Washougal School District pauses plan to buy property

The Washougal School District (WSD) is reconsidering its intention to acquire a 31-acre property for a future school site.

The district has negotiated with Woodland-based Kysar Development to extend the District’s option-to-purchase agreement, which originally expired Dec. 31, 2024. The school district now has until June 30, 2025, to exercise the purchase option.

“The whole point of getting the extension is to make sure we have all the information that we feel like we need to make a decision,”  Washougal School District’s interim superintendent, Aaron Hansen, said in early January, while walking the property at 2400 S.E. 341st Court, Washougal.

The potential purchase faces opposition from a group of local residents, who have expressed concerns about the property being brought into Clark County’s urban growth area (UGA).

On Oct. 22, 2024, the Washougal School Board approved a resolution authorizing the district to exercise an option agreement with Kysar Development to purchase the property for $1.025 million using funds collected through impact fees charged to new developments.

“We would like you to reconsider your resolution,” Washougal resident Robin Lown said during a Washougal School Board meeting on Dec. 11, 2024. “I don’t know if you can reconsider (your decision) after you pass a resolution, but we think it should be reconsidered. We think that there (are) issues that need to be addressed before you purchase that property. Specifically, we’re wondering if due diligence was done by the a six-month extension Board, or whoever is making this decision, whether or not that is a good purchase.”

The school district entered into a purchase-option agreement with Kysar Development in 2020.

“The current option agreement expires at the end of December, so it is time for the District to make this purchase,” Hansen said during the Oct. 22 Washougal School Board meeting. “Purchasing the land at this time lets the district use the impact fee resources that are available now and restricted only for this type of use. This will allow the District to purchase the property while it is available and before the cost of the land goes up even further, which we have seen happen with other property.”

The school district’s most recent six-year capital facilities plan, adopted in 2022, identifies the property as a site needed for a future school. The plan states that the district’s “core facilities are sufficient at all schools except Hathaway Elementary School, where the addition of three portable modular classrooms is beyond the capacity.”

Hansen said the District is not considering building a new school within the next six years, and that construction of a new school on the proposed property is likely still “10 to 15 years out.”

“The (school board) is looking out decades, not for what we need next year,” Board member Jim Cooper said.

The property cannot be used for school purposes until it is included in the UGA. Clark County and city of Washougal officials must complete comprehensive-plan updates by the end of 2025. The school district issued a request to bring the property into the UGA in February 2023.

Hansen told The Post-Record in October 2024, that he was confident the property would be brought into the UGA. A little over two months later, he sounded less certain.

“Talking to some of the neighbors, what they’ve shared with me from conversations they’ve had, it depends on who you talk to and who they’ve talked to. I haven’t had any direct communication with anyone within the County, other than the biologist who did an assessment on this property,” Hansen said. “I am still optimistic, but I can’t control it.”

Washougal resident Megan Light, who spoke at the Washougal School Board’s Nov. 26, 2024, meeting about the proposed purchase, does not believe the property will be brought into the UGA, and noted Kysar’s failed attempts to do so in 2016 and 2020.

“The County has already denied this developer twice,” Light said, “so unless the school (district) or the City knows something that we’re not privy to, I don’t know why they would approve it (now).”

Residents have ‘numerous concerns’

In a December 2024 email to Clark County Council members, Washougal resident Rick Jarchow said he and several of his Rodjk subdivision neighbors “have numerous concerns,” about the school district’s plan to purchase the property, including a perceived lack of transparency; the listed sale price; how the property fits — or doesn’t fit — into the County’s urban growth boundary; the school district’s declining enrollment; previous attempts to rezone the parcel; possible environmental impacts; and the lack of infrastructure surrounding the property.

The City submitted “land-use alternatives” to the County’s environmental impact statement process that include the property as a “parcel specific request” to Clark County on behalf of the school district, according to Washougal’s community development director, Mitch Kneipp.

“The city of Washougal needs to annex the Rodjk cluster in order for them to then annex the remaining Kyser-owned property, or they would be annexing an island piece of property for the WSD’s proposed school,” said Jarchow, speaking on behalf of nearby residents who have formed an advocacy group called the Lehr Neighbors Coalition.

“We do not take issue with Kysar for trying to sell their property,” Jarchow said. “However, we feel that this pending purchase by the WSD is inappropriate and should be re-evaluated by the WSD. We have learned that the school board did not receive all of the information that was available before making a decision to purchase, and the city of Washougal hastily applied for a UGB amendment.”

Light said she and her neighbors are concerned that, if the property is brought into the UGA, “it would not be consistent with the neighborhood” or “be overdeveloped for the neighborhood.”

Hansen said the concerns took him by surprise.

“It goes a little further than I thought, as far as who feels impacted by this decision,” Hansen said. “And then you get into some of the things that I wasn’t really thinking about. What does it mean if the property’s in the UGA? What does it mean for the people that are here, who purchased their property with the idea that their acres and this level of isolation, or what they were pursuing when they purchased it, (would remain intact)?

“I think people move out of the city for a reason. There is definitely a difference in what people appear to be pursuing or wanting, where they live,” Hansen said. “We hear that, we acknowledge that. But there isn’t a lot of property (available for future schools.)”

Hansen said the school district wants to have better communication with residents moving forward.

“Some of them (say) that we’re not being transparent, or that we’ve been secretive,” Hansen said. “(Our intention to purchase this property) is in our capital facilities plan that’s been posted. It’s available, but we haven’t been openly advertising it. I think we’re being more communicative about it now, and trying to hear the concerns, acknowledge those concerns.

The decision to extend the purchase-option agreement will allow the school district to conduct additional assessments of the property, focusing on environmental impacts, Hansen said.

“We want to make sure there’s no surprises,” he said. “(We will) go back to see what (previous owners) were using the property for. Were they dumping something on the property? Do we know that there aren’t any harmful materials? … We want to compare (the findings of) the biologist who recently visited to the other documents we have. And there are some challenges with the infrastructure. Clearly, that would need to be addressed.”