Edmonds schools, Lynnwood still at odds over sports fields

The good news is they're talking.

The bad news is their positions are far apart.

That's the latest from discussions between the Edmonds School District and the city of Lynnwood over a proposed commercial development of the present Lynnwood High School property and its adjoining athletic fields.

It has been a year since the school district announced a preliminary agreement with a Texas company to redevelop the 40-acre high-school site across from Alderwood mall into an urban village of shops, condominiums and a hotel or offices.

The announcement was accompanied by forecasts of a future revenue stream of millions of dollars to support school-construction projects into the next century.

But redevelopment hinges on approval by the city to rezone the site from public use to commercial.

It is also dependent on approval by the federal government, which helped pay to build 12 acres worth of athletic fields owned by the district but used extensively by the city under an agreement that doesn't expire until 2019.

Some city officials reacted with dismay to the development plans last year, saying they hadn't been briefed about the concept and didn't want to lose open space and recreation opportunities.

District officials countered that they'd tried to meet with the City Council but were told the elected officials couldn't discuss the proposal because they would have to approve any rezone.

Both sides ultimately agreed that the project was critical. For the past several months, they've discussed the development plans and their respective interests.

"We're talking, and that's a good thing," said Lynn Sordel, Lynnwood parks and recreation director.

But when both sides submitted appraisals for 12 acres of the 22 acres of sports facilities, Sordel said the school district's amount was closer to its value as public space than its potential as a commercial development.

"I would assume that property across from the largest commercial mall in the county is more valuable than the new site," he said.

The school district is building replacement sports fields at the site of a new Lynnwood High School on North Road, in a largely residential area. Under the terms of the federal grant, the new fields must be equal in value and provide comparable recreation facilities as the existing ones.

The federal government has stepped into the negotiations and will conduct its own appraisal, Sordel said.

At the same time the school district negotiates over the athletic fields, it is moving forward with its request to rezone the Lynnwood High property. The city last spring ordered an environmental-impact statement (EIS) for the upscale development.

The district hopes the EIS will be completed by March 1, to meet the city's deadline to review and hold public hearings on changes to its comprehensive plan, a first step in the rezone-request process. Marla Miller, assistant superintendent for business and operations, said the school district also is finalizing language with the Texas-based developer, Cypress Equities, on a 99-year lease for the property. She said the district hired lawyers who have negotiated similar agreements for the University of Washington and the Seattle School District.

Miller said the agreement tries to foresee every possible contingency.

"I had hoped to be done by now," she said, "but the details we're attending to will be part of the agreement well beyond our own careers."

District voters in 2006 approved a bond measure to build the new Lynnwood High School. Before the election, the district publicized its plans to offset future construction costs through the sale or lease of some of its commercially valuable property.

It sold the former Woodway Elementary School site in Edmonds for $7.7 million and is using that money to prepare the former Scriber Lake site for its new transportation and warehouse facilities.

The district plans to use money from the lease of the current bus-barn property, also near Alderwood mall, to pay for a new district headquarters which also will be relocated to the Scriber Lake site.

About the ongoing discussions with the city, Miller said, "We're working in a positive way, and we appreciate that."

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com