Staff photo
The fate of the Old Woodinville School is currently being discussed.

She might look sturdy and substantial, and, in fact, she may well be; but the old girl – the Old Woodinville School – has definitely seen better days. Something has to be done about her. The question is what.

President of the Woodinville Heritage Society Phyllis Keller told the City Council Feb. 12 that she was concerned about the building’s on-going deterioration. There were holes in the basement wall and vermin were entering the building. Ceiling tiles were falling. Pipes had frozen. Floors were buckling. There was a moisture problem. Start up the boiler, Keller suggested, and keep the heat at a minimal level.

City Manager Richard Leahy said last week, “We are talking with a building maintenance consultant to get a cost-effective recommendation to prevent further deterioration of the building. We don’t want to do something that will make the situation worse. We also have to calculate the cost of any actions.”

Keller told the City Council that the Old Woodinville School was a vital element to the downtown gateway. It was a focal point for the community. The Heritage Society rejected the two proposals from the private sector for re-use and rehabilitation of the school. Neither benefited the heritage or the economy of the city, she said. She asked the council to direct staff to work with the Heritage Society to find architects and engineers to restore the historic building and to pursue grants and in-kind donations to help pay for the restoration.

“For better or for worse, we are in partnership with time…,” said Keller. “… You, our elected officials, have the opportunity to … (restore and preserve) this most meaningful piece of our history.”

At the same Feb. 12 meeting, local Terry Jarvis said that Woodinville was a historical community that knew who its settlers were. It was not a designed community created on the back of a napkin or in the mind of a developer.

“We need to covet our history, not shun it,” he said.

A bit of history

A public school sat on this site, 13203 N.E. 175th Street, since the late 1800s. The school on the site today was built in 1936. After serving as a primary school, the building became the first Woodinville City Hall (1993-2001).

Feb. 28, 2001, the school sustained damage from the 6.8-magnitude Nisqually Earthquake. The building withstood the 1949-7.1 earthquake and the 1965-6.5 quake reasonably well, but damage from the 2001quake was cumulative. In addition to exterior masonry damage, consulting engineers found structural damage.

The city vacated the building in May of 2002. Its two tenants at the time, the Parks and Recreation Department and the Chamber of Commerce, moved to what is now the Carol Edwards Center. The city’s line of reasoning in 2002 was to take the slow track, have a thoughtful dialog with the community about the future of the building, and figure out how to pay for any upgrades. The Old Woodinville School has remained unoccupied ever since.

A task force

In 2005, the City Council called for a task force to develop recommendations about future uses for the school building. They came up with a list of some potential uses, such as the following:

• A satellite library (The Woodinville Library is nearly five miles outside of town.),
• A museum,
• A heritage classroom,
• A tourist information center,
• A meeting room for civic groups such as Rotary or Scouts,
• A gift shop,
• A winery / wine tasting room,
• A restaurant, or
• Offices.

Private-sector interest

The city tested private-sector interest in the building. It called for proposals to readapt the building. Three businesses replied. One withdrew from consideration. Two remained: Pioneer Development, which wanted to construct a 35,000 square foot commercial mixed-use building and parking garage immediately north of City Hall, and The Attic Learning Community, which wanted to purchase the Old Woodinville School for one dollar and renovate it for private-school uses.

The Parks and Recreation Commission and the Old Woodinville School Task Force considered the proposals and recommended the council turn them both down.

The Pioneer Development proposal would force any future expansion of city uses to be constructed within the footprint of the sports fields.

The Attic proposal might not allow the city to control the site, which sits on its civic campus. The proposal also created a need for dedicated parking and shared parking, which might affect the number of parking spaces available for community center and fields users. A school might limit the general public’s use of the building. And finally, the Attic’s proposed investment, estimated at $1.8 million, seemed too low to stabilize and occupy the building.

A modified proposal

Highly motivated, the Attic group modified its proposal, and a panel representing the business addressed the City Council Feb. 12. The group proposed leasing the building for 30 years at a dollar a year. The Attic would pay for a $1.8 million building renovation. It would allow the Heritage Society to exhibit historical photographs in the main hallway. It would need 17 dedicated parking spaces and 30 shared spaces, and it requested rights to reasonable use of the city’s sports fields, possibly its gymnasium in the Community Center.

In a letter to the City Council dated Jan. 31, Pat Orrell, director of The Attic Learning Community stated, “The Attic is a school which has consistently grown year-over-year in its nine year existence, and our current space cannot accommodate the growth that the Board of Directors has planned. We are, even now, turning students away. A year ago, the board directed our Site Team to identify and lease or purchase a facility that will accommodate the students and staff for the next 20 years and longer. In that process, we came across the Old Woodinville School.

“For us, the building is a perfect match to our needs and mission; for the City of Woodinville, our vision and plan will transform a problem (a vacant, deteriorating building located in the heart of Woodinville) into a vibrant, faithfully restored community asset at no cost to the city or its taxpayers,” stated Orrell.

In its original proposal, the group stated, “The Attic is thrilled at the prospect of creating an anchor presence in the heart of downtown, a presence that keeps a strong connection to the past as well as to the future.”

Orrell told the council Feb. 12 that the Attic group was flexible; it sought a win-win solution. The group needed 10,000 to 12,000 square feet for 100 to 120 students. Its school year was from October through May; its current program ran three days a week – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but there were plans to expand into Thursdays and Fridays.

“All of this is up for negotiation,” said Orrell.

A council discussion

The school’s space requirements, as City Councilman Don Brocha put it, “left a fair amount of space for other public uses.” He said though there was concern on the part of the Heritage Society for its use of the property, the city had not signed any agreement with the society. To get on “explicit footing with the Heritage Society,” perhaps the society should enter into some sort of Memorandum of Understanding with the city, he said.

Councilwoman Liz Aspen asked the panel to reconcile the large gap in the amount the city estimated for building upgrades – $2.6 million – and the Attic’s estimate of $1.8 million.

Panel member Steve Anderson said the group wanted to get into the building as inexpensively as possible. Obviously, it would protect the building and its occupants. It would not change walls. It would maintain many of the existing systems. It would not replace the windows though it would refurbish them; it would not install 20-30 tons of cooling capacity since the school would be open from October to May and wouldn’t need it.

Deputy Mayor Bob Vogt said, “I always liked your idea, a school taking over a school.” Vogt asked if the group would consider a joint tenancy. He asked if they had calculated permit fees and traffic impact fees into its costs. The need for parking spaces also needed to be pinned down.

Councilman Chuck Price wondered if in 30 years, the city would face a dilapidated building again. He also wondered if there were available time slots to use the ball fields and whether the kids might pay fees to use the fields.

“I think the plan is good,” said Price. “There is concern in the community to provide something for the Heritage Society. Maybe a co-tenancy would work.”

“We’d have to study this if council wants to move forward,” said Lane Youngblood, director of Parks and Recreation.

Orrell said the Attic owned five acres adjacent to Rotary Park with 500 feet along Little Bear Creek.

“Maybe we could puzzle out how to make it a win-win,” she said.

Price said the legal issue of default needed to be examined. The lease should be non-transferable.

Councilman Jeff Glickman said the council spent an hour talking about parking spaces, but it overlooked the impact the school would have on overall traffic.

Community input

Norm Maddex represented the Parks and Recreation Commission. Though the commission had not seen the latest Attic proposal, it seemed to address some of their concerns: leasing vs. buying and sharing the facility, for instance. Maddex pointed out that typically, schools have apprehensions around security and aren’t likely to want the public in the building while school is in session. What type of arrangement would there be for city use of the building? Wouldn’t the school have after-school activities and evening programs?

“The school seemed like a good use,” said Maddex. “We did have a lot of concerns. I think they’ve addressed (some).”

Cherry Jarvis represented the Old Woodinville School Task Force. The task force, too, had not seen the updated proposal. She did suggest the city make sure there was some agreement about continued maintenance, especially because it was a flat-roofed building in the wet Pacific Northwest.

Jarvis said in a phone conversation, “It is important that we maintain that building, hopefully in a way that benefits the community. It is so important for history and the community.”

What’s next?

Brocha said the proposal “still seemed pretty iffy, but it warranted further discussion.”

Vogt asked staff to figure out whether it could give up 17 dedicated and 30 shared parking spaces. He asked the Attic group to better define its need for the sports fields and the gym. He said the Attic would have to be required to do continued maintenance of the building as well as Americans with Disabilities Act and other code upgrades. He recommended the task force and Parks Commission look at the new proposal and make a recommendation.

“It is paramount that we look at steps to preserve that building,” said Vogt. “We don’t want to lose that asset.”

City Manager Leahy said first, the city would further discuss with the Attic group topics such as costs to rehab and operate the school, opportunities to accommodate public uses in the building, the viability of field or gym usage, and the issue of parking requirements. It would allow time for the group to refine its proposal to provide more detail addressing these and other issues. Then the city would ask the Old Woodinville School Task Force and the Parks and Recreation Commission to review the revised proposal.