One of the main points of discussion in Maple Valley is the lack of sport facilities and fields within the city.
Alfoster Garrett of Another Level Sports and Bruce Laing of Pacific Lighting Systems made a presentation to the City Council at its April 18 retreat for a potential sports complex. Derrick Pryor of AES Development based in Columbus, Ohio joined the meeting via phone. The presentation was regarding an economic impact study Garrett and Laing did for a sports complex in Maple Valley.
The complex, according to the presentation documents, would “offer recreational and competitive athletic opportunities for children and adults, as well as increased educational opportunities for children.”
LOCATION
The council agreed at the retreat they would like to see more information on the project. But at least one council member was not sold on the location proposed for the complex.
In their presentation documents, Garrett and Laing stated, “The first choice for the location of the facility is the Legacy Site…”
The complex and its associated facilities including parking would make an approximately 12-acre footprint on the site, which is a 50-acre city-owned plot of land on state Route 169 across from Rock Creek Elementary.
Councilman Noel Gerken said he likes the idea of having the complex within the city but doesn’t want to see it on the Legacy Site.
“It’s an exciting project,” he said in a phone interview. “It seems like a really good fit. I just don’t think, no matter how I can look at it, that the Legacy Site is the right place.”
Gerken said he sees other opportunities for the site in the city including the gravel pit north of the Brandt property and the Summit Park area, which sits east of the new Tahoma High School location.
“In my mind it’s just inappropriate use (of the Legacy Site),” Gerken said. “It’s not what we envisioned when we purchased it.”
Gerken was on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee, which helped establish the city’s vision for the future of the Legacy Site. Among the items on the list is to build City Hall there.
Mayor Bill Allison said both the complex and City Hall could potentially co-exist on the site.
Gerken disagreed. He said the topography of the land and the advisory committee’s recommended developable areas would limit that possibility.
Garrett told The Reporter in a phone interview Tuesday they are looking at other properties in Maple Valley and even in Kent for the potential project.
Garrett said the Legacy Site was suggested by someone on the City Council but he couldn’t recall who had made the suggestion.
PLANNING
When the planning commission first drafted the land use element of the city’s comprehensive plan several months ago it designated the Legacy Site into a new area called Town Center North. The description of this area in the land use element stated there would be up to five story buildings allowed.
At the April 15 Planning Commission meeting, the commission voted four to one to create a separate land use designation for the Legacy Site, taking it out of the Town Center North area. The dissenting vote was Chair Bob Rohrbach, according to the minutes of the meeting.
Senior Planner Matt Torpey said creating its own designation does not necessarily mean the commission can’t zone the Legacy Site in a way that allows multiple-story buildings.
The complex proposed by Garrett and Laing would be about three stories high, Garrett said.
He also said if the Legacy Site were approved for the location of the complex, there would be an “adequate buffer of trees between the facility” and neighboring homes.
