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News Dec 29 2011
MAPLE VALLEY REPORTER: Growth board ruling on YarrowBay developments reversed by Court of Appeals

Dec 13 2011
MAPLE VALLEY REPORTER: Three City Council members approve YarrowBay development agreements

Schools

YarrowBay, the Enumclaw School District and The City of Black Diamond have jointly drafted a Comprehensive School Mitigation Agreement that provides for adequate schools to support planned growth from The Villages and Lawson Hills. The agreement calls for a combination of land conveyance for school sites and the payment of mitigation fees to the School District. As a result, future locations for schools are secured while flexibility is maintained regarding when and where to build each school.

YarrowBay knows quality communities are built on quality school systems. To ensure residents in Black Diamond benefit from the highest quality schools, YarrowBay has committed to going beyond paying mitigation fees by committing to convey property directly to the School District for new school sites. The agreement includes detailed provisions to ensure that school sites are conveyed to the School District at the correct time for school construction to serve the needs of the community.

    

The identified elementary school building sites are all located within a half-mile of a majority of the homes and within a mile of all the homes anticipated in The Villages and Lawson Hills. While the proposed sites for the middle schools are located in King County, the agreement provides an alternative way to obtain middle school sites if the School District is unable to obtain approvals to construct middle schools in the County.
 
The sizes of the school sites are based on the School District’s preferred acreage standards. The elementary school sites are sized to accommodate 450 students per school and the middle schools will accommodate 550 students per school. However, YarrowBay has agreed to set aside and convey larger elementary school sites to the School District (12.5 acres instead of 10 acres) if the School District opts to build three larger schools instead of four smaller schools. If the smaller elementary schools are chosen, then with full build out of both The Villages and Lawson Hills, there will be four new elementary school sites, two new middle school sites and one new high school site.

This plan was agreed upon after extensive discussions between the three parties. We believe it will fully support the number of students produced by The Villages and Lawson Hills and provide all residents of Black Diamond with high quality schools for their kids.

Please visit the Enumclaw School District website to learn more.