Green River Community College’s Trades programs are where they always have been, on the right as you enter the campus from the east, housed in buildings that date to the school’s first days.

College officials say those 44-year-old buildings have exceeded their life spans, can’t meet current safety requirements, can’t support the instructional programs.

Last week Lea Hill residents met with architects and college staff at Family of Grace Lutheran Church to learn about and comment on subjects ranging from traffic issues to site design and noise as they relate to a future Trades complex on the site of Auburn’s present Lea Hill Park at South 320th Street and 124th Avenue.

“We badly need to replace this old Trade facility built in 1966 with a new state-of-the-art facility that will help serve our students and send them out into the world with training for good, living-wage jobs,” said Sam Ball, dean of instruction and capital projects.

Because of state budget cuts, Ball said, construction now has been delayed two years, from the original 2011 to 2013.

Per agreement, the City will give GRCC Lea Hill Park, which city officials say is no longer adequate to meet the needs of the community. In exchange, the City will get a 7.15-acre GRCC-owned site comprised of three parcels known collectively as the Martin property on 124th Avenue between Lea Hill Park and 316th Street, just north of the current park. On this site, GRCC will build a new community park.

Before any plans are finalized, however, GRCC and the City needed to hear from residents.

Jerry Osborn, principal architect of Seattle-based S.M. Stemper Architects, conceded that the project does pose some challenges.

“If you come to the college, 320th is one of the major arterials, and along the arterial the first thing you are going to see as you come to the college is the Trades center. It’s the same for 124th,” he said. “This is going to act as the front door to the college, and everyone wants their front door to be as bang-up as it can possibly be.”

Sara Wilder, lead architect of S.M. Stemper Architects, said the one-story buildings will be designed so as much of them as possible face Southeast 320th. She added that the noisiest areas will be built as far away from the neighbors as possible, with most of them in the center of the site. The design incorporates generous landscaping and screening with sound walls and berms to contain the noise.

The instructional programs in the Trades Division are auto body, automotive, carpentry, manufacturing and welding. Each of these programs is designed to prepare students – many of them laid-off workers seeking retraining – for immediate employment.

Rebecca Rhodes – GRCC assistant dean for professional technologies, noted that the noise varies between each of these programs, and that the college will bring in a sound engineer to take noise readings during the programs. It will use that information during design and construction to dampen the noise as much as possible.

Asked why the college chose the Lea Hill Park site, Ball said that the college had considered other locales, including a large lot next to the Administration building, but rejected that one because the college would lose 235 parking stalls and would have to add parking for the new facility. The college also rejected the south end of campus, which would have called for the chopping down of six acres of trees.

College officials say with the space freed up, the college can reconfigure the east entrance to the campus.

One resident said she appreciated much of what she’d heard, but she was worried about traffic.

“Traffic is pretty bad, not always, but at times it can be quite hellacious,” the woman said. “You’re dealing not only with elementary, junior high and high school kids but with kids going in and out from Green River. I’ve dealt with people trying to park in our neighborhood, despite the signs.”

“All of those cars will line up to come out from the Trades center to make a left turn onto 124th to get over to Highway 18,” added another woman. “I have a hard time making a left now from 116th. I have no idea how all those cars will get out.”

Ball noted that work will begin on 124th Street in mid-June and construction should be done before school starts in September. Along with new curbs, sidewalk, gutters, landscaping and trees, the design calls for a center left-turn lane and, coming south, a right-turn lane into the future trades facility.

The City will host meetings later this spring to discuss future plans for the new park, which will be under joint GRCC and Auburn ownership.