It looks like 11 acres of “almost entirely” vacant land between Boalch Ave NW and SR 202 at the corner of 14th Ave NW near Encompass and North Bend may soon become a large athletic complex – complete with outdoor synthetic turf fields and indoor courts for basketball and volleyball.
The complex is being constructed under a development agreement with the city of North Bend, for which the city’s Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on October 13, 2016 at 7PM in the City Hall Conference Room, 211 Main Ave.
The development agreement would authorize Snoqualmie Valley Athletic Assication and Bendigo Properties, LLC to construct the [private] facility – called Snoqualmie Valley Athletic Complex – under development standards and provisions established in the agreement.
City of North Bend City Planner Mike McCarthy said via email that the owners would develop the proposed private complex in two phases – with the outdoor turf fields coming first, followed by the buildings. McCarthy also said the current roadwork occurring on 14th Ave NW is unrelated to the proposed athletic complex. That work has been part of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan and is finally getting its turn.
According to a site map, the athletic complex would have three indoor recreation buildings, totaling about 90,000 square feet, and four combination outdoor soccer/baseball/lacrosse/football fields, associated parking, as well as stormwater and landscape improvements.
The Snoqualmie Valley School District has plans to rent and use the private outdoor synthetic fields as a three-year, temporary home for its baseball and softball teams. The Mount Si fields were closed over the summer and are currently being excavated to become the site of the rebuilt, 355,000 square foot high school.
One of the final phases of of the Mount Si rebuild project will construct new baseball and softball fields and relocate them to the opposite end of the high school property. Those new fields are expected to be ready for the 2020 season.
At the last school board meeting, district administrators were hopeful the Snoqualmie Valley Athletic Complex fields would be ready in time for the 2017 season baseball/softball seasons.
Community members can make comments about the proposed Athletic Complex at the October 13th Public Hearing at North Bend City Hall.
Comments
Not shown on the map but critical to my mind is that 462 acres of publicly owned open space (Meadowbrook Farm) is just across Gardiner Creek from the property and the new 20+ acre Youth Activity Center (a.k.a. Boy Scout) property is just across Boalch fom this property and is adjacent to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail..
This is superior planning for our Valley’s younger generations.
No indoor tennis??
Lauren – Indoor tennis is possible. The buildings will not have any interior columns and would provide enough room and height to accommodate if there is the demand. Thank you for your comment.
Absolutely also in favor of indoor tennis.
What is the best way to promote this?
I would also love to have access to indoor tennis! Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do to support the effort.
As a former college player and on the satellite tour for 5 years, I would love to see indoor tennis in North Bend!
michael,
I am also a former college player, but now only 3.5 player. want to play at a private indoor tennis facility here in North Bend?
paul savage
206-310-0517 cell
I have a friend who played at an indoor court here in North Bend, he said it was a barn converted to a tennis court, same place? I’m game!
What about a swimming facility?
This is a 100% privately owned and funded project. This should be added to the article (Danna McCall) to avoid misunderstandings that this is a Tax Payer Funded Project – it is not.
Thanks. Added the word private a couple of times to clear up any unintended confusion.
Thank you Danna
While many love our community for how nature is a part of it, we must also balance the needs of our growing community – and that means additional fields that can meet our needs. Field turf equipped and lighted fields will help our student athletes pursue their dreams and lessen the burden of coaches and parents having to reschedule practices and games due to weather or leaving work mid-day because of day light issues. Thanks for wanting to invest in our community.
Sounds wonderful – very exciting to have these types of facilities. With the turf fields, please review the questionable health issues surrounding “crumb rubber” fill and consider a more organic alternative that does not potentially pose a cancer risk. Thanks very much!
Don’t worry, all that rubber fill will get washed downstream every once in a while and be replaced by river silt.
This field did not flood in 1990, which was the worst flood in recorded history (75,000 cubic feet per second at Snoqualmie Falls)
Yeah,. I always thought that light pollution awesome anyway.
Yeah, and adding light pollution if just an added bonus!
Yes, light polution is definately a downside. I hope they limit the hours of light usage.
Interesting concept for development. It invites questions several questions: 1. sewer planning. Currently there is no public sewer west of the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River in that vicinity and the size of the development precludes private septic. Is there sufficient public sewer capacity and infrastructure? 2. How does this proposal impact the parks plan for the city’s Tollgate Farm and its athletic fields? It seems that after the School District’s needs are mitigated by construction of their own athletic fields (2020), we may have an oversupply of athletic fields. 3. Transportation planning and mitigation. I realize the development schematic is preliminary, but I see only one ingress/eggress road shown and it is off 8th St. Hopefully, some others off of Boalch Ave. and perhaps even SR 202 would be added to reduce traffic congestion. Turn lanes are especially important. Other upgrades to both should be anticipated, too, in my opinion.
Can we please add indoor racquetball courts!?
[…] If you want to know more, Danna McCall at Living Snoqualmie did a story on this last month; you can see that here. […]