Birch Bay school one step closer after county, school district agreement

The Blaine school district took a step toward constructing a new elementary school in Birch Bay after Whatcom County Council approved a land access agreement to allow the district to evaluate a section of Bay Horizon Park that could potentially be the site of a new school.

During an August 6 council finance and administrative services committee hearing, superintendent Christopher Granger and Whatcom County Parks and Recreation director Bennett Knox presented their plan to allow the district to see if the land is suitable to build a school.

“We certainly feel, after years of looking for different pieces, this is one that we’re really interested in,” Granger said during the meeting. “[It] could be of mutual interest for the county; and for Birch Bay and the school district, an opportunity to partner on something for that community.”

Currently, the 69-acre park houses the Lions Camp Horizon, the Blaine-Birch Bay Park and Recreation District 2 offices and gym, multiple sport courts, a playground, and open grassy fields. One of those open fields, in the northern portion of the park, could become the site of a future school.

Discussions between the school district and the county around using a portion of Bay Horizon Park for a school have been off and on for years, with the last serious discussion coming in 2019, Knox said.

The county has owned Bay Horizon Park, at 7467 Gemini Street, since the 1980s after the federal government determined it surplus. From 1951 to 1979, the land was used as the Blaine Air Force Station for Cold War-era radar monitoring.

The parcel under question has been earmarked as a possible school location since the land came under county control, Knox said.

While the plan to build a school on the lot has been expected for decades, there are still many hoops to jump through before ground is broken.

“I think we’re very early in the discussions,” Knox said. “Further discussion is going to be required to determine what issues are going to come up associated with building a school.”

Some hoops still remaining for the district include deed restrictions on the property, pricing, environmental studies, and a bond measure to fund the construction, Granger said.

“We know if this is feasible, if we do those other steps, we still need a bond in the future to put an elementary school there,” Granger said. “But in the interim, the district would and has been communicating with parks about trying to turn this into a community field until a school is located there.”