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Neighbors voice ‘numerous concerns’ about district’s plan to purchase parcel
By Put up-Report workers author
Printed: January 11, 2025, 6:10am
Washougal College District Interim Superintendent Aaron Hansen stands on the west finish of a 31-acre property in north Washougal on Jan. 2. The district is reconsidering its intentions to buy the property for a brand new faculty web site. (Doug Flanagan/Put up-Report)
WASHOUGAL — The Washougal College District is reconsidering its plans to amass a 31-acre property for a future faculty web site after neighbors raised issues.
The district has negotiated a six-month extension to its option-to-purchase settlement with Woodland-based Kysar Growth, which initially expired Dec. 31. The district now has till June 30 to train the choice. The district has had a purchase order possibility on the property since 2020.
“The whole point of getting the extension is to make sure we have all the information that we feel like we need to make a decision,” Interim Superintendent Aaron Hansen stated whereas strolling the property on a wet early January afternoon.
Residents who oppose the acquisition have expressed issues in regards to the property being introduced into Clark County’s city progress space.
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“We would like you to reconsider your resolution,” Washougal resident Robin Lown stated at a Dec. 11 board assembly. “Specifically, we’re wondering if due diligence was done by the board or whoever is making this decision whether or not that is a good purchase.”
In October, the Washougal faculty board accepted a decision to buy the property, 2400 S.E. 341st Courtroom, Washougal, for $1.025 million with funds collected by means of impression charges charged to new developments.
Hansen stated shopping for the property now, whereas the property is obtainable, would save the district cash in the long term. The district envisioned one thing alongside the strains of the Jemtegaard/Columbia River Gorge Elementary campus.
“The (school board) is looking out decades, not for what we need next year,” board member Jim Cooper stated.
The college district’s most up-to-date six-year capital services plan, adopted in 2022, identifies the location as wanted for a future faculty. The plan says the district’s services are ample in any respect colleges besides Hathaway Elementary.
Hansen stated the development of a brand new faculty might be 10 to fifteen years out.
The property can’t be used as a college till it’s included within the city progress space. The college district issued a request to the town and Clark County to deliver the property into the expansion space in February 2023.
Hansen informed The Put up-Report in October he was assured that the property can be introduced into the boundary. Two months later, he sounded much less sure.
“Talking to some of the neighbors … it depends on who you talk to and who they’ve talked to,” Hansen stated. “I haven’t had any direct communication with anyone within the county, other than the biologist who did an assessment on this property. I am still optimistic, but I can’t control it.”
Washougal resident Megan Mild doesn’t consider the property can be introduced into the expansion space, noting failed makes an attempt by present property-owner Kysar in 2016 and 2020.
“The county has already denied this developer twice,” Mild stated. “So unless the school or the city knows something that we’re not privy to, I don’t know why they would approve it.”
‘Numerous concerns’
“We do not take issue with Kysar for trying to sell their property,” stated Jarchow, talking on behalf of close by residents who’ve shaped an group known as the Lehr Neighbors Coalition. “We have learned that the school board did not receive all of the information that was available before making a decision to purchase, and the city of Washougal hastily applied for a UGB amendment.”
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Mild stated she and her neighbors are involved that, if the property is introduced into the expansion space, the college campus wouldn’t be in step with the neighborhood or might overwhelm the agricultural neighborhood, which is essentially made up of bigger houses on massive parcels.
Hansen stated the issues took him without warning.
“It goes a little further than I thought, as far as who feels impacted by this decision,” Hansen stated. “And then you definately get into a number of the issues that I wasn’t actually enthusiastic about. What does it imply if the property’s within the UGA? What does it imply for the individuals which can be right here, who bought their property with the concept their acres and this degree of isolation, or what they have been pursuing once they bought it?
Folks transfer out of cities for a cause, Hansen stated, noting, nonetheless, that there aren’t many properties accessible for a big faculty campus.
Hansen stated the college district desires to have higher communication with residents transferring ahead.
“Some of them (say) that we’re not being transparent, or that we’ve been secretive,” Hansen stated. “I believe we’re being extra communicative about it now and attempting to listen to the issues, acknowledge these issues.
The choice to increase the purchase-option settlement will enable the college district to conduct extra assessments of the property, specializing in environmental impacts, Hansen stated.
“We want to make sure there’s no surprises,” he stated.