To get an idea of the scope and size of Vashon Allied Arts’ proposed arts and performing complex at historic Center, imagine a building taller than Island Lumber and almost as long as a football field pushed right up against the road with an asphalt parking lot larger than Island Lumber’s.

All of this on a parcel located on one of the last remaining historic intersections in King County. Is this the best that VAA has to offer?

I am a huge proponent of a new arts and performance center on Vashon. As a director, actor, playwright and musician, I have performed in most of the Island’s venues and would love to have a center that was designed for the arts. I have nothing but praise and admiration for the job that VAA has done and how much it has grown since I arrived here almost two decades ago. And, contrary to some who have weighed in on this issue, I am not averse to change. Change is crucial; if we didn’t change, we’d still be living in caves.

But I am against constructing a building that is out of scale with its environment — one that requires 170 parking spaces, according to King County, or, according to my research, up to one-and-a-half acres of impermeable asphalt. This, on a parcel that borders wetlands and a watershed. Islanders have spent countless hours and thousands of dollars rebuilding precious salmon habitat. Do we really want to pave our paradise to put in a parking lot?

I wish I were amused by the language dance that the architects and project managers have used to justify the building of this massive complex on an inappropriate site.

In their state environmental review checklist, they claim that by incorporating discrete design elements from the surrounding structures this massive complex will blend-in with the surrounding environment. They isolate a “one-story flat roof” at the entrance, “a low, one-story shed roof” at the southern portion of the building and a “gable roof form” over the theater portion of the building to justify a building that is almost twice the height of neighboring ones. They are putting lipstick on a pig to try to convince us that their design fits into its surroundings. It doesn’t. Imagine stacking the Roasterie on top of McFeeds. That is the height they are proposing.

While addressing building height concerns, project manager Kirk Robinson downplayed the height of the building. As designed, the building is 45 to 47 feet above finished grade — the height of a four-story building. Mr. Robinson told The Beachcomber that “the building is set back far enough from the road to give it several additional feet in height” (“County raises questions about VAA’s proposed performance hall,” June 13).

Ignoring the fact that 10 to 12 feet is not “several feet,” VAA had to receive a variance from the county to dismiss a requirement that the building be situated 30 feet from the road. That variance was required because of the challenge VAA faces with shoe-horning a complex covering more than two acres on a two-acre building site. To my knowledge, at its proposed height, the building will be the tallest on the Island with the exception of a few church steeples.

And the 260-foot frontage on Vashon Highway is hard to comprehend. It will extend from the center of the current Blue Heron parking lot, along the cedar fence of the adjacent property, to the corner of McFeeds. To put it in perspective, imagine if Vashon Theatre extended from Vashon Highway, through Chase Bank to the corner of 100th Ave. SW. Make no mistake about it. This is a massive building, and it is out of place in its proposed location.

I don’t believe that if this design or this location fails it will be the final opportunity for a new arts/performance center on Vashon. There are other options available, from relocation to redesign. This whole process reminds me of the adage that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. VAA is trying to shoe-horn an out-of-scale building on property it has already purchased with little regard for how it will affect the community as a whole.

I say, “Bravo!” to a new arts center. Just not this particular design on this particular property.

— Chris Ott, a longtime Islander, most recently played Sherlock in Drama Dock’s “Sherlock’s Veiled Secret.”