District to condemn final home for new Renton High School

The Renton School Board has voted unanimously to approve Resolution 15-24/25, which is the condemnation of the final piece of land needed to move forward with the district’s controversial site expansion and replacement of Renton High School.

On April 24 at the board’s public hearing at Kohlwes Education Center, the 4-0 vote was cast after a report presentation by Matt Feldmeyer, executive director of Capital Planning and Construction, as well as public comments.

Feldmeyer went over the timeline and schedule of the property purchasing, beginning in May 2021, when there was a property search for the new Renton High School site. When a new site could not be found, it was decided that the current site would be expanded.

In October 2023, the school board had established the new property area and authorized the acquisition of the assemblage of properties, which included 42 parcels. Property owners were sent certified letters in Nov. 2023 and offers were sent between June and October 2024.

In February 2025, there was a resolution and public hearing regarding Resolution 09-24/25, the condemnation and use of eminent domain on 15 parcels and a billboard lease. Eminent domain allows the dispossession of private property for public use under special circumstances, with financial compensation.

One of those property owners was Last Flash LLC, who were reported to have been offered $2.7 million for the land, a number that a representative told the Renton Reporter was “below the value of the property.”

As of April 24, the majority of the parcels had already been purchased or an agreement finalized with sale pending. Ten of the original 15 parcels from Resolution 09-24/25 have yet to be resolved and the last parcel, belonging to Catherine Ploue-Smith, was the subject of the April 24 hearing.

Ploue-Smith was among the public comments given following Feldmeyer’s presentation. She, along with two others, implored the school board to reconsider authorizing the condemnation of her home that she has lived in for 28 years.

While there were three commenters at the April 24 meeting, there were a dozen public comments the night before at the April 23 school board meeting who spoke of their strong opposition to the high school’s expansion project and the vote to acquire Ploue-Smith’s home through eminent domain.

North Renton Neighborhood Association President Meredith Farmer was present on both nights. On April 24, she said she spoke as a Renton resident and not on behalf of the association.

“We all want what’s best and over the course of the last eight months, we have learned a few things people have suggested, different options, and I think that maybe at this juncture, we’re at an inflection point, and we, just as people have suggested, have the opportunity to pause,” Farmer said to the school board members and Superintendent Damien Pattenaude. “I’m just here to reiterate what we all heard last night and request that we do not move forward with the condemnation. And as you move into deliberations, maybe perform the thought exercise: ‘If this was your house and you knew what was going to be done with the land, would you vote to condemn?’”

Many expansion comments from the Wednesday meeting were on the topic of residents being afraid that in time, their own homes would be taken.

“My granddaughter and my son are both asking me, ‘Can they come and take my house? Can they come and take your house?’ And all I can say is, ‘I guess so.’ It’s a heck of a situation,” said a woman who identified herself as JoLynn. “I just think it’s a shameful, shameful way to do business. These are not just houses. There are families that live in there and have lived there for years and I just say shame on the board and shame on the city council.”

Other comments brought up Renton High’s approximation to the Renton Memorial Stadium, which is located at 405 Logan Avenue North. Many people argued that the building of a new football field at Renton High School would be a waste.

“I do not support your plan to construct a redundant football field when there is one less than half a mile away from the high school,” said Amelia Peacock of Renton. “This expansion project is a misuse of taxpayer dollars and shows an appalling lack of planning and commitment to keeping long-time families and businesses living local and thriving in Renton.”

Others brought up the 2024 completion of a new $11.5 million science center at Renton High, which would be torn down during construction of the new school.

The next night, after Feldmeyer’s presentation, School Board President Stefanie McIrvin asked him several clarifying questions that alluded to public comments from the April 23 meeting.

Feldmeyer confirmed that FAA regulations were the reason why the school could not build on the land west of the current buildings due to the school’s proximity to the Renton Municipal Airport.

He also confirmed that the Memorial Stadium is used by other schools in and out of the district, which necessitates the acquisitions of the parcels of land north of the current site so that the school could have its own football field, baseball diamond and softball diamond. Feldmeyer said there were talks to make Liberty Park’s baseball fields applicable to the school’s teams, but that those fell through.

“No agreement could be made as to us being able to build regulation-sized baseball and softball fields in the location [of Liberty Park],” said Feldmeyer. McIrvin then commented that the space was “too constrained.”

McIrvin then asked if furniture and science equipment that was in the new science center would be re-purposed and moved to the new science building, which Feldmeyer confirmed. He added that the new center would still be in use in the 2028-2029 school year, which is “when the relocation will occur to the new high school.”

According to a December 2021 School Board presentation, equipment and furnishing costs for the new science building totaled $530,512.

Unanimous vote for eminent domain

Following Ploue-Smith’s comments, the board (minus Susan Talley, who was absent from the hearing) had a brief discussion, where Vice President Justin Booker, who attended Renton High in the 1990s, talked about what he saw as a need for expansion since he was in school.

“For me, it’s not about this one moment in time, it’s all those years since then that we’ve been thinking about this building. I remember playing in goose poop, you know what I’m saying. I remember when the plane landed on that field during practice and it’s for the folks that went to school with me, and that this project has a lot of value,” he said, adding that he sees the project as a boon for the community. “It’s about 30 years for something more beautiful for the children.”

Avanti Bergquist talked about the long process to find a a site for the school and that the board does not take the project lightly.

“I just know that I can’t make everything perfect for everybody,” she said.

After the board voted unanimously to authorize the utilization of eminent domain on Ploue-Smith, she spoke with the Reporter.

“I was honestly not expecting a different outcome,” she said. “We have been speaking here for months and the few people you see here have been attending these meetings on and off since last summer.”

Ploue-Smith, who is originally from France, said that the school district buying up the pieces of land and then taking hers has been stressful.

“I have elderly neighbors who have their house paid for, they’re retired and what they’re being offered actually forces them to completely leave this area, which is traumatic. We don’t want to make it just about ourselves. We support the district and enhancing the experience for the students,” said Ploue-Smith, whose two daughters graduated from Renton High in 2020 and 2022.

“But as you heard Director Booker, it’s more of a vanity project. ‘We want something beautiful?’ I mean, we are in a day and age where there are a lot of troubles like the economy, the world and people’s jobs. Recovery post-COVID has been difficult for many, and here we are. ‘We want beautiful fields,’” she said.

She added that she considers the offer for her home to be “insulting” and that no longer having her home or her garden is a “real loss.” Now that the district will move forward with filing with the Superior Court to condemn her home, Ploue-Smith said she is waiting to seek her own appraisal until HB1110, a bill that increases middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing, has been updated to reflect current market changes.

“The number that they gave me, sure, it looks on paper nice, but once I look at capital gains and then taxes, in the end I can’t stay in Renton or I have to compromise to move into a little house that will not be not what I want,” she said.