As master plans for county parks and open space are mulled about, so too is the one for a new Kingston community center in the Village Green. Though a concept plan was created in 2001, only now is momentum gaining to get a community center built there, along with low-income senior housing. The big questions remain: how to fund the project and manage and pay for the costs to maintain the buildings and park.

Spurred on by the Kingston Community Center Foundation working independently from the county, in the last 16 months visioning has gone from a rough draft based on a community survey of needs and desires, to architectural renderings. This summer, the foundation hired architect Miles Yanick to create schematic building plans to show a functional relationship of the community center within the Village Green, with or without the housing element.

The foundation held public meetings last month to unveil Yanick’s concept plan and flush out community input about the size, layout and user groups as well as where to place the center and senior housing complex within the park. Funding and building a new community center is estimated to take about five years minimum, according to Kitsap County Commissioner Chris Endresen. The foundation, said member Bobbie Moore, hopes having drawings of the community center, surrounding grounds and senior housing option will allow it to begin obtaining funding sources.

Though footprints for the buildings were suggested in the 2001 plan, at that time acquisition of the Navy Housing was only a preferred option. After Endresen was able to secure federal funding with the help of Rep. Jay Inslee to purchase the 3.6 acre Navy housing property last February for $1.75 million, the foundation renewed its efforts to get the ball rolling and a community center built as soon as possible. It wants to take the lead and not wait for the county to build something, proposing that the community own the center, similar to Hansville and Indianola.

At a meeting Sept. 12, Yanick suggested building placement based on the site’s attributes and limiting factors such as a buffer zone around Kingston Creek, then let the public take a hands-on approach to get a better spatial sense of how to best make use of the space. 3-D Styrofoam models were moved around a map of the Village Green that showed treed and cleared areas as well as elevation gains, the heritage Camperdown Elm tree, sewage pump station, existing roads, tennis courts and proposed access into the back of the park via an extension of California Avenue.

Though there was general consensus on where to position the community center, whether to include senior housing in the Village Green and if so, where to best place it, remained undecided.

Elements of the

community center

Plans for the community center itself are further shaking out. Yanick proposed that a 20,000 to 27,000 square-foot building be three stories high with the bottom portion etched into the hillside for underground parking. The floor above that would house space for the North Kitsap Boys & Girls Club with 10-foot ceilings for a gymnasium-style recreation room, office space for classrooms and a chamber of commerce, a senior center, and 7,000 square-foot library. The third floor would consist of the boys and girls club portion, kitchen, general community room and additional offices for county staff. Though the library is currently penciled in as one-story, a second story could easily be placed on top to provide additional meeting rooms, Yanick said.

The senior housing option plans for a 40-unit, three-story building with underground parking, possibly with a covered pedestrian walkway connecting it to the community center. The Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority would oversee funding and building of this aspect, and may be able to provide grant monies for the community center as well, deputy executive director Roger Waid said at a meeting of the Village Green Task Force last June.

The height of the buildings was increased to multi-story at the foundation’s direction to take advantage of the Puget Sound views and shrink the footprint of development in the park, leaving as much green space as possible.

The foundation has been considering three alternatives: separate buildings with either the center or housing back towards the sewage pump station; one building partially located on the Navy housing site with a community center and senior housing attached; or separate buildings near each other, set back from West Kingston Road providing a junior soccer-size field in front and heavily forested area behind traversed by Kingston Creek.

The existing paved road up to the pump station would be torn out and traffic re-routed to parking areas underneath and behind the buildings. The tennis courts would remain as is. There is also the option to use the existing Dulay Street to access the park off West Kingston and create a loop.

Besides the community center and senior housing, other cleared areas will provide room for future expansion – a performing arts auditorium, pool and sheriff’s office have been suggested. Other needs may not surface for a decade or two when the impact of the anticipated population increase of 100,000 countywide hits home.

For more information on the Kingston Community Center Foundation and to comment, contact Bobbie Moore at (360) 297-2845.