Oak Harbor Elementary School recently had a competition to name a new park on Gun Club Road — with nominees such as Hot Wheels Park, Slippery Squirrel Park and Whidbey Wonderland — but what they are naming exactly has yet to be determined.

The city’s current plans to build trails on the 75-acre park on the north end of the city fall far short of the original grand concept of a regional park that would attract sports teams from far and wide.

The city bought the property, first dubbing it the Harbor Heights Sports Complex, for just over $1.1 million in January 2020 with dreams of six soccer fields, two multi-purpose fields, four little league fields, four softball fields, one baseball field, a restroom-concession building, trails, a biking area and multiple parking lots. Over four years later, it hasn’t been touched.

The first phase of the original project included several sports fields, a perimeter trail and parking stalls. When the price tag came out to around $5 million, beyond $3 million more than what the city had budgeted for, the project more or less went on hiatus.

The road alone cost more than what they had budgeted for the soccer fields, said Councilmember Bryan Stucky. Where to place the entrance road was also a bone of contention as some residents didn’t want traffic going through their neighborhood.

The stalemate doesn’t surprise Councilmember Jim Woessner. It would take a lot of work to shape the land to the city’s needs.

“I never envisioned a soccer field there,” he said. “If you’re going to buy land for a soccer field, buy land suitable for a soccer field.”

The problem is that the land isn’t flat, which is a basic requirement for ballfields, and engineers determined that the cost of moving large amounts of dirt would be prohibitive.

Woessner supported the purchase originally because of its size and location, he said. Seventy-five acres within city limits is rare, and it isn’t zoned for housing, so it was more affordable.

“When we have these opportunities, we have to seize those moments,” he said.

Preserving land within city limits seemed like a good idea, he said. Soccer fields were the “subject of the day,” and ended up being shoehorned into the plan.

The area is not ideal, he admitted. It’s out of the way, essentially on the city’s border. The argument at the time was that people would come from all over, not just Oak Harbor.

But there’s more. The park land sits on the worst zone of the Department of Defense’s county jet noise map, at 65-70 decibels. Further, it’s adjacent to the North Whidbey Sportmen’s Association shooting range.

Trees and buffers may block some of the noise from the “shots going off right in the middle of a pitch,” Woessner said.

Ultimately, the purchase was still worthwhile, he argued. A private business could have put a warehouse on the land, and the opportunity would be gone. Not just there, but for most of the whole city.

“There’d be nothing else out there,” he said. “Look at the map.”

Part of Island County’s comprehensive plan update, required under the Growth Management Act, mandates Oak Harbor to prepare for 5,533 housing units in the next 20 years. According to Woessner, this kind of park land should be a major factor in the equation.

“It’s a math issue that can be resolved, right? How then do we find out how much open space we need for parks?” he asked.

To plan for more housing, the city must also plan on the quality of life for those homes, Woessner said.

His personal vision for the park is a bit more affordable than the original one: trails, disc golf and possibly BMX tracks.

Stucky said, “The thought process is we have it, we own it, so what are we going to do with it?”

According to oakharbor.gov, plans for the new park will be completed before summer, and trails and disc golf baskets will be installed this fall.