EVERETT — Clark Park’s century-old gazebo will be disassembled and put into storage to make way for a new off-leash dog park, the Everett City Council decided Wednesday.
The unanimous vote Wednesday seals the gazebo’s fate after months of debate on how to move forward with the north Everett park, known for an “unacceptable level of crime and park rule violations that often occur in, around, or related to the gazebo structure,” according to an April letter from City Attorney David Hall to the Everett Historical Commission.
The ordinance passed Wednesday night doesn’t include a plan to refurbish and relocate the gazebo once it is stowed away.
Construction in the park will cost $350,000. The nearly 30,000-square-foot off-leash dog park will be fenced off from the rest of the Clark Park, taking up about one-third of the grassy area. With the gazebo in the center of the park, it must be moved to build the dog park.
The gazebo had “fallen into disrepair,” council member Mary Fosse said. Sitting in a shaded area, the gazebo is primarily used by unhoused people, because the city doesn’t provide enough shelter elsewhere, she said.
The gazebo has “become a bathroom,” Fosse said, and it’s “not respected where it is.”
The Bayside Neighborhood Association supported the plan and urged the gazebo’s removal.
Clark Park should change to fit the times Everett is living in, said Jane McClure, a former president of the neighborhood association, addressing the council.
“We need to stop our neighborhood park’s decline, a decline we might not be able to bring it back from,” McClure said.
She said removing the gazebo would give Clark Park a fresh start.
“This vote will transform the park for Everett residents and future generations,” Bayside resident Lisa Phillips told the council.
Other public commenters still gripped onto the potential of keeping the gazebo around.
“Why can’t the gazebo coexist with the dog park?” Theresa Gemmer asked the council.
Gemmer compared the situation to Henry M. Jackson Park. Neighbors of Jackson Park often come to the council to bemoan crime in the neighborhood. Just like the Clark Park plan, Jackson Park has a dog park and no gazebo, Gemmer noted.
Before the council’s vote, council member Paula Rhyne tried to delay action, sending the plan back to the Historical Commission for its approval.
In April, the Historical Commission decided to “indefinitely suspend” a decision on OK’ing the city’s plan to move the gazebo.
The gazebo is not on the city’s historical registry, but Clark Park is, making any changes to the gazebo an “alteration” of the site and not a demolition, according to Hall. Demolition would have required different procedure.
Advocates for the gazebo disagreed, saying Clark Park’s admittance to the historical registry protects the gazebo.
The City Council went forward with a vote anyway after the commission’s postponed decision. Since the Historical Commission is an advisory body, the council didn’t need its approval to take action on the park.
Still, Rhyne said she felt the city should have waited for direction from the Historical Commission, even if it didn’t have an effect on the final vote.
“The outcome might be the same, but at least it was done right and it didn’t circumvent procedure … and it also does not set a bad precedent,” she said.
A vote to send the project back to the Historical Commission failed 3-4 on Wednesday, with Rhyne, Fosse and council member Liz Vogeli voting in favor.
As the off-leash dog park is constructed, other park improvements will also be in the works, like updated lighting.
Jenelle Baumbach: 360-352-8623; jenelle.baumbach@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jenelleclar.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
