City Council OKs Permit for Redmond High School Additions

The Redmond City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday to approve a conditional use permit that allows the to begin construction on a 30,000-square-foot addition to Redmond High School.

Council members were scheduled to vote on the conditional use ordinance last week but because they wanted to add amendments that require the school district to use the school's transportation management plan to try to mitigate traffic and parking impacts in the neighborhood surrounding the campus.

"I think that this is a very good start at addressing the historic traffic problems at the high school, and I look forward to seeing relief soon," Councilmember Kim Allen said.

Council President Richard Cole was the only person to vote against the ordinance. Even with the added conditions to the school's transportation management plan, Cole said he believes it will be difficult to convince a significant number of students and parents not to drive to the campus.

"I think we're just pushing the problems out into the neighborhood," he said. "I just don't think this can be mitigated."

The revised ordinance now states that the high school's transportation management plan must include the goal of meeting the demand for parking on campus, without using neighborhood streets, and "actively implement and maintain a program to achieve this goal." Some initial suggestions included in the ordinance are a commuter club and introducing paid parking on the campus.

The ordinance also requires the district to work on a special event parking plan that seeks to utilize off-site parking agreements at churches, other nearby schools and parks.

Plans for the high school addition call for its total capacity to grow from its current enrollment of 1,500 to 1,750 in order to welcome ninth-graders to the campus as part of the district's grade reconfiguration plan. In the process, staff parking will be added but 20 student parking spaces will be lost on the campus.