One thing was certain at the end of the June 28 public meeting at Faith Community Church about park development at the Old Woodway Elementary School site: Nearby residents are far from united on what they want in a neighborhood park.
About 40 people attended the second public meeting hosted by the city of Edmonds, which purchased the approximately 5-1/2-acre parcel last year from the Edmonds School District. The purpose of the meeting was to view three conceptual park plans created by MacLeod Reckord Landscape Architects and presented by principal Ed MacLeod.The three concepts reflected public input from the initial community meeting and the city’s parks staff, according to Brian McIntosh, parks and recreation director. Ideas collected from the June 28 meeting will be added to the mix and a refined design created and taken to the Planning Board which also serves as Edmonds’ Parks Board, for review, he said.
But he assured those gathered that the public will have at least two more opportunities for comment as the plan travels through the planning board and city council.
“We would like to get the contractor out there later this year. We really want to plant grass early in the spring (of 2008),” McIntosh said.
The audience was split between a park with informal play areas plus lots of open space and one with structured playfields and amenities such as a restroom and up to 16 parking spaces. What there was consensus on was the need to protect significant trees, such as a cherry tree with sentimental value to the neighborhood, and the ability to walk in the forested “panhandle” buffer to the north.
Some neighbors were adamant that open space for dog-walking be a priority (eight city parks currently allow dogs); others pleaded for ballfields with dirt infields to accommodate the demand for practice and game fields by organized sports teams.
Most wanted the park primarily to be a neighborhood one; a few saw it as a “destination park” with amenities such as picnic sites and large play toys for young children.
“Less is more,” suggested neighbor Heather Marks, who is an outspoken critic of the proposed 27-lot planned residential development going in next to the future park. “People love it. It has no amenities,” she said of the present open space on which neighborhood children have played and dogs walked for years.
That space now has been fenced off as a demolition contractor removes the abandoned school buildings.
Several audience members applauded Marks’ suggestion that the city “don’t plan too much there right now” and create a park in phases.
Kevin Clark, a longtime baseball coach who lives near the site, implored the city to investigate the possibility of linking — both physically and in concept — the old Woodway site with the former Woodway High School site on a hill to the north. He said the connection would provide needed ballfields and better utilization of underused public property.
McIntosh said the city has been working with the school district on turning the old WWHS site into a multi-function sports complex, but he doesn’t see a direct connection between the two sites. “They’re separated by a road … and one is a neighborhood park and the other more of a regional park. They are different entities,” he said.
The former elementary-school site “is not a ‘destination’ anything,” McIntosh said. “It’s a neighborhood park. We just want people to come there, be comfortable and just play.”
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