The private Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences is expanding steadily on Capitol Hill. It could also be at the center of a plan to overhaul the fields and amenities around the South Park Community Center.

Wednesday afternoon, the Seattle City Council’s Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee will consider the proposal from the Seattle Academy and Seattle Parks and Recreation for a $4 million donation to power the creation of a new sports field and lighting as part of a larger overhaul of the South Park facility.

Under the agreement, the city is proposing to allow the academy to exclusively share the new fields with community drop-in hours for open use by neighbors. The fields would not be made available for general sports league scheduling for five years under the agreement.

In exchange, the community center would get the money needed to recreate the recreational areas outside the aging facility with new fields, a dog park, a spray park, and a large new playground area.

The partnership would also forge a growing relationship between the school and the South Park community. “Additionally, Seattle Academy has committed to provide at least 25 hours annually of programming in the South Park community (to be identified in collaboration with South Park CC, local schools and nonprofit organizations) that fills a gap in the community offerings and facilitates an on-going relationship between SAAS and South Park residents,” planners write.

An overhaul of the South Park Community Center building is also moving forward outside of the proposed academy partnership.

The proposal comes as pressures on Seattle’s sports fields has steadily increased, often leaving the city’s non-white and lower income communities without access.

City officials say the council’s approval of the sports field plan would allow the academy to begin fundraising for the $4 million project.

This past fall, the academy debuted its new $48 million Cardinal Union “vertically oriented middle school” building at 13th and Union. The growing school is also readying plans for expansion on 12th Ave that will eventually shutter its Mothers Place daycare facility.

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