EVERETT — A half-mile-long strip of forested land next to the Interurban Trail could soon be a new park near a densely populated neighborhood near Everett Mall.
The Everett City Council agreed this week to spend about $1 million for 15 acres of forests, trails and wetlands west of I-5 between Bruskrud Road and 112th Street SE.
Parks officials envision having 11/2 miles of dirt trails with interpretive signs, a possible parking lot and a picnic shelter on the northern edge of the property.
The new park could eventually link up with a proposed Silver Lake trail loop, which would include an elevated boardwalk over the parts of the water.
“That would be awesome,” said George James, a maintenance worker at Brierwood Manor Apartments, a sprawling affordable-housing complex north of the proposed park. “There’s a lot of kids out here. And a lot of them play in the streets.”
Children after school earlier this week rode bikes and scooters and walked dogs around the apartment’s patchwork of parking lots, dodging cars and school buses.
“They’ll make good use of a park,” said Tim Protzeller, James’ co-worker.
Paul Kaftanski, Everett’s parks director, said the opportunity to buy the land arose in mid-2007.
After the land is purchased for $995,000 from the Bothell real estate partnership of Jack Cropley, Roger and Janet Stegall and Harry and Anna Wiles, the parks board will work with residents to develop a master plan to determine priorities and how the park should be developed, Kaftanski said.
Work could include extending roads and trails that now dead-end west of the property.
The property is in south Everett where there aren’t enough parks and open space, Kaftanski said.
Everett’s 10-year parks and recreation plan, approved by the City Council last February, calls on the mayor, parks director and planning staff to lead an effort to expand parks, open space and trails — particularly in underserved areas of the city.
Earlier this month, the council voted to pay $720,000, plus closing costs, for a small house on a double-sized lot in order to expand Edgewater Park in southwest Everett near Mukilteo.
Citywide, the parks study calls for adding three miles of new walking and biking trails every year for the next decade.
The study confirmed an imbalance in parks and recreation facilities in the south end of Everett, as neighborhood activists have stated for years.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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