Yelm Highway Community Park Master Plan

What's happening?

The City of Olympia hosted an Open House on February 22, 2024 to present an updated Yelm Highway Community Park Master Plan.

The master plan originally included colocation of a future secondary school, in addition to the future community park. In November 2023, the City learned that the Olympia School District had made the decision that a future secondary school was no longer needed. This decision has led to a need to update the Master Plan and restore the Community Park throughout the property.

The initial master plan process included a series of public meetings and surveys over a three-year period, which provided extensive public feedback. Utilizing the feedback, the park design team has modified the master plan design to remove the school facility and expand the park amenities. The revised design draft includes an additional soccer field, added pickleball courts, a larger dog park, and more walking paths.

• View the updated Yelm Highway Community park Master Plan
• View the preliminary Phase 1 Concept Plan

In February, City staff held an in-person open house and a recording of that presentation is available below in the survey tab or at the top of this page. We invite the community to watch that presentation, review the Phase 1 concept plan and share their thoughts using the survey below by the end of the day on March 14, 2024.

Project History

The City of Olympia does not have any soccer fields within the park system. This has been an identified need for over two decades and has been listed as a community priority in the last four adopted Parks, Arts, and Recreation Plans.

In 2014, a Community Park Site Suitability Study was commissioned, and the Yelm Highway Community Park parcel was identified as the best location to develop soccer fields and the long-needed community park. In 2018, the City purchased the property, and then engaged in a public process to develop a master plan from 2019-2022.

Over the last year City staff have worked to pursue development permits and finalize necessary grant funding to move forward with construction of Phase I. The updated timeline estimates that construction of Phase I will begin in the fall of 2025.