$3.25 Million to Turn Six Tennis Courts Into Parking

All three bond options the Bainbridge Island School District presented October 29 would spend $3.25 million to turn the six tennis courts beside the Bainbridge High School track into parking for students and staff. Using the district’s aerial image and the City’s standard stall and aisle dimensions, Bainbridge Island Environmental News estimates the finished lot could hold roughly 130 to 160 vehicles, at a cost of about $20,000 to $25,000 per space. How many more students could park at school would depend on how many spaces go to staff and how many existing or leased spaces the district gives up.

The district gives three reasons for the lot in its school board presentation. It would put more parking on the Bainbridge High School campus, eliminate the cost of leasing spaces elsewhere, and bring parked vehicles under closer supervision. The $3,245,280 estimate includes $709,905 in soft costs. The district’s October 29 cost figures remain planning estimates.

The City’s Climate Action Plan calls for more students to ride school buses or carpool. Page 64 of BISD’s 2024 facilities plan recommends safer walking and biking routes and a central-campus mobility hub where students could arrange shared rides or borrow an electric bike. All three October bond options budget for the parking lot. None lists the mobility hub or improvements to walking and biking routes as a separate project. Making it easier to park on campus could encourage students who now walk, bike, carpool, or ride the bus to drive instead. The district’s October 29 parking slide gives no estimate of how many additional car trips the lot might generate or what those trips would mean for traffic and emissions.

The City’s parking code specifies one space per 10 high-school students plus one per employee. That formula sets a total for the school and leaves the district to decide how many spaces to assign to student drivers. An above-ground lot that exceeds the code requirement needs Planning Commission approval. The district’s October 29 presentation identified no City requirement to add parking at BHS. To establish a shortfall, the district would need to show how many spaces the City requires and how many existing, leased, or shared spaces the City would count toward that total.

Beyond the air pollution impacts of driving, and the traffic impacts on Bainbridge Island’s roads, parking lots are environmentally destructive even where the ground is already paved. Cars leave tire particles on pavement. Rain can carry those particles into drains, and a chemical formed from a tire additive can be lethal to salmon. The effect at this site would depend on where the lot drains and how the runoff is treated. Washington’s Department of Ecology identifies parking areas as a source of tire wear particles and describes treatment options that include infiltration and filtration.

For tennis players, the proposed change is a move. The drawing places six courts together at a to-be-constructed athletic complex. It does not give an opening date, a schedule for closing the old courts, or hours for community play. The athletic complex carries a separate $30.78 million estimate and has its own proposed parking for athletes and officials.

Residents can email all five school board members before the board’s November 12 meeting or speak for up to three minutes at the meeting. The board meets Thursday at 5:45 p.m. in the BISD Board Room, 9530 High School Road NE. In-person speakers sign up at the start of the meeting. To speak by Zoom, email Lani Chaffee by 4 p.m. that day. The district has identified November 12 as the expected date for deciding whether to put a bond on the February 2027 ballot.