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For over 80 years South Tobin Street (shown above looking west) has provided an important east-west connection through downtown Renton, and important access to many local homes and businesses. The Renton School District is asking Renton Council to vacate this section of Tobin Street and two other streets so that the School can use them for internal circulation and play fields.
South Tobin Street currently runs east-west on this site plan just below the baseball diamonds, between the proposed “Staff Entrance” and (gated) “Event Exit.”
Renton City Council quietly stood on the sidelines this past year as Renton School District used eminent domain to take 40 homes and businesses in Renton’s South Tobin neighborhood. When distraught residents asked for help at Council meetings, Council members either sat silently or in rare instances claimed that there was nothing they could do, “since it was a school board action.”
Renton School District has been obliterating Renton’s South Tobin neighborhood, demolishing 32 homes and 8 businesses
But there was a lot that Council could have done, as residents informed them at the time, and as I described in a blog post here. The School Board was presumptuously repurposing three city streets in the northern part of the project that they don’t own and don’t have power to condemn: South Tobin Street, Shattuck Ave South, and South Tillicum Street. Council could have passed a resolution saying these century-old streets, which are part of Renton’s original road network, would not be available to become School District property. If Council had passed such a resolution, the new Renton High School could still be built, but its baseball diamonds would not be on top of the former South Tobin neighborhood, and people would still occupy the homes and businesses.
Now that the School District is applying for building permits, the District must get their formal city permission to add these streets to their newly expanded school property. To do so, the Council must hold a public hearing, and then finally formally weigh in on the topic. The Council can’t dismiss the issue any longer. The hearing is set for May 4th, 2026, 7:00 PM at Council Chambers, Renton City Hall.
The five-member Renton School Board has aggressively moved to tear down historic homes and businesses in what appears to be an effort to force the Council’s decision. Even though no school building permits have been issued, the District has largely made waste of the forty recently-occupied structures, tearing them down long before the District needs the land for construction. Lovely homes, manicured gardens, and popular businesses have all been leveled, as well as the future location of a community-focussed Chihuly glass studio and a highly-anticipated Asian restaurant in the freshly renovated building in which Red Robin’s founder learned the restaurant business. (The School District paid $6 million dollars for just this one restaurant property, which will become a corner of the outfield of a baseball diamond.)
Even with the neighborhood gone, the streets –particularly South Tobin Street– remain valuable to Renton’s residents. In a downtown that is already divided by a river, a railroad, a freeway, an airport and a lake, Renton does not need to close more streets.
There are only two streets that carry traffic from east to west in the northern 1.45 miles of downtown, and South Tobin Street is one of them. Tobin provides important redundancy to Airport Way during accidents, closures, and traffic jams, which have been frequent in recent years. South Tobin also gives motorists important access to local businesses without having to make difficult left turns on and off of arterials, or having to broadly circle their destination on one-way streets through downtown Renton.
The red “X” marks where the east-west running South Tobin Street is proposed for closure. This would leave only Airport Way for eastbound traffic within the northern 1.45 miles of downtown Renton.
The School District paid for a traffic study which essentially concludes that the loss of these streets is no big deal, but the study focuses on normal traffic conditions. It does not delve deeply enough into redundancy during accidents and closures (which is a Renton Comprehensive Plan requirement), or the safety and convenience of drivers who don’t want to make risky left turns from arterials (which is also a Comprehensive Plan requirement). Remember, it won’t be these traffic engineers sitting in traffic after an accident on Airport Way– it will be you.
Airport Way is fast and busy. As an arterial it is not very suitable for access to the local businesses that still exist on the west side of Renton High School. Tobin Street South provides a local backup now, but its western half is proposed to be closed by the District.
Airport Way has been partially or fully closed many times in the past few years, due to accidents and other emergencies. This October 7, 2023 closure was for a fire. As usual, Tobin Street was an important detour. Airport way and it’s intersections see about 15 accidents per year.
Accident data submitted by the School District engineers shows the high rate of accidents on Airport Way and its intersections. Tobin Street provides an alternate route during these accidents.
Renton High School has about 1259 students now, but the School District is sizing the school for 1600 students based on planning for a future population boom in this area. But traffic in this area is already bad with our current population density. It’s worrisome to consider 30-50% population growth with only one east-west connection between downtown and Lake Washington.
South Tobin Street carrying bumper-to-bumper detour traffic six weeks ago following an accident on Airport Way. (This photo courtesy of “Commuter,” who included it in a comment.)
No one, including a school district, has the right to close a street just because they acquired the land on both sides of it. In 1971 Paccar had acquired land on both sides of Houser Way North and convinced the city to vacate the street between the two parcels, converting the once public street to a private street that only served Paccar buildings and parking lots. Two decades later this street vacation led to so much traffic congestion in North Renton that we had to construct a multi-million dollar “Houser Way Bypass and Tunnel” in the 1990s to compensate for the missing public connection. If the Council votes to close Tobin, let’s hope that we don’t have to spend hundreds of millions installing a Tobin Street bypass tunnel 20 years from now.
Renton Council vacated a section of Houser Way North at the request of Paccar in 1971. Two decades later there was so much resulting congestion in North Renton that Renton had to construct the Houser Way Bypass, including an expensive tunnel under the I-405 offramp.
What does Renton’s Comprehensive Plan say?
Renton’s Comprehensive Plan Policy LU-57 says “provide complete streets arranged as an interconnecting network or grid. “Policy TR-9 says “increase and maintain the resiliency of the transportation system by incorporating redundancies and preparing for disasters and other impacts.” Policy TR-25 says “Design for and maintain connectivity throughout and within the street network by avoiding cul-de-sacs and dead end streets.” Policy TR-11 says “Limit direct access onto arterials when access opportunities via another route exist.” There is no policy suggesting these policies should be abandoned to build an additional baseball field.
The bottom line:
Since the Council Members took no action when they had many opportunities to avoid the loss of the South Tobin neighborhood, I suspect they’ve already made up their minds to hand over the streets– even before they hear from the public. I would encourage them to remain open-minded and listen to the testimony, and don’t automatically reward the behavior of tearing down houses before the project had full approval.
And if Council does agree to vacate the streets, they should insist on fair market value for the land. The School District boundaries are larger than the City boundaries (with about 35% more taxpayers) , so it would unfairly penalize Renton City taxpayers to bear all the burden. The School District wants Renton’s precious 80-year-old streets, and if granted the chance to get them they should pay fair market value for them.
May 4th Public Hearings details; from city website here
Based on my experience with the Renton Municipal Airport, vacating nearby these would create long term risk for the city. The airport operates under oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration, which sets safety and design standards that can change over time. If those standards tighten, the city could be required to extend the lengths of the airport runway.
The airport is physically constrained by Lake Washington, which prevents expansion in that direction. That means any future adjustments would push south including nearby streets such as Airport Way. Giving up public right of way now could remove options later if additional safety areas or runway protections are required.
For these reasons, it is not prudent to vacate streets that may be needed in the future. Maintaining control of these corridors preserves flexibility and reduces the risk of being forced into more disruptive changes later. A cautious approach protects both transportation access and the city’s ability to respond to potential federal requirements.
Yes, this is a very good point Ben. Since you served on Renton Airport Advisory Committee, you’ve seen the various alternatives that came from the last big FAA-sponsored Master Plan study for Renton airport. The FAA was committed to seeing Renton extend it’s runway due to the number of 737 jet operations.
Two of these alternatives eliminated Airport Way and put all the traffic on South Tobin Street. While we were able to defeat this proposal the last time due to reductions in Boeing production, the current increases in production and the new business jet centers on the airport will bring us right back to them soon. All it will take is 500 medium-large jet operations in a year and the FAA will begin pushing Renton to extend the airport.
The City had a document about it on their website, but I can no longer find it on the City’s page. I covered it in this blog post here.
Well, we have a Council Member married to a RSD Board member. There’s never been any doubt how the Council will vote. Especially when the mayor has said he’ll go along with whatever RSD wants. (worst mayor in Renton history). We the Community peons don’t stand a chance of the right thing being done. Our electeds sure forget about their campaign promises once in office.
I completely agree that the relationship between the city and the Renton School Board is unhealthy……
Let’s face it, the city has already made the decision to give over Tobin to the RSB. Hopefully they at least get market value for it.
We should “NEVER” allow ourselvs to be silenced. Go to the City Council Meeting, sign up to speak or deliver a letter that can be made public record. Let your voice be heard and when its time to vote……speak even louder with your ballot.
“We need to close more of our streets”… said no one in Renton, ever.
On Sunday evening, March 8, 2026 there was an accident on eastbound Airport way that blocked traffic. The eastbound cars had to turn right onto Shattuck, and left onto Tobin, turning left onto Login to get around the accident. This blockage was in place for at least two hours.
If Tobin is closed, where would these cars go? They wouldn’t be able to get through and would have been stuck sitting out the accident.
Tobin is a needed through street that needs to remain as a public through street.
The school district has said they can design around Tobin being open as a public street. So let them do that. To inconvenience thousands of commuters if they don’t have to is ridiculous. And this was a Sunday evening. Imagine the mess if it was a weekday and they didn’t have Tobin as a through street.
Thanks Commuter for your comment and your photos. I’ve had to drive on South Tobin Street to detour around accidents/closures on Airport Way multiple times in the past, but I never thought to take photos at the time. When you look at these photos, it’s hard to imagine what will happen in future accidents on Airport Way if South Tobin is closed. We can expect to regularly see the type of congestion (or maybe worse congestion) than that which led Renton to pay millions for the the Houser Way Bypass after Houser Way was vacated.
The School District traffic engineering study showed accidents on Airport Way happening about once per month on average over the past five years. But looking at police report data, it looks like these accidents have been much more common recently, and some accidents are never formally reported.
There are three police reports of accidents on Airport Way this past March, and two in April (when we’re only part way through the month.) South Tobin is a critical alternate route after these accidents. If South Tobin is closed, these will be opportunities for significantly more severe traffic jams than we have today.
I don’t remember anyone running for elected office in Renton on a platform of closing roads and worsening traffic congestion.
I hope to see “Commuter” at the City Council Meeting on May 4th to present the information posted here. If you don’t care to speak you can still present the documentation to be added to public records. Photos are still worth a thousand words. Thnx
FYI before tonight’s RSD Board Meeting, our school board is scheduled to meet with the City Council and Mayor in Council Chambers. Per Open Government law, this is open to the public. It’s labeled as a meet-and-greet.
Are they circling the wagons in preparation for the May 4th meeting to turn over Tobin to the school district??
Thanks. Not surprising, this ‘public’ event was not openly advertised to ‘the public.’
The City of Renton loads NextDoor & Facebook up with their congratulatory propaganda, but fails to publish this meeting notice.
More like a family/class reunion to distribute the kick-backs from the Renton HS back-door deals.
Renton Council and Renton School Board have held meet and greets in the past (perhaps once every couple years), but I agree it seems questionable to time the meet and greet for the brief period following submittal of a controversial street vacation request by the School Board, and before the City Council makes a decision on the street vacation package. Getting the Council together for cookies with the applicant is not the way the City Council usually approaches street vacation requests.
I also agree the meet-and-greet meeting should have been advertised much more widely, with public attendance greatly encouraged, to reduce concerns that the Board is having improper discussions with the Council about the upcoming hearing. I see notices from the City through email, Facebook, Nextdoor, Instagram, and X, and I didn’t see anything about this.
Shouldn’t it have been announced at the previous Council meetings for translated in open government?
And I didnt see the council object to the meet and greet the way they punted the Logan 6 appeal. Seems opportunistic by some of the more tenured Council members for selective service.
What’s up with the lot across the street from Sartoti (to the south).
Didn’t the school district buy that at a discount for parking for Sartori?
So they changed from a walkable elementary school for north Renron students to a choice school with no real parking??
Do ou know about that?
Like you Anonymous, I thought the School District was going to use this property you mention near Sartori Elementary on Park Avenue (three adjoining tax parcels) for parking. But I also recently noticed the for sale sign. After checking the King County Parcel viewer, it appears the School District actually sold these three parcels to an investment company in January 2024 for $750,000 total, after having paid $825,000 to purchase them in 2018.
The School District appears to have paid to remove two homes and two garages during this time. I’m surprised to only be finding out about this now… the “surplus” land sale did not seem to have been widely advertised. And I agree the parking would have been useful.
(I don’t remember if the threat of eminent domain was involved when the property was purchased by the District–although I have not checked the records on whether an eminent domain resolution was passed; if the threat of eminent domain was not used, the district has more options when selling it, but there are still rules they must follow when disposing of surplus property)
You can find more information on the King County Parcel Viewer here.
The property was sold at a discount to the school district by the previous developer who couldn’t build what they planned. The district justified the purchase by saying it would be for parking.
If the district paid more for a property that was discounted for a tax break for the developer then occurred expenses in demo of the houses, and then sold it for less than they bought it for originally (especially with HB1110 being a thing in 2024), it seems there could be accusations of mismanagement of assets or taxpayer monies.
What has the school district reported on this?
Is there any information available for the property the school district purchased and plans to use as a warehouse? (The old McLendon’s by Merrill Gardens.) Seems like a bad location for trucks moving around daily to deliver food to schools.
These property transactions appear to be more speculation than investment, with significant cost borne by the community RSB is meant to serve.
The old McLendon’s was taken by the Renton School District using eminent domain. Per property records, they paid $7.9 million. To put a warehouse in the downtown. A warehouse should have been located south of I-405 where there are few pedestrians, not in the historic downtown.
Too bad the elected officials washed their hands of the matter.
And the building was going to be developed to be a Children’s Museum. But why would we want to develop a family friendly downtown when we can plow down homes and museums and put in ball-fields and delivery trucks.
No Childrens Museum. No Glass Studio. What else have we missed out on? Just once I wish I could say “Good job” but today is not the day!
They destroyed a lot of family homes and quite a bit of low-income housing right in downtown and sent the middle class the bill.
Around 1pm today there was an accident at 3rd & Logan – by the stadium. Traffic backed up on Airport Way. People using Tobin to get around. It is so important to keep that street available.
You’re all getting what you voted for. Enjoy.
Sadly, I’m gettting what other people voted for
They’ll keep voting for this nonsense. Sadly, once the consequences pile up and they have to move out of here, they’ll keep voting the same way. A bunch of locusts.
Leadership in the Renton Chamber of Commerce should reflect accountability, not silence when harm is done.
To that, Diane Dobson has never meaningfully addressed concerns that many in the community raised about defending and amplifying Racist Robbin’s hurtful remarks toward the Asian community, and that failure matters. Solidarity means standing against racism, xenophobia, and exclusion wherever they appear. When leaders minimize harm to one marginalized community, we notice, because our struggles are tied together. It is time for the Chamber to choose leadership grounded in repair, inclusion, and trust.
What are you going on about? What does this have to do with anything?
There is a strong chance you are speaking from the perspective of a white cis male, and may be overlooking how deeply Renton’s history is shaped by racial exclusion and white power structures.
If Renton is serious about a better future, it must confront and root out racism wherever it persists, and that work must begin with leadership at the top.
https://southseattleemerald.org/voices/2021/03/16/opinion-racism-runs-rampant-in-renton
Still have your Mom of the Year award?
It is racist to frame white men a certain way like it would be for anyone. Each individual is their own and should be respected as who or whatever they want to be. So to throw out sis white male makes you no better than those you strive to change, but you don’t realize it. You don’t get a pass with anyone to say racist things, noone does. Can we stop countering racism with racism?
We’re going to defund the Renton police, and we just need one more council member to get it done. We’ll turn the crank this next election and you’ll be out in the cold. Cope and seethe.
Something went sideways here.
The topic of Tobin St being given away by the city will be part of a hearing on May 4th at the city council meeting.
Sadly, racism and eminent domain have a strong correlation in our nation. It is a government power that should only be used rarely, fairly, and when absolutely necessary. This project took 40 homes and businesses, many of them from people of color and first-generation immigrants. Many of those affected feel they were not adequately compensated for their losses. And most of the homes were taken to replace two baseball fields with new lighted ones. This was a School District project, aided by a complicit City Council. I understand the Chamber CEO was encouraging the School District to use property that would not have required eminent domain takings, on the west side of the school, which was advertised for sale and/or not occupied.
Why ascribe to racism that which could easily be incompetency and callousness?
multiple things can be true at the same time
Both the State House and State Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed the Houston Eminent Domain Fairness Act last year after Renton resident John Houston testified about the Renton School District taking his family’s Renton farm by threat of eminent domain in the 1970’s, and never using it for a school. Mr. Houston has shared that racism played a role in this tragedy from his youth, giving many press interviews on the topic and even writing a book covering this experience. This would have been a solid reason in itself for Renton School District to reconsider taking these thirty-two homesteads and eight small businesses in 2025, of which the majority appear to have been owned by people of color and/or first generation immigrants.
I know some on the board, and while I wouldn’t trust some of them to run a lemonade stand, I really think accusations of willful racism without evidence is pushing it.
Impact > intent
always
Whenever a government chooses to take land by eminent domain from an economically disadvantaged neighborhood, they need to ask themselves whether they are disproportionately and unfairly impacting people that have been historically marginalized.
When the school district promoted the bond issue for the new Renton High, they said they were looking at ten or so sites for a new high school, to get out from under the airport and to avoid doing further construction on sensitive ancestral lands surrounding the former Black River. After the election, the School Board said these sites were unavailable and/or unsuitably small, so they would instead use eminent domain on forty pieces of property next to Renton High. But if they were willing to use eminent domain on forty properties, it seems like they could have amassed enough property for a high school in their preferred location. Using eminent domain on the former Wizards of the Coast building and some surrounding office properties, (which they showed in one of their pre-election graphics as a preferred concept) would not have raised difficult fairness questions. It also would have left the Historic Renton High intact to replace Dimmitt Middle School, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Oddly enough, they kept the current site because putting predominantly black kids in a warehouse/business zone was viewed by some as ‘racist’.
As a reminder, here is a page from a School District presentation prepared before the bond election, that set the $441 million dollar budget. These buildings are the former Wizards of the Coast location on Lind Avenue.
Correct. But some people got worried that the WOTC site would have a McDonald’s and Safeway for the students to rob during lunchtime.
Amusing that the RSD shill lost their home to the RSD. Supported every bond measure to the hilt.
There are so many areas south of 405 that would have been much better options. Not only is there more open space available, the other benefits are numerous.
• a completely new campus, with room for a pool to be built nearby in the future
• it would have preserved critically needed affordable single family homes in the downtown core near transit
• the food distribution warehouse for the school should also have been located south of 405 near the freeway access and not in a pedestrian heavy zone
• the old McLendons could have been used for the Children’s museum, bringing families to downtown
• the Glass studio would have been built, bringing people from other cities to downtown Renton
• the old highschool could have been marketed to McMenamins to be a tourist destination (https://www.mcmenamins.com/anderson-school)
• Renton School district could then give back to the Duwamish people the land the took from them, a real act of recognition instead of the lip service they open the board meetings with
I could go on, but the leadership for the school district and the city is short sighted with a dictatorship style and a lot of nepotism. They are not open to listening to the people they are supposed to represent and serve.
And now we have a multimillion dollar fiasco of a downtown.
>> Renton School district could then give back to the Duwamish people the land the took from them, a real act of recognition instead of the lip service they open the board meetings with
That would be illegal. Can’t give public stuff to individuals based on race.
Another lawsuit that we the taxpayers will have to pay for.