King County recently awarded the City of Auburn a $60,000 Youth Sports Facilities grant to help build a Freegame Court at Lea Hill Park, now under construction at the the corner of 124th and 316th streets southeast, north of Green River Community College.

Daryl Faber, director of Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation, said this week that the game area, composed of synthetic turf enclosed by a wall system made of HD polyethylene plates attached to a galvanized steel structure, will be about as big as a volleyball court, making it ideal for, say, 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 soccer matches.

But the court can be easily transformed from a soccer field to a basketball or volleyball court. It can accommodate games like football, field hockey, tennis, badminton, pickleball, or capture the flag, to name only a few of the possibilities.

“It will be extremely popular up there in that community, where there’s a lot of college students and neighborhood kids. It’s very popular in Europe and in California,” Faber said.

The City of Auburn applied for the grant in 2012. Its portion of the near five-to-one match is $12,500.

“It goes a long way in the completion,” Faber said of the grant.

The City’s partner in the project is GRCC, which has agreed to help with the installation.

Freegame’s manufacturer, KOMPAN, describes the court on its Webpage as, “an opportunity for children, adolescents, and adults to be physically active in multiple ways. Freegame provides easy access for everyone, including children and adults with mobility impairments.”

The City of Auburn acquired the 7-acre Lea Hill Park as part of a land swap with GRCC. It will offer a skate spot, a wooden picnic shelter structure reminiscent of a barn, an amphitheater, a basketball court and small-scale soccer and multipurpose fields. The old park on Southeast 320th will become GRCC’s new Trades Center building.