The Federal Way City Council voted to approve a $400,000 stormwater outreach project and educational center at Town Square Park at a council meeting on Tuesday night.

“First of all, Town Square Park will be a great asset to our city,” said Councilman Bob Celski at the meeting. “I mean, it’s going to be part of the city center and the whole buzz around the city … expanding from there, but I like the idea of making this park alive, a robust park, one that’s really multi-purpose.”

The Town Square Park Stormwater Low Impact Development Outreach Project will include an educational center that will deliver stormwater education and outreach to schools, summer programs, special interest groups and the public.

Federal Way Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Danielle Pfeiffer said the stormwater project could benefit students as they learn next generation science standards.

“A shift in the next generation of science standards and an increased emphasis of engineering across all branches of science, students have to analyze real world problems, identify criteria and constraints and evaluate trade-offs as they plan and optimize solutions for problems,” Pfeiffer told the council in public comment.

Because the park is located at the headwaters of Hylebos Creek, the city’s prime salmon bearing stream, there’s opportunities to expand Federal Way Public Schools’ Storming the Sound with Salmon program. The program allows students from 26 schools to release salmon into the creek and learn about the importance of the environment.

As a new unit of Storming the Sound with Salmon program, sixth graders will be asked to design a rain garden for their school campus.

The Town Square Park project will include its own rain garden, vegetated roofs, permeable pavers, rainwater harvesting and native plants.

Although there’s been a great emphasis on keeping the cost of Town Square Park’s redesign to no more than $1.5 million, the funding for the project will come from a separate budget, which was allocated years ago.

“While the cost of the combined projects will be higher than the Town Square Park project alone, many elements of the stormwater management project will greatly enhance the Town Square Park project without increasing costs to the park division and in some cases helping to reduce costs,” Public Works Director Marwan Salloum said. “The stormwater management utility benefits greatly by having access to a high visibility property/project, at no cost to the utility, to construct/integrate a stormwater education and outreach facility.”

The funding will come from Surface Water Utility user fees, which are annually assessed on all property owners in Federal Way, according to Salloum.

“The capital improvement program consists of a list of approved surface water-related projects to be constructed over the next eight years by the surface water utility,” Salloum said. “Funding that is not fully expended by past projects can be made available for new projects or projects that are underfunded, with council approval. In this case, unexpended funds within a past capital project are available to be utilized for the proposed project.”

Consulting and design of the project will cost $50,000, while construction is estimated to be $350,000. Operation and maintenance will be about $5,000 a year, starting in 2016.

Although surface water education and outreach were not initially part of Town Square Park’s final design, the idea came after the first stages of construction and will not impact the construction schedule, which estimates the park will re-open in summer 2016.

Constructing the project at the park will allow the city to avoid demolition of an existing structure and incorporate it at a site that’s already under construction.

“Without the need for a retrofit, the project cost would be reduced,” Salloum said. “There would be fewer limitations on installation and no disruption to existing users.”

The vision educational center will have multiple uses — education and water quality treatment.

As water is treated, it will go back into the groundwater and eventually back into Hylebos Creek.

“These programs are essential for influencing human behavior patterns, which has been established as the best management practice for permanent improvement in local water bodies,” Salloum said. “Education of K-12 students on stormwater runoff, water quality and habitat restoration has multiple benefits, two of which are influencing their adult choices and indirect education of their parents on the importance of where the city’s drainage system meets the natural environment.”