Politics & Government

City Could Acquire Tacoma Schools' Property By This Summer

University Place is getting some help from Pierce County's Conservation Futures funding program to buy 15 acres on Alameda Avenue West.

is negotiating with the Tacoma School District to buy an undeveloped piece of land in the city’s east end for future park and open space, and officials hope to get a deal done by summer.

Last year, the school district declared 15 acres off Alameda Avenue West near Leach Creek surplus. It had purchased the property years ago and was holding it for a future school site, but it never built anything.

The plan was to sell the land to the City of University Place, but the city couldn’t buy the property outright. It needed help from Pierce County in the form of dollars from its Conservation Futures funding program.

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Earlier this month, Mayor Debbie Klosowski announced at the University Place City Council meeting that the project was in line to receive Conservation Futures money, and a deal with the school district could get done by June.

She said that although the city hasn’t produced a master site plan for the property, the city hopes to build ball fields, a picnic shelter and trails in the wetland area while preserving most of the property.

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“That park will serve an un-served area of the city,” Klosowski said today. “That will be nice for residents to be able to walk to a recreational area.”

Tacoma Schools spokesman Dan Voelpel confirmed that a deal is in the works.

“On April 14, we received notice that Pierce County intended to move ahead with the use of Conservation Futures funding for University Place to by the Cirque/Alameda project from us,” he wrote in an e-mail to Patch. “We’re now in a negotiation period over the final value and expect that a purchase could be finalized during the summer.”

If a deal if finalized, the city would contribute $65,000 of its own parks capital money to purchase the land. Pierce County would cover the rest.

The property’s assessed value for this year is $463,000.

Last year, neighbors in the area reportedly opposed the deal because of the loss of open space and concerns with traffic, among other reasons. The Conservation Futures money requires that the city preserve 80 percent of the property.


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