Following deliberations that lasted the better part of three hours, the Issaquah City Council on Monday signed off on the master site plan for a new Issaquah Middle School.

Though the resolution and its materials weighed in at more than 230 pages, during the quasi-judicial process councilors found themselves fixated on only a handful of issues: traffic mitigation for construction and the potential for noise pollution from the nearby gun range operated by the Issaquah Sportsmen’s Club.

“I note in the … materials that were given to us that it says the Issaquah Sportsmen’s Club gunfire noise can often be heard during school hours, but the classroom wing is buffered from the noise by the band room commons wing,” Councilor Tola Marts said, leading into a question about Environmental Protection Agency noise pollution standards. “It’s my understanding that the range uses up to .338 lapua magnum rounds, which pack quite the wallop in terms of noise. These are rounds that can take things out from more than a kilometer away.”

City Senior Planner Amy Tarce noted that the gun range could be heard to varying degrees throughout Issaquah’s Olde Town district. She said noise mitigation with gun ranges is challenging due to the requirements for proper ventilation to deal with lead and other gaseous discharge from firearms.The school’s application passed unanimously with an amendment requiring the applicant to take care of noise and indoor ventilation requirements in constructing the campus.

The new Issaquah Middle School is planned to reach three stories in some areas of construction, add more than 131,000 square feet of space and is designed to accommodate about 1,100 students.