the school campus so as not to impact traffic on 228th.
  • This site is thoughtfully designed and redesigned to address neighbor concerns!
• These schools will be an asset to the community.  Just like our other high schools the facilities including theater, sports fields, gym, etc are used by many community groups.  This school will add to the capacity of facilities that can be used.
  • The district has already reduced practice field space and additional tennis courts that the other high schools have to provide additional buffers to the neighboring properties.
• The District is constrained to building within the Urban Growth Area (UGA) and that is only 30% of the space within our District.  Changes to King County land use policies eliminated the District’s ability to use the 80 acre parcel that the District owned outside of the UGA.  The District searched for a large parcel of land and this was the only option.
• The neighborhoods around IHS and SHS will see relief from traffic congestion because they will have fewer students.