KINGSTON — The draft supplemental environmental impact statement (DSEIS) for Kingston’s high school was placed under the microscope Monday, but only a handful of North Kitsap residents cared to speak up on what they saw.
The new EIS was created after the school’s preferred site alternative was chosen and Kane Environmental had finished work examining the former Nike missile site. The three previous alternatives, “The School on the Hill, Option 1,” “The School on the Hill, Option 2,” and “The School to the North,” were examined in the first EIS.
“This was more of a hybrid of the first three alternatives and that’s why we needed the supplemental EIS,” said Cascade Design Collaborative Representative Kas Kinkead. Kinkead’s company coordinated the master plan for the school.
The purpose of the Environmental Impact Statement is to provide a planning tool, identify environmental impacts and possibly mitigate impacts. The statement’s lead consultant was Huckell/Weinman Associates.
Few public comments were made at the meeting, with only about 25 people — including district administrators — in attendance.
Stu and Mary Anderson, who own property to the south of the high school site, voiced their concerns over the environmental impacts that the proposed secondary school would have on the area.
“If this was a project of a private landowner or developer, everyone would be jumping up and down now,” Mary Anderson said. She cited the fact the district plans to remove about 22 acres of conifer forest on the property as well as clear a total of about 1.3 million-square feet for development.
Referring to a potential trail that children of the school might use to Stillwater’s, Anderson said, “We hope you would use the schools as an example of how not to take care of the environment.”
Stu Anderson was most curious about the buffer that would be placed between his property and the high school site. Kinkead informed Anderson that a buffer was to be established and that it was likely the Andersons would not be able to see the high school from their property.
There is a wetland on the southwest corner of the property, Kinkead confirmed, but she said even with the new discovery, they still managed to “satisfy field requirements.”
Kinkead also mentioned the entry road to the school would be widened to add a walkway and bike lane and that the county would decide whether a traffic light would be needed off West Kingston Road into the school.
Anderson asked if there would be bleachers on the southwest athletic fields and Kinkead told her that if there were, they would only be temporary.
Access to Spectrum Community School during construction was also an issue. Kinkead said that heavy construction work would occur mostly in the summer, when students were not in school.
Supt. Eugene Medina added that the district is attempting to find an alternative entrance to the Spectrum school during construction work.
The date for public comment on the high school site ends March 8. Anyone interested in commenting on the high school site should contact NKSD Director of Capital Programs Robin Shoemaker, at (360) 394-2641 or by e-mail at rshoemaker@nksd.wednet.edu. Comments can be made in person, as well as written.
All information will be compiled into a final EIS, to be released later this year.
