SEATTLE — Seattle Public Schools is planning to install gates at the parking lot of West Seattle High School due to noise complaints.
Neighbors who live near the school said the noise comes from drivers doing donuts on the parking lot, which has visible tire marks imprinted on it.
"It gets annoying," said nearby resident Joe Cortes.
Cortes lives across the street from the high school parking lot and said his unit is within earshot of the noise that happens, usually at night.
"I'm a night owl so luckily I'm always awake for it but it gets annoying when you're trying to watch TV and you gotta turn up the volume," Cortes said.
Cortes said he hasn't filed a noise complaint with the city, but plenty of others have.
A check on dispatch records on the Seattle Police Department website shows that so far this year, 180 people have made disturbance complaints out of West Seattle's North Admiral neighborhood, where the high school is located. Disturbance calls include fight and noise complaints, but did not specify if the complaints involved issues specific to the high school parking lot.
Seattle Public Schools is planning to install two gates at the parking lot to address the noise complaints. They include gates at the north and south ends. The gate on the north end needs to be reviewed by the City of Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board because that portion of the campus has landmark status, according to district spokesperson Tina Christiansen.
The preservation board's Architectural Review Committee held a discussion over the matter on Friday and expressed positive feedback on the plan, according to Susie Philipsen, spokesperson for the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. The full board will review the gate plans in about a month from now.
Cortes, meanwhile, hopes to see a solution soon.
"What if the time comes where you hear an accident?" Cortes said.