EDMONDS — The future of Civic Park, an eight-acre green space near the city’s downtown core, is scheduled to be discussed at an open house Wednesday.
The property has been used as a park since 1975. But little has changed over the years because the land was the site of the former Edmonds High School, owned by the Edmonds School District.
“It has been operating as a park but the city hasn’t put dollars into it because we didn’t own it,” said Carrie Hite, the city’s director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services.
Now the city has the opportunity to create a signature downtown park at the site, she said.
Wednesday’s event, scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Plaza Room at the Edmonds Library, is the third and final open house on the park’s future development.
Public comments, from both previous meetings and online comments, will help shape the proposal for the park’s plan that ultimately will go to the city’s planning board and City Council, Hite said.
To date, people have asked for the park to include a playground, skate park, tennis and basketball courts, petanque court, and multi-use sport fields, she said. They’ve also requested keeping a perimeter walkway around the field, where they can exercise and keep track of their mileage, Hite said.
There is a proposal for a garden grove and plaza along 6th Avenue.
A rough estimate for developing the park is about $1 million an acre, Hite said, so the proposed plans, including a skate board park would likely cost about $8 million.
The city will look for grants and private donations over the next three to five years to help pay for the improvements. A design consultant will be asked to develop a plan for how the improvements could be phased in, Hite said.
It’s a rare opportunity for Edmonds, which has seen so much growth over the past decades, to have an eight-acre park so close to the downtown shopping area, she said.
“It’s really unheard of,” Hite said. “All over the Puget Sound region things are built out.”
The city was able to pay for the land through a $1 million grant from the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office, $500,000 from Snohomish County Conservation Futures program, and with a $450,000 contribution from the city.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
The third and final open house to see plans for the development of Civic Park is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Edmonds Plaza Room above the Edmonds Library, 650 Main St. People can also participate in the park’s master plan through an online open house that will be posted Oct. 20 through Nov. 4, at EdmondsCivicField.participate.online. Call 425-771-0230 for information.
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