EDMONDS — Civic Field, which the city has leased from the Edmonds School District for nearly 40 years, will soon become a city park.
The city has reached an agreement with the school district to purchase the six-acre site near the Boys &Girls Club at 310 Sixth Ave N. for $1.9 million.
“We’re very excited for what this means to the citizens of this town — that it remains as public property for perpetuity,” said Renee McRae, the city’s assistant parks director.
The city plans to hold a series of meetings next year to allow the public to say how they’d like the land developed, she said.
McRae said she expects the public response to plans for Civic Field to be even larger than the participation this year in planning for upgrades to Marina Beach on the city’s waterfront.
“We think people will be excited about what they want to see there,” she said. “It will become a downtown signature park.”
The city has included plans for Civic Field to become a city park since the 1980s, Mayor Dave Earling said. “It’s been a long-term goal of the city, there’s no question about it,” he said. “To finally have the prospect of it coming into the ownership of the city is a great thing for the community.”
The city has had a 40-year lease with the school district to use the property. The school district’s lease charge has been $1 a year, but the city is responsible for maintenance of the property, Earling said.
The city will hire a consultant “to help us design whatever we come up with,” he said. “We want this to be open space,” he said. “It won’t be just a big space with a bunch of fields on it.”
The city received several grants to purchase the land, including $500,000 from the Washington State Recreation Conservation Office, $500,000 from the Snohomish Conservation Futures Program. The city has budgeted $400,000 for the project and has set aside an additional $100,000 for paying for costs such as its appraisal, an environmental assessment and a land survey. An additional $100,000 has been set aside for developing the master plan for Civic Field.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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