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Meeting concluded — minutes pending. The agenda below is what the City posted; minutes haven't been published yet. Issaquah approves Council minutes at the next meeting and ships them embedded in that next meeting's packet, so they typically land here 1–3 weeks after the meeting. Transcript and recording will appear once the City posts the YouTube video and our pipeline catches it.
Park Board Auto captions

Monday, March 22, 2021

7:00 PM · 1h 43m
Topics tracked across meetings:
Blackberry Park Update 1/5
Hillside Park Update 1/7
Section
1. CALL TO ORDER
1a
Membership
packet pp.3
Staff report:
Park Board About Staff Liaison Created in 1983, this board provides guidance and Milissa Ching, Office Manager direction in meeting the City’s parks and Email recreational needs by advising the Mayor and Parks & Recreation Director on matters relating to the Regular Members planning; acquisition, development; and operation 2022 - Bradley Book of parks, facilities and recreational programs inside 2022 - Ruben Nieto the City limits. 2022 - Jonathan Richardson 2022 - Linda Whitworth Membership 2023 - Chris Kovac The Park Board is comprised of nine regular 2020 - Joe Frauenheim members, with four-year terms; and two 2020 - Carl Riess alternates, with two-year terms. All members are 2021 - Jeremy Noble appointed by the Mayor and subject to 2021 - Danielle Wolfrom Githens confirmation by the City Council. Terms expire April 30 of the year listed. For more information, see Alternate Members…
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
2a
Minutes of February 22, 2021
packet pp.5–6
Staff report:
APPROVAL OF MINUTES a) 02-22-2021 Park Board Minutes 7:00 PM Virtual Meeting February 22, 2021 DRAFT MINUTES
4. REGULAR BUSINESS
4a
Hillside Park Update
Director and Jennifer Fink, Park Planner and · 30 min · Jeff Watling, Parks and Community Services · packet pp.7–33
Topics: Parks
Staff report:
CITY WAYFINDING & FACILITY SIGNAGE SYSTEM JANUARY 2021
4b
Blackberry Park Update
Director and Jennifer Fink, Park Planner and · 30 min · Jeff Watling, Parks and Community Services · packet pp.35–52
Topics: Parks
Staff report:
CITY WAYFINDING & FACILITY SIGNAGE SYSTEM JANUARY 2021
4c
Wayfinding and Park Sign Design Update, (I, D)
20 min · Jennifer Fink, Park Planner and Project Administrator
Topics: Parks
5. REPORTS
5a
Chairperson's Report
5b
Director's Report
5c
Youth Report
0:00 anyone uh park board meeting
0:03 uh this evening we have uh
0:07 three items on regular business for the
0:09 agenda
0:10 we're gonna have another update on
0:12 hillside park
0:14 another update on black berry park and
0:17 uh an update on uh wayfinding
0:22 so pardon me before we get started i'd
0:24 like to go ahead and do roll call
0:27 and so when i call your name please take
0:30 yourself off mute and say that you are
0:32 here reuben
0:39 rubin
0:43 that during mute button there we go here
0:46 we go
0:46 thanks reuben uh jonathan
0:50 here uh linda
1:01 hmm
1:05 come on linda
1:13 there you are yes i'm here
1:18 um danielle i'm here
1:23 april here
1:27 if anybody else showed up to anybody
1:31 hey thank you everyone i assume that
1:34 you had an opportunity to review minutes
1:36 from our last meeting in february
1:38 any comments or concerns
1:42 uh does anyone have objections
1:46 to approving minutes from our last
1:48 meeting
1:51 seeing no objections i
1:54 hereby approve minutes thank you for
1:57 that
2:02 so we're now on to public comments this
2:05 evening
2:06 i understand um we do have
2:09 at least one person tonight
2:13 so i will go ahead and
2:17 um is it mary i believe and this
2:20 uh do you need to unmute her um melissa
2:23 or can she do that herself
2:25 can we confirm the caller that just
2:27 dialed in ending at eight
2:28 five is mary that is it is mary and i
2:32 can't get on
2:33 i'm sorry i can't get on the um
2:36 webex meeting uh three of us have tried
2:39 to get on it and
2:40 i don't know where we missed out i i
2:43 tried as a
2:44 boards and commissions and i tried
2:48 ictv21 i can't get on
2:51 that's fine mary we can hear you so if
2:54 that's fine with you
2:55 please please go ahead and make your
2:57 comment uh first
2:59 that's fine um i've lived in azerquah
3:02 for quite a while and i've loved living
3:04 here and i've always felt good about
3:05 local government
3:07 but i have some real problems with this
3:09 the whole thing of the park issue
3:11 hillside park first of all my husband
3:14 and i went to the meeting in 2014.
3:17 i'm not saying that there wasn't more
3:19 than one meeting
3:20 but at the one that we went to everyone
3:23 who spoke was in favor of leaving the
3:25 park as it was
3:27 so there was no reason for me to think
3:29 that
3:30 there was anything else that was going
3:31 to happen in february
3:34 i saw out my window a surveyor and i had
3:38 no idea what was going on there
3:40 and then i saw tagged trees so i called
3:44 to the city and i was directed to a
3:47 person who would help me and find out
3:49 about that
3:51 they said a meeting was planned but i
3:53 had no way of knowing when that meeting
3:55 was
3:55 that person told me that it was on the
3:58 city website but
3:59 i don't regularly go to the city website
4:02 and i wouldn't have
4:03 any way thought that there was something
4:05 that
4:06 seven years ago you know i thought was a
4:09 dead issue so there's nothing that i
4:10 would have
4:12 you know gone therefore to to find out
4:15 information
4:16 and then they said they'd put out a
4:18 notice they did
4:21 but that meaning started with how do we
4:23 want to play
4:25 so i think it seemed obvious that the
4:28 decision had already been made
4:30 it didn't say do you want this park
4:34 do you want this playground or do you
4:36 not want this playground it didn't give
4:38 anybody the option to do that or
4:41 anything until the very end of the
4:43 meeting and by that time
4:45 they'd ask people to vote on which was
4:47 better
4:48 i i guess what i feel is that if the
4:51 city wanted input if they want input
4:55 then they should do things like it's an
4:58 input situation instead of having
5:01 something having their minds made up
5:03 ahead of time
5:04 and then just asking for you know
5:08 something small like which playground
5:10 set do you like the best
5:12 and um let's see
5:16 what else was i gonna say just
5:19 that the survey was the same way it
5:22 started out with
5:23 these are the different kinds of
5:24 playground equipment at the very end you
5:27 had a chance to say
5:29 you know i really don't care to have a
5:32 playground in the park
5:34 and so i really feel that it wasn't
5:36 something where the city wanted
5:38 input i feel like they'd made up their
5:39 mind and
5:41 that that just didn't feel too good i i
5:44 know somebody who lives two houses from
5:47 the park and they didn't even know any
5:48 of this was going on
5:51 the city used to send out postcards to
5:54 people who were in the surrounding area
5:56 about things that would come up one that
5:58 comes to mind is the water tower when
6:00 that was being done
6:02 some street work and stuff i wish people
6:05 would get a chance
6:06 to have that information beforehand
6:09 and really give some input if the city
6:11 really wants to hear what its citizens
6:13 have to say
6:15 so again i've loved living in issaquah
6:18 i've been here for a number of years
6:22 but i really feel like there was no
6:24 chance for anyone to say thank
6:26 anything previous to this it was totally
6:28 sprung
6:30 on people is the way that i feel at this
6:32 point
6:37 is that it mary yes thank you for your
6:40 comment this evening
6:42 okay and brad we also
6:45 um have ryan fleischer ryan did you
6:48 still
6:49 want to um speak as well
6:53 you're out here yep
6:56 um so like mary i've lived in esqua
6:59 i've lived here over 40 years i live on
7:01 squawk fairly close to the park
7:04 i don't know if the city comes out very
7:05 much but the park is actually used
7:07 quite frequently by a lot of people
7:10 there's kids playing there
7:11 people walking their dogs through there
7:13 people just walking and enjoying nature
7:15 i just have great concern about adding a
7:17 playground to that park
7:19 when there's no parking so you're going
7:21 to create an attractant
7:22 but no place to park so then you're
7:24 going to be parked people are going to
7:25 be parking in neighbors yards
7:27 and people who didn't intend for their
7:29 front yard to be a parking lot
7:30 or they're going to be parking at the
7:32 upper cemetery which already has some
7:34 people parking there and i don't think
7:36 anybody who would
7:37 go to upper cemetery for any reason
7:39 would want to be involved with people
7:40 walking through
7:41 to go to a park that's a serene place
7:43 and a place of remembrance
7:45 um not a place of walk through traffic
7:48 i just think there should be some place
7:51 that's just nature
7:53 the rest of the nature spaces are either
7:55 trails or hiking and this is a nice open
7:58 space where kids can go kick a ball
8:00 kids can run around and i just don't see
8:02 a need
8:03 to dig some huge thing or even
8:07 not dig but to put in a play structure
8:09 is a very major construction project
8:11 it's also not very accessible if someone
8:13 were to get hurt
8:14 there's no ambulance access because
8:16 there's no parking lot
8:17 so i just think it's kind of asking for
8:20 disaster
8:21 and i think it's creating an attractant
8:23 where there isn't a place
8:24 for those people to go it's a walk-in
8:27 park so i think
8:28 like mary i feel like the people who
8:30 could walk into that park
8:32 should have been given a little bit more
8:34 priority on the survey
8:35 since we live here because the survey
8:37 said do you live here do you live out of
8:39 the area well what
8:40 i kind of don't see what it matters with
8:42 someone out of the area if we're not
8:43 building it for them
8:44 so i just have concern i also feel like
8:47 we're coming out of covid
8:48 and finances are tight we keep hearing
8:50 about budget cuts and we can't fix this
8:52 because the budget we can't fix this
8:54 because the budget
8:55 so why are we spending a huge amount of
8:57 money on a park and once you put it
8:59 there and once you cut down the trees
9:00 and once you dig in the ground
9:02 that's something you can't undo we can't
9:04 ever go back so if we build a huge
9:06 playground
9:07 and two kids play on it and a whole huge
9:10 number of people are upset about it
9:12 we can't undo that that can't ever be
9:14 undone those beautiful 80 foot trees
9:15 can't be replanted
9:17 so i just think it's not the best thing
9:19 and i think there should be spaces that
9:21 are just
9:22 nature and that's my two cents on that
9:28 thank you this evening for your comment
9:30 it will be considered
9:34 and there's one other caller on the line
9:35 i don't know if they wanted to
9:37 um make comments so i will unmute you
9:40 sam so you can indicate
9:41 yes or no okay yes thank you um
9:46 i um my wife and i we've lived here for
9:49 35 years
9:50 and uh are just a couple blocks from the
9:52 park and i
9:53 certainly uh second mary's comment about
9:56 the uh the notice on this situation i
9:59 think ever since we've lost the issaquah
10:01 press
10:02 it's been very difficult at times to
10:04 find out what's going on in the town
10:06 so yes i think there's a very real
10:09 notice issue
10:11 i also agree with the the second caller
10:13 i didn't quite catch your name
10:15 and mary as well but that the uh the
10:18 meeting i was at the meeting i believe
10:20 this last month
10:21 there was a meeting there were about 30
10:23 or 40 people
10:24 and a lot of it seems to be
10:28 pretty much a done deal like you've
10:30 already got
10:31 an engineering firm that that's done
10:33 they're surveying
10:34 they have you know cited things there's
10:38 i mean all these options seem to be laid
10:40 out already and it was merely a
10:44 fact of trying to pick which was going
10:46 to be the least
10:47 disruptive to um to uh
10:51 satisfy the the city's apparent desire
10:54 because
10:54 the people from the park board there
10:56 were a couple people there
10:58 sounded like they really wanted to keep
11:00 this a neighborhood park
11:01 which i think is is the overwhelming
11:04 sentiment we don't want a destination
11:06 park here
11:07 but it seems like with all the uh work
11:09 that's gone
11:10 on um it's already been pretty much
11:13 decided that certain things will happen
11:15 so again the question of keeping people
11:18 informed and involved
11:19 seems to have kind of taken a back seat
11:21 to things so
11:23 i am concerned about the process and uh
11:26 concerned that something's already kind
11:28 of been decided
11:29 and we're just hoping for the the least
11:32 damaging
11:32 result
11:36 thank you for your comment sam
11:41 any other public comments
11:43 [Music]
11:46 there are no other colors on the line um
11:48 you just had the two
11:51 inquiries or um comments that came in
11:54 through email that will attach to the
11:56 minutes
11:56 okay okay jeff i don't know if you want
12:00 to make a comment right now or if you'd
12:01 rather just wait to your
12:02 uh rollout here under regular business
12:06 yeah no really appreciate that that
12:08 public comment
12:09 and we just roll it into our um
12:13 progress report and discussion with you
12:15 all later on
12:17 okay
12:23 well as it turns out that later on has
12:25 arrived
12:26 and so we're already on regular business
12:29 and um
12:31 as it turns out hillside park is the
12:32 first item on the agenda to discuss
12:34 so uh jeff and jennifer
12:38 i'll let you kind of take it from there
12:41 yeah thanks thanks brad uh for for that
12:44 good evening everybody
12:45 um yeah as
12:48 jen is pulling up um
12:53 her screen to share the powerpoint
12:58 is it showing not yet hold on okay
13:03 hang on well as jen is doing that thanks
13:06 jen
13:07 um uh i'll get started jeff watling
13:10 parks and community services director
13:12 with the city of issaquah
13:14 um yeah wanted to come back and and give
13:17 a progress report on
13:19 how those first meetings went in regards
13:24 the two park projects that were placed
13:28 our approved budget from council this
13:31 year
13:32 as um i had a chance to to um
13:36 discuss and provide a sneak peek of that
13:38 presentation
13:40 um at our february 22nd meeting uh you
13:42 may recall
13:44 um in the 2021 budget this year's budget
13:47 city council authorized some capital
13:49 funding
13:50 to add play amenities to hillside park
13:54 and to replace the play structure at
13:56 blackberry park
13:57 in regards to hillside park this was
14:01 um related to the 2014
14:05 um series of public uh conversations
14:07 that did
14:08 occur um um and um
14:12 knowing that there was a desire at that
14:14 time not by everybody
14:16 but certainly a desire at that time to
14:18 find ways to incorporate
14:19 thanks jen that looks great to
14:21 incorporate play
14:23 amenities into into hillside park
14:28 following uh the the presentation and
14:30 discussion we had about
14:32 um how we were going to approach this
14:33 project um in this process
14:36 um last meeting uh february 22nd
14:39 um later that week we did have our first
14:41 meeting
14:42 virtual meeting in regards to hillside
14:45 park
14:45 on the 24th
14:49 and then on the 25th had a subsequent
14:52 meeting in regards to blackberry
14:54 um jen why don't you go next slide and
14:56 we'll talk hillside first
14:59 um the intent tonight is to really i
15:01 think share with
15:03 um all of you what we heard and and what
15:05 we learned and and
15:07 in some ways starting with hillside park
15:10 what's confirmed uh really from the 2014
15:14 conversation as we go back and look at
15:16 those uh minutes in the commentary there
15:19 as we heard both in written form and in
15:22 verbal form
15:23 um during the virtual meeting with 40
15:25 plus attendees and then what we saw in
15:27 the online survey
15:29 there is some strong emotion
15:32 around hillside park in terms of
15:37 desire for keeping it as is
15:41 concern about how to
15:44 incorporate play a desire and interest
15:46 to have additional play
15:48 by many residents up there but but also
15:51 really strong opinion not to do anything
15:53 by other residents and so
15:55 i think what's important and one of the
15:57 just the general takeaways i want to
15:59 give in this introduction
16:00 as jennifer talks a little bit further
16:02 about the survey is that
16:04 um this project's going to need more
16:07 time
16:08 and it's something i've had a chance to
16:10 share with the mayor and city
16:11 administrator already
16:13 um we want to have more conversation
16:16 with the community we want to allow
16:18 time to um
16:22 to discuss more and and and understand
16:25 that
16:26 um incorporating play into this park to
16:29 meeting some of the needs of residents
16:31 up there to have
16:32 play closer to their homes
16:36 much like other communities have in
16:39 issaquah
16:40 to still treat this as a walk-in park
16:42 this is not
16:44 a project that we can just approach with
16:49 i guess an old school approach of just
16:52 plopping a piece of play equipment into
16:53 a park
16:54 and and i think we shared this with you
16:56 all in february
16:57 uh certainly shared it um
17:01 at the virtual meetings um shared it by
17:04 enter as we introduced
17:06 the design consultant with thune we do
17:08 think it's really important to have a
17:10 design team
17:11 on hand right now not that we know
17:13 exactly what we're going to do
17:15 but when we when we have
17:18 public discussions about play and what
17:20 does play look like
17:21 um in the unique park spaces that we
17:24 have
17:24 um it's important that we um tread into
17:28 those
17:28 um in an informed way and in a careful
17:30 way and so what you're going to hear
17:32 tonight with these updates is really
17:34 um from the two meetings we've heard two
17:37 very different things
17:39 um at hillside we heard as i said
17:41 earlier
17:43 a need for further discussion and a need
17:48 talk through uh the differences and
17:51 understand the competing interests that
17:53 that exist with that park
17:56 and allow the time needed for that
17:58 project whereas blackberry
18:00 we heard a lot of consensus and it's
18:02 probably a project that you'll see
18:03 tonight as we
18:04 think through timelines uh will be a
18:06 timeline that will be a little
18:08 a little quicker in that work
18:12 if you want to go to the next slide jen
18:15 um i can sort of tee up some of these
18:19 talking points and then turn it over to
18:20 you
18:21 so um really we want to talk a little
18:24 bit further and share with you what we
18:25 heard and what we learned both at
18:27 the public meeting and from the survey
18:29 responses we also want to touch base on
18:31 site analysis
18:33 we've heard both in 2014
18:37 as well as at the public meeting as well
18:39 as the conversation we had with all of
18:40 you in february
18:42 um an interest to addressing the play
18:44 lawn and and some
18:45 drainage issues that have existed with
18:48 that field and really understanding that
18:50 field itself is play
18:51 um and how do we improve that play space
18:55 there's some side analysis we need to do
18:56 to further diagnose what's going on
18:59 uh with that um drainage issue and
19:01 drainage problem before we can create
19:03 drainage solutions so i want to take
19:05 talk a little bit further about that and
19:06 then talk through next steps and and
19:09 really this
19:10 desire as i said earlier to add some
19:12 additional work to add some additional
19:14 conversation to
19:16 hosting another public meeting to just
19:19 talk through what we heard
19:20 um as well as as have a a
19:24 chance to have an on-site open house and
19:26 and begin to talk through some of these
19:27 issues to understand and outline
19:30 the difference between some of the
19:31 common ground interests we heard
19:33 as well as the competing interests that
19:35 we heard and and really
19:37 um as our job as staff trying to serve a
19:40 public that
19:41 that has very different opinions on what
19:43 they'd like to see hillside do
19:44 it's not our job to try and determine
19:46 who wins and loses but
19:48 see if we can seek balanced solutions
19:51 to incorporating play and play elements
19:55 into this park that still
19:58 preserve protect keep the essence the
20:01 quiet walk-in
20:03 nature of this park so
20:06 with that jen i'm going to turn it over
20:09 to you to talk a little bit further
20:11 about what we heard and what we learned
20:13 and then
20:14 we'll go from there great thanks jeff
20:19 so as jeff mentioned you know back on
20:22 the
20:22 february 24th public meeting uh
20:25 we did hear a wide range of responses
20:28 from the public
20:29 people who were concerned about a play
20:31 area going in but we also heard some
20:33 other voices
20:35 where people are excited about having
20:37 some different opportunities for play
20:39 um at this park one thing is for sure
20:42 regardless whether it was at the
20:46 public meeting that we had or on the
20:47 online survey results
20:49 you can tell that people really care
20:52 about this park and it's a very special
20:53 park
20:54 to the community and so with just want
20:56 to really reinforce that
20:58 we recognize the value that the space
21:01 holds for many people
21:03 and we are going to do what we can to
21:06 ensure that that
21:07 is kept whether or not there's a
21:08 playground there or not
21:10 and enhanced in some way is to keep that
21:13 park special
21:16 so i'll jump into the online survey
21:18 results because we had the most
21:20 feedback from that event we had 221
21:24 responses which is one of our largest
21:26 survey responses yet
21:28 85 85 of respondents lived
21:32 on squawk mountain neighborhood when
21:34 they were asked
21:35 how they would like to play some of the
21:37 top responses were
21:41 they didn't want to do any play but
21:43 there was also a large contingency that
21:46 wanted to do some climbing swinging
21:48 some adventure play and also some quiet
21:50 play which is
21:51 what somewhat in keeping with the park's
21:54 current setting
21:56 when asked what type of playground would
21:58 fit in the neighborhood
21:59 um i don't like the options was one of
22:02 the responses
22:03 as well as medium to large log
22:07 structures made of natural materials
22:09 received the most feedback
22:12 when asked about the importance of
22:14 inclusive play for all children
22:17 40 percent of respondents felt it was
22:19 not important
22:20 while the other 60 of respondents 25
22:23 felt it was very
22:25 25 felt it was very important
22:28 the importance of including formal
22:30 fitness or play features
22:32 for the entire family were not generally
22:34 important
22:35 uh when asked to rate the importance of
22:38 exploration and discovery
22:40 spaces 43 felt
22:43 it wasn't important while the remaining
22:45 50 percent were spread out over the
22:47 importance
22:48 of that rating when asked about
22:51 integrating plantings into the area
22:53 37 felt it wasn't important while 63
22:57 were spread out again amongst the level
22:59 of importance
23:01 when asked about site amenities to
23:03 accompany play
23:05 picnic benches path seedings and i don't
23:08 like any of these options
23:10 received to the highest percentages when
23:13 asked about
23:14 art the response was i don't like any of
23:16 the options
23:17 but then some of the other responses
23:20 were
23:21 that they were encouraged by nature
23:23 inspired art tree structures or things
23:25 that would fit
23:26 um and be inspired by nature
23:29 also received interest when asked on
23:32 play area location
23:34 39 of respondents said no playground
23:37 and 61 felt otherwise with 33.5
23:42 liking the clearing edge site 14.7
23:46 the forest plateau site and 12.4
23:50 the mount mckinley entrance when asked
23:53 about
23:54 play area layout 44 of respondents
23:57 stated they didn't want
23:58 change to the park while the other 55
24:02 were split with 23 percent wanting one
24:05 play structure or smaller play areas
24:07 19 wanting one large area
24:10 with multiple places and 12 a series of
24:14 small
24:15 little areas along the trail
24:18 and that is a brief summary of the
24:20 online survey results
24:24 jennifer where are we going to see this
24:27 in writing is that going to get posted
24:29 so that we can kind of
24:30 digest some of that material
24:33 it already is it is posted on the web
24:36 page already
24:37 the survey results
24:42 so attached to the agenda both for you
24:45 as park board members as well as
24:47 as anyone who received it or can see it
24:50 online there's a link
24:51 to the to the webpage for this project
24:54 that
24:55 um includes survey online survey results
25:00 the written feedback we got from the
25:03 um the virtual meeting
25:07 as well as a recording of the actual
25:09 recording of
25:10 the virtual meeting as as well
25:20 how what was our outreach um like how
25:22 would people have been
25:24 known about the survey
25:29 the survey was posted on our social
25:32 media
25:32 i emailed all of the contacts that we
25:35 have had from 2014
25:37 as well as other people that i have
25:40 added to the list over the years
25:42 as well as all of our social media and
25:44 city e-blast
25:46 um links so do we not
25:50 i mean i think there was a time when the
25:52 city used to
25:53 do mailings or like postcards to people
25:56 who lived within a certain
25:57 distance of a park that would be or
25:59 project that would be improved
26:01 do we do we not do that as a matter of
26:04 course anymore
26:06 typically not um but there are certain
26:10 certain circumstances like rezonings
26:12 that do get sent out to
26:14 neighborhoods um also i do want to say
26:17 that this neighborhood
26:18 did they do have neighborhood contacts
26:20 um through the
26:22 mayor's neighborhood outreach program
26:24 and so those were also notified to help
26:26 spread the word within the community
26:29 and as i said we received one of the
26:30 highest survey responses we've ever
26:32 received
26:36 i would suggest that we consider that as
26:39 an outreach just because
26:40 for for neighborhood parks and in
26:42 particular
26:44 it's because you really you it's really
26:46 best to get as
26:48 you know for everybody who is going to
26:50 have an opinion to
26:52 know that absolutely and
26:56 and i think we would we would echo that
26:58 danielle
26:59 and i i think an important thing to
27:02 to mention is is this is the beginning
27:04 of a conversation this is
27:06 not the end of a conversation right this
27:08 is not the end of a project
27:10 or somehow something is going to be done
27:12 now this is really
27:14 i think that virtual meeting this
27:17 progress report tonight
27:19 i think the need to to to host
27:21 additional public meetings and have
27:22 conversations
27:23 is really the beginning of this
27:24 discussion how do we
27:27 um again seek to understand
27:31 um and identify what what is there is
27:34 some common ground that we heard
27:36 within all of this you know 200 plus um
27:39 comments this park is special um
27:42 the trees are special um the reason
27:44 we're surveying trees is not to take
27:46 them down we're surveying trees
27:48 to as we look at options and consider
27:51 options how do we
27:52 protect them preserve them keep them
27:55 understand where they are
27:58 so you know as we start this dialogue
28:04 a lot more conversation to have i think
28:06 a lot more
28:07 need for us to continue to be
28:09 intentional about how we're
28:11 communicating when those next meetings
28:13 are where those next meetings are as
28:16 we're coming out of the pandemic
28:17 and have opportunities to host some
28:19 conversations on site
28:21 we want to do that as well again to be
28:24 reaching out to those that are immediate
28:26 neighbors to the park
28:27 as well as that entire neighborhood that
28:31 really sees this as their uh their
28:34 neighborhood part
28:36 is this an appropriate time to ask a
28:38 couple more questions or
28:40 should i hold those uh
28:44 let me make just a comment here correct
28:46 me if i'm wrong jeff i mean one of the
28:48 comments this evening was that
28:50 uh or concerns i think is the
28:52 introduction of a consultant
28:55 and i guess i'd like to just clarify
28:58 to everyone that the consultant is not
29:01 on board
29:02 based upon we're moving forward with
29:04 something as much as
29:06 creating some options available so that
29:09 the community
29:10 can factor that into what they want
29:14 and now is a good time for that
29:16 consultant to participate
29:19 because a consultant is participating
29:21 that doesn't necessarily mean that we're
29:23 moving forward with the playground is
29:25 that correct jeff
29:28 correct this is a landscape architect
29:30 firm that's going to help us
29:32 um begin to to really explore what what
29:36 does it look like to incorporate
29:38 um um and and um
29:41 address uh some of what we heard in in
29:44 2014
29:45 um into hillside park um so you're right
29:48 it's
29:48 uh we're very much at a um conceptual
29:51 development level not a
29:54 design construction level and that
29:57 consultant firm is
29:58 is helping us in this very important
30:01 initial phase of considering this work
30:05 okay thanks for clarifying that
30:09 daniel go ahead jeff i was just going to
30:13 say it
30:13 danielle i i think um if you have some
30:16 additional questions about the
30:17 the survey great um maybe we can touch
30:21 if it's not specific to that maybe we
30:23 can touch base jennifer and i real quick
30:25 some of the site analysis work and next
30:27 steps and then open up for discussion so
30:30 okay i can wait i didn't know if we were
30:32 going to move on to the next park
30:34 but if there's more to talk about i can
30:36 wait
30:37 okay more there's yeah a little bit more
30:38 with hillside and then we'll open it up
30:40 for discussion
30:44 so in in regards to site analysis i can
30:47 speak to that again i i highlighted it a
30:50 little bit
30:51 before turning it over to to jennifer
30:54 um and as some of the public mentioned
30:58 we've begun doing some um
31:03 site work and not site work construction
31:05 but site analysis and really
31:07 um making sure we best understand uh
31:10 the canvas that is this park and and the
31:13 environmental conditions that exist in
31:14 this park
31:15 um as we're again
31:18 exploring this interest in adding play
31:22 to the park we want to understand
31:25 um what critical areas exist in that
31:27 park and those critical areas include
31:29 trees
31:30 those critical areas include steep
31:32 slopes where are those
31:34 um i think we're all aware enough of
31:36 hillside park
31:37 um things can get pretty hilly pretty
31:39 quick um in terms of topography within
31:42 that
31:42 within that space and within that park
31:45 and then the other
31:46 item i i touched on briefly but i think
31:48 is a really important element of this
31:50 this project is uh the field drainage
31:53 something that was was mentioned by the
31:56 public continually from
31:57 from 2014 and then again
32:01 just last month so we are
32:04 working with our consultant and doing
32:07 some
32:07 additional diagnostic work to understand
32:09 what's going on
32:11 um with water in that area so that we
32:15 are informed and know what's happening
32:17 and then can begin to to shape
32:19 and consider what our options are moving
32:22 forward so
32:23 that too is going to be really important
32:25 work to to make sure we
32:27 learn not only about what the community
32:29 wants but we also learn
32:31 about the site itself and do all that
32:34 work before we even consider
32:37 options in terms of next steps
32:41 as mentioned earlier we really see the
32:44 next meeting
32:45 uh being a meeting where we check back
32:46 in with the community
32:48 we have the opportunity to go through
32:50 the survey results
32:51 and really share what we heard and what
32:53 we heard from them and really ask that
32:55 question what what have we missed
32:57 is that is there anything else that we
32:59 need to hear and and understand
33:01 uh we want to do this both virtually in
33:04 another virtual meeting but we also
33:06 probably within that same week host an
33:09 on-site open house if you will where we
33:11 would
33:12 um staff and and a team would be
33:15 on site for um a good chunk of time
33:18 three or four hours and invite the
33:19 public to come and
33:22 discuss talk share with us their hopes
33:24 dreams fears
33:25 um and talk through the site
33:29 walk through the site um from there
33:33 and from that work um we would really
33:36 then begin
33:37 begin to outline and understand um and
33:40 begin to talk through
33:42 what um play needs exist not only for
33:45 the field but
33:48 if play is to be incorporated into the
33:50 site how could it be done
33:52 in a way that meets the interests of
33:55 of the constituency that that wants play
33:58 in this site but
33:59 but also might be able to be done in a
34:01 way that
34:03 respects and understands uh there is a
34:06 a constituency in the neighborhood that
34:08 that wants to keep the park as it is and
34:12 um we see a series of conversations and
34:16 a series of meetings
34:17 uh really taking place throughout this
34:19 spring and summer
34:21 the initial goal of the council had
34:25 of completing
34:28 additional play or completing this
34:31 project
34:32 this year in 2021 um we do not see
34:36 as as uh realistic again understanding
34:40 um we're starting these conversations
34:42 we're continuing the conversations that
34:44 we had from 2014 but we still have
34:46 really a lot of work to do to see how
34:49 balance might be achieved so reality of
34:53 this project
34:55 is that we're looking at if there is
34:58 any type of installation or a project it
35:01 would likely be
35:02 in 2022.
35:06 so with that jennifer and i uh jennifer
35:08 if you have anything else to add or were
35:10 available for questions or or your
35:12 discussion
35:13 i think just uh thank you jeff just real
35:16 quick
35:16 a couple of additions to address some of
35:19 the public comment received
35:21 is we are not looking at trying to take
35:24 down any change
35:25 freeze and change the character um of
35:28 the park
35:28 as part of this um one of the site areas
35:32 that we did
35:33 explore as a potential should play be
35:36 introduced
35:37 we may have to address um some trees
35:41 because they are poor health but it is
35:43 not
35:44 our goal to go in there and change the
35:46 character at all
35:47 by taking care of removing any trees as
35:50 part of this project
35:51 um also parking we are not looking at
35:54 adding any additional parking
35:57 as part of this project scope we don't
35:59 have the
36:00 budget as jeff mentioned this project
36:03 was funded through city council with the
36:05 emphasis of what would it look to
36:07 introduce play
36:09 into hillside park um as is and so i
36:12 think it's just
36:13 to reiterate as we look through our site
36:15 analysis
36:16 all of those things are also playing
36:18 into the overall design
36:20 of this site so i just wanted to um
36:23 reemphasize those points
36:34 looks like it's uh question time daniel
36:37 okay cool i have a few um
36:43 i think i've been on this park board for
36:45 probably 15 years i think
36:47 um and this park has come up it kind of
36:50 percolates every few years
36:52 to talk about and i feel like we always
36:55 kind of get to this point where there's
36:57 really strong
36:58 um you know it's really strong community
37:01 sentiment to keep the park as is
37:04 yet some people are also in the
37:06 neighborhood wanting to
37:08 um to add improvement so it's like it's
37:10 one one that's
37:11 i have a it prevents or presents a
37:14 conflict for me
37:16 um but since this park is a walk-in park
37:20 and we're not going to be adding parking
37:22 i think we need to be very
37:24 considerate about who we're how we're
37:27 weighing
37:28 public comment and placing a greater
37:31 emphasis
37:31 on the community that can actually walk
37:35 into this park
37:36 um so i wish that our survey had
37:40 asked um if respondents had lived within
37:44 walking distance to the park like that's
37:46 i think a really relevant question to me
37:49 because if someone doesn't live within
37:51 walking distance and that means that
37:52 they need to drive
37:53 and there's not parking so
37:57 yeah to me it needs to we need to be
37:59 looking at the universe of people
38:02 um who can walk there and then i would
38:05 also
38:06 if i were to do another survey i would
38:08 want to know like
38:09 kind of like how far are people walking
38:12 to get to that park and what age kids
38:15 they have
38:16 because if you're walking to a park
38:19 you might have you you can do that with
38:21 like you can walk kind of a kind of far
38:23 if you're a mom or dad and you're
38:25 pushing a kid in a stroller so you're
38:26 like
38:27 toddlers right you can go pretty far but
38:29 if you have someone a kid who's not in a
38:31 stroller
38:31 you're not going to walk necessarily as
38:33 far and then you're going to jump to
38:34 like the kids that are
38:35 like older elementary school middle
38:37 school right they can go on their own
38:39 so i think in order to know what play
38:41 equipment that you would have
38:43 you kind of need to know you know what
38:46 the demographics are that you're pulling
38:48 from
38:49 um so
38:53 those are a couple comments and then
38:55 i've seen comments and i'm not familiar
38:57 with this park i meant to go there this
38:58 weekend to check it out but i will do
39:00 that um
39:01 at another time but i've seen comments
39:03 about the lack of sidewalks
39:05 to the park and if that is
39:09 true and you can't safely send your kid
39:12 on a
39:12 on the street on a sidewalk to get to
39:15 the park
39:16 and it seems backwards to me to do
39:18 improvements that are going to attract
39:19 kids
39:20 without first fixing the sidewalk issue
39:22 that's just like a safety concern
39:30 and that's i guess that's it for me oh i
39:32 will also just share like i grew up on a
39:34 rural island
39:35 we didn't have any play equipment we
39:37 just had the woods and you can have like
39:39 a fabulous time and play all day
39:41 like in the woods and um you know like
39:43 so i don't
39:44 i you know we don't don't have to put in
39:47 play equipment
39:48 for kids to you know have a great time
39:51 and connect with nature
39:52 which is really something that's lacking
39:54 these days anyway so
39:57 can can i comment on that danielle
39:58 because i really appreciate that and i
40:01 something i emphasized at the february
40:03 park board meeting that
40:04 that i i hope this discussion wherever
40:06 we land
40:07 i i think really emphasizes a new
40:10 approach
40:11 that we are attempting to take in play
40:14 and what play means and what play looks
40:16 like and that play
40:19 doesn't need to be this plot piece of
40:22 equipment or the structure because
40:23 you're absolutely right
40:25 i i think each of our parks in our city
40:28 system are unique
40:29 and as we begin to think about that
40:32 neighborhood's interest in play and what
40:33 it looks like
40:34 play takes many shapes and forms and
40:37 you're absolutely
40:38 right right what what play looks like at
40:41 hillside park should look
40:42 very different than what play looks like
40:45 at central park for example right
40:48 and so um i i hope that
40:52 wherever both of these projects lands
40:54 and i it's interesting even with
40:56 hillside and blackberry and as we talk
40:57 about blackberry next i i think we'll
40:59 see this differentiation that
41:01 play is going to likely look different
41:04 each of these
41:05 each of these parks but that doesn't
41:06 mean one is less
41:08 important um or less intentional than
41:11 the other
41:13 and so i just i i appreciate
41:16 that feedback and and again i think
41:18 jennifer i both uh really appreciate the
41:20 feedback that we've received from the
41:22 community
41:23 um it's important to hear um from those
41:25 that don't want anything added to this
41:27 park just as
41:28 it's important to hear those who who
41:31 want to see play added to this park and
41:33 and
41:35 you know our job like i said earlier is
41:37 not to determine
41:38 um or or think of this as a winning and
41:41 a losing proposition
41:42 but this is really our job to try and
41:45 seek balance and by taking this
41:47 a little more
41:52 intentional way of approaching play and
41:55 not being so type cast and well it's
41:57 just got to look like another play
41:58 structure
41:59 is hopefully something that's going to
42:02 help in this
42:03 conversation and and maybe get beyond
42:06 what has felt like over and over again
42:08 maybe
42:09 competing competing interests within
42:12 this same neighborhood
42:22 see here anybody else have any questions
42:24 or comments
42:25 [Music]
42:28 yeah just a couple of quick questions um
42:31 it sounds like there's still like
42:32 there's there's work being done
42:34 to reach out to neighbors there to
42:38 inform them those this but it sounds
42:39 like some people are still kind of
42:40 falling
42:41 like is there any way to do an actual
42:44 notice posting in inside the park to
42:47 help people know
42:48 far enough in advance if they're not
42:50 able to
42:52 access technology
42:55 yes absolutely jonathan um i think as we
42:59 get closer to what that next both
43:01 virtual public meeting is and
43:03 and on-site open house um yeah we will
43:07 we will not only reach out to all those
43:09 who have certainly
43:10 given us feedback already but actually
43:13 physically post something within the
43:14 park
43:15 as well social media has certainly been
43:18 helpful as well is that
43:19 i know our communications team has been
43:21 able to utilize next door
43:23 for the squawk mountain neighborhood to
43:25 get the news out there so both
43:27 i think a combination of feedback we've
43:29 received already
43:31 in the park um and in social media
43:36 great because i think to danielle's
43:37 point that is there is no parking there
43:40 and i assume it's almost exclusively
43:43 folks from the neighborhood that are
43:44 using that park and would see that and
43:45 so i think that may help as well
43:47 ensuring we're getting the right folks
43:48 and not just opening it up to
43:50 anybody to kind of comment who may not
43:52 have used it before and just says
43:54 yes i want more parks
43:57 and then on on the survey results that
43:59 are posted online i might be looking at
44:00 the wrong thing but i only see like a
44:02 handful of slides and i don't see that
44:04 it represents all of the data that
44:06 jennifer just shared um
44:08 so possible i'm looking at the wrong
44:10 thing but
44:12 if you heard two surveys jonathan
44:14 there's that you're probably looking at
44:16 the slides from the survey of the actual
44:18 virtual meeting there's
44:19 there's if you go farther up i think
44:22 there's a tab that says
44:23 online survey results that's right
44:26 okay it's in the paragraphs
44:31 oh okay thanks yeah and and then
44:35 um if if this pushes till 2022
44:38 is there any kind of procedural concern
44:41 with money that's already earmarked
44:43 for these improvements no we'll be able
44:46 request a reauthorization since the
44:50 project is underway
44:52 okay pending council approval of course
44:57 so jonathan yeah like any like any
44:59 project uh these
45:01 these funds were identified for this
45:03 specific project
45:04 in the in the capital fund so as
45:07 jennifer said
45:08 uh they would be requested to be
45:10 reallocated
45:12 to the following year
45:15 okay great thank you can you guys speak
45:18 a little bit to the
45:19 as to the sidewalk concern that people
45:22 have and
45:22 what that looks like there
45:27 uh i can speak a little bit to it
45:28 danielle but i i'm not a
45:30 i'm not the public works department so i
45:32 i'm not sure i am aware i know
45:35 throughout
45:36 the squawk mountain community um
45:39 um on olympus drive and others there are
45:41 not sidewalks
45:42 uh within squawk mountain community
45:46 and and neighborhoods and so um i
45:49 certainly understood and have certainly
45:50 heard in my time here
45:52 um that concern so there is
45:55 there is mobility um there are but there
45:58 is not
45:58 physical sidewalks in in many of the
46:02 many of the neighborhoods so as we've
46:04 certainly heard this
46:05 feedback again uh through this process
46:08 have certainly shared that with um not
46:11 only the mayor but also
46:12 public works department
46:16 i also want to add that the
46:19 lack of missing connections meaning
46:20 sidewalks was also noted
46:23 in the master mobility plan that was
46:25 just adopted
46:27 as well and so until funded
46:30 in a transportation package
46:33 for future project improvements they
46:35 would likely be delayed but they have
46:37 been identified as a gap
46:43 are there are there some sidewalks just
46:45 not continuous or are there
46:47 no sidewalks in that part of the
46:50 neighborhood
46:52 mostly no sidewalks in that part of the
46:54 neighborhood
46:57 it was designed that way back in you
47:00 know the 60s 70s
47:03 can you clarify jennifer um entry points
47:06 i know the one
47:08 there at the end of that street is kind
47:10 of the main primary entry point but
47:12 there are others
47:12 aren't there there are um there's
47:16 actually
47:17 all of the streets up and down the west
47:19 side
47:20 up until you hit to the water tower
47:22 where you're at the base of the deep
47:23 cliff
47:24 um yeah you can walk into the park from
47:28 any of those streets
47:29 there's also people walk in as
47:31 previously mentioned from the cemetery
47:35 also some of the trails that people have
47:38 either maintained or are historic trails
47:41 within or new social trails
47:43 um do connect from the power lines into
47:46 different areas
47:47 but it's all you know dependent upon
47:50 somewhat of your skill and where you
47:53 live and how you want to get to the park
47:54 as to how you access it so
47:56 um it is a very large park at almost 40
47:59 acres
48:00 so there's a lot of entry points
48:04 but the main one to the two acre open
48:06 area that this project is focusing on
48:09 the main access point is uh probably the
48:12 three streets
48:14 on that side of the park
48:20 do you have a slide that you could show
48:21 us that has
48:23 the overhead like an overhead view of
48:25 what you're talking about uh
48:27 i can try and find one hang on
48:34 in the meantime does anybody else have
48:35 any comments or questions
48:40 as far as drainage um so this is
48:43 something that has come up
48:45 a number of times with this park as well
48:47 is this something that
48:49 is a candidate for the kind of
48:52 enhancement that we've done and from the
48:54 community center and at tibbetts in the
48:56 past
48:59 yeah yes it could be danielle and that's
49:02 some of the site analysis and diagnostic
49:04 we need to do is first understand what's
49:06 what's going on and what's the source
49:08 and why um but then yeah i think once we
49:11 have an understanding of what what's
49:12 going on there
49:13 then we can then we can begin to work
49:16 towards
49:17 what solutions look like
49:20 so jeff is your budget restricted
49:23 to a play area or would some of that
49:26 budget be
49:27 available for repairing any drainage
49:30 issues
49:31 it would be available for that as we we
49:34 shared that with
49:34 the community as well so yep
49:40 but again in many ways that that field
49:42 is a play space
49:43 right again play takes many many uh
49:46 shapes and forms and and and how we
49:49 could make that
49:50 play field more of a year-round um
49:53 amenity for the the neighborhood would
49:55 be a real a real plus
49:57 it sounds like yeah and when you live in
49:59 a hillside neighborhood
50:01 the flat grassy spot is
50:04 gold so
50:10 yep
50:15 but jen found him out
50:19 muted jen
50:22 thank you um so here's a map
50:26 the roughly two acre area we're
50:29 exploring for
50:30 um play all of the houses on the west
50:35 here
50:35 um have fences that back up against the
50:38 park
50:39 but this is the main walk-in entrance
50:42 off of mount mckinley
50:43 there's also access off of kenya
50:47 and juniper and hood
50:50 but hood is a little trickier there's a
50:53 water tower over in there and then also
50:55 you can see
50:56 in here where my cursor is there's a
50:58 steeper slope
51:00 but here's power line over to the
51:03 north of the page and multiple access
51:06 points from there that people can walk
51:08 into also there's this lower section
51:11 down here there are a few trails that
51:14 come up
51:15 some through this center area um
51:18 are not very functional right now due to
51:20 the steepness of the grade
51:22 and people accessing it so most likely
51:25 your access points are going to be
51:27 from over here from the power line as
51:29 well as the these four neighborhood
51:34 streets
51:44 okay i know we need to kind of move to
51:46 other topics but before we do
51:48 anybody else have any more questions or
51:50 comments on hillside park
51:56 not seeing any so let's move on
52:01 sounds good brad thanks for the
52:02 discussion everyone and we will continue
52:04 to keep you
52:05 um informed on both of these projects so
52:08 blackberry park
52:09 um really quick you may recall um
52:12 in 2017 this park was transferred to the
52:16 city of issaquah from king county
52:19 for years before that the neighborhood
52:22 had made
52:26 improvements to this king county-owned
52:30 space and have really sort of
52:33 created a neighborhood park of their own
52:37 in 2017 when the park was transferred to
52:40 the city we hosted a barbecue out on
52:42 site and began
52:43 the conversation with the neighborhood
52:44 about how they use the space
52:47 uh what they'd like to see in the space
52:48 how they might like to see the space
52:50 improved
52:52 at the time this this play equipment
52:56 was identified as we did our analysis as
53:01 received the park this is a a
53:04 fine play structure for a backyard
53:08 but does not meet any national safety
53:11 standards when it comes to placing it in
53:13 a public park
53:14 as we've communicated that with the
53:16 neighborhood thankfully there's not an
53:18 any immediate safety concerns but
53:20 something that we had shared with them
53:23 that we knew we would need to replace
53:26 and address
53:27 um and and have play space that
53:31 um meets those national safety standards
53:34 for um publicly located
53:38 uh play amenities um fast forward now
53:42 to um the meeting we had on the 26th of
53:46 february
53:48 um jen if you want to go to the next
53:49 slide um
53:51 from that feedback and as jennifer will
53:53 walk through
53:55 and as i highlighted in the introduction
53:59 what we heard and what we learned really
54:01 is helping us to shape the next steps of
54:03 this project that are going to look a
54:04 little different than hillside
54:06 we heard a lot of support and very
54:09 more than anything varying degrees of
54:12 how much play they want to have in the
54:13 space but
54:14 a real strong degree of support
54:18 of making these
54:22 public investments into this
54:24 neighborhood park uh that
54:26 is uh been has been utilized so much by
54:29 the
54:30 um the neighbors and the residents of
54:33 of south cove so
54:36 um as to next steps we really see
54:39 um again continued public discussion and
54:42 public dialogue but it did probably
54:44 taking a
54:44 a different pace and a different cadence
54:47 uh than hillside park
54:48 so with that jennifer do you want to
54:51 highlight
54:52 sort of what we heard and learn that
54:53 evening and with the online survey
54:55 responses and then we can
54:57 talk through what next steps look like
54:58 with this project
55:00 take it away jen sounds great thanks
55:02 jeff
55:03 um so as jeff mentioned you know at the
55:05 community meeting on the 25th we heard a
55:08 lot of support
55:09 um and many of the residents that were
55:12 in attendance were also part of the
55:14 development of the park
55:15 um as that was before it came to the
55:17 city uh created by
55:20 the surrounding neighborhood and um
55:23 change is always hard when you have a
55:26 personal investment
55:27 in something but it was really exciting
55:31 from the community to hear that they're
55:33 open to change they recognize things
55:36 or have lived their useful life and
55:39 looking forward to um keeping it a park
55:42 where the neighborhood can gather
55:44 come together kids can play
55:47 birthday parties can be had and
55:50 a place for all the kids to enjoy
55:54 what we heard from the online survey
55:57 is we had 149 responses
56:00 87 percent of the respondents lived in
56:04 the south lake smamish neighborhood
56:07 when asked how they would like to play
56:08 their top responses were climb
56:10 zip swing slide adventure play and
56:14 perching
56:15 when asked what type of playground would
56:17 fit into the neighborhood
56:19 waterlogged structures were preferred
56:21 along with some mixed materials
56:23 and this somewhat resembles what's
56:25 already there on site with the existing
56:27 play structure
56:29 respondents felt inclusive play was very
56:31 important
56:32 also were fitness and play for the
56:34 entire family
56:36 respondents were a bit flat on their
56:38 need for exploration
56:40 and discovery spaces
56:43 and the importance of integrating
56:44 plantings into the area play area
56:48 which in accordance there's not many
56:50 plants there right now other than some
56:52 blackberry patches
56:54 um the site amenities uh of most
56:57 importance that they would like to see
56:59 added are picnic benches
57:00 benches and accessible areas
57:04 they felt art could be added to the
57:06 unique play structure
57:07 as well as other nature inspired objects
57:10 such as fencing
57:12 in looking at play area layouts a larger
57:15 and an additional structure was
57:16 preferred by 58
57:18 of respondents and smaller structures or
57:22 equal to what's there made up the other
57:26 percent and so in summary um
57:29 got some really good feedback um to take
57:32 to the consultants
57:37 that's it for the online survey
57:43 anything to add on this one jeff i just
57:47 was
57:47 i can touch base on the other two
57:49 bullets in terms of site analysis and
57:50 next steps and then open it up for
57:52 discussion if you'd like okay
57:56 so in regards to site analysis again a
57:59 a different site different canvas than
58:02 hillside
58:02 there are no known critical areas on
58:05 this site
58:06 but side analysis includes understanding
58:09 some of the easements some of the
58:10 setbacks
58:11 given this is a pretty tight residential
58:15 area we also have a patch of
58:19 invasive himalayan blackberry that's
58:22 quite well loved for certain times of
58:25 the year when it's harvested
58:27 so some of our conversations with the
58:29 neighborhood as we go
58:30 forward is what do we want to do with
58:32 that right
58:33 does it remain is there a way to create
58:37 maybe some harvesting of berries but
58:39 in a little more controlled uh fashion
58:41 than um
58:43 in in in more of a
58:47 less of an invasive nature in an
58:49 invasive way
58:52 that's allowing us to to really i think
58:54 look at next steps a little bit more
58:57 in line with what was anticipated
59:00 schedule wise
59:01 in terms of looking to to consider
59:03 completing something this fall
59:05 um we anticipated the next public
59:08 meeting
59:08 really being an opportunity uh to to
59:12 begin to talk through the feedback we
59:14 heard from the survey
59:15 and start to frame up some options
59:19 that the the same consultant team is
59:20 working on what's interesting with this
59:22 feedback in in this discussion we really
59:24 anticipate it being a discussion of
59:26 trade-offs
59:27 with the community so with that desire
59:30 by many for a large play space we really
59:34 want to make sure the community
59:35 understands and the neighborhood
59:36 understands the trade-off that would
59:38 exist
59:40 meaning the loss of some of that
59:43 just open field area that exists and is
59:46 so well loved within this park and so
59:49 we really see an opportunity to begin to
59:51 explore um
59:52 again those trade-offs and and really
59:54 beginning to understand
59:55 how um scale and scale of play um
1:00:00 is going to affect um some of the
1:00:01 different functions
1:00:03 that this neighborhood wants to to
1:00:05 maintain and keep within that
1:00:07 that play space so um that discussion in
1:00:10 the next meeting will really
1:00:12 um inform and begin to shape up what
1:00:14 would be a preferred concept
1:00:17 following that meeting again a chance to
1:00:20 once a preferred concept is created have
1:00:22 another opportunity for sharing
1:00:25 and getting feedback from the community
1:00:27 with again a goal of
1:00:29 considering design this summer and
1:00:32 project installation starting this this
1:00:36 so with that we're available for any
1:00:39 questions or
1:00:40 or just feedback discussion you all have
1:00:43 thanks
1:00:46 [Music]
1:00:47 questions comments anyone
1:00:53 i think what was what was interesting to
1:00:55 me and looking at these two survey
1:00:57 results is that um it seemed like
1:01:00 both neighborhoods kind of wanted there
1:01:04 a strong desire to kind of improve on
1:01:06 what they have but
1:01:08 you know in in a manner that's
1:01:10 consistent with what they
1:01:11 what's there so
1:01:15 i think we're going the right direction
1:01:16 at least for blackberry park
1:01:21 again i reiterate what i was saying
1:01:23 earlier play play isn't universal in
1:01:25 every park
1:01:26 right what play looks like in different
1:01:28 neighborhood parks really should take
1:01:29 the shape and form of that neighborhood
1:01:31 and the uniqueness of the neighborhood
1:01:33 as well as
1:01:34 the site the park site itself
1:01:40 i think there was some discussion about
1:01:44 pickleball and i think we've had some
1:01:48 separate discussion about an adjacent
1:01:51 park where that might be more
1:01:52 suitable well maybe you want to comment
1:01:54 on that
1:01:56 yeah brad thanks for that so that came
1:01:58 up in the in the virtual meeting we had
1:02:00 on the 25th forgive me i think i said 26
1:02:03 not too many dates in my head but um
1:02:05 yeah there's an existing concrete pad
1:02:08 that the neighborhood uses for
1:02:09 pickleball
1:02:10 there at blackberry park um
1:02:14 again trade-offs are always interesting
1:02:16 there were a couple of residents in the
1:02:17 meeting who said boy we'd love two
1:02:18 pickleball courts
1:02:19 at blackberry and and yet to have
1:02:22 another concrete pad added there would
1:02:24 really begin to affect the small
1:02:26 footprint of that space
1:02:29 we mentioned at that meeting and and
1:02:31 we'll continue to have this discussion
1:02:33 is if you all recall park board members
1:02:38 some of the one of the ideas that's come
1:02:40 out of this covid recovery
1:02:42 fit and fun concept is how do we
1:02:46 create pickleball opportunities within
1:02:48 some of our existing court spaces and so
1:02:50 mirwood park
1:02:51 is a a park that we are strongly
1:02:54 considering
1:02:55 on the tennis court incorporating two
1:02:58 striping two pickleball courts uh that
1:03:01 would give opportunity for pickleball
1:03:03 to not only this neighborhood that
1:03:05 surrounds blackberry park but all of
1:03:07 that south cove community so as we go
1:03:10 for this next discussion being able to
1:03:13 take that
1:03:14 um part consideration that we're
1:03:18 we're doing um at mirwood and bring that
1:03:22 back to the community and see how
1:03:24 that meets and meshes with the
1:03:26 pickleball goals that they might have
1:03:28 and how that might
1:03:30 affect or or help them in decision
1:03:33 making for what pickleball might look
1:03:35 like here at blackberry
1:03:36 again a pretty constrained space and a
1:03:39 community that
1:03:40 probably wants to pack in a little more
1:03:42 play right now based on the survey than
1:03:44 the the park itself can can hold
1:03:49 thanks for that jeff
1:03:53 go ahead daniel last month um
1:03:56 i think i asked um whether this
1:03:59 park is in south cove proper like the
1:04:02 the neighborhood that is able to access
1:04:04 the south cove
1:04:05 park the private park do you guys have
1:04:08 answer to that
1:04:12 i did not um look into that danielle i
1:04:15 will do so
1:04:19 okay that'd be great
1:04:22 and i think mirror would
1:04:26 is outside of that neighborhood is
1:04:30 i'm not super familiar with with with
1:04:32 all of southco but i think mirawood is
1:04:34 um surrounded by a neighborhood that
1:04:38 doesn't have access technical access to
1:04:41 the bigger park yeah i'll check into
1:04:44 um access for blackberry
1:04:48 um i think some of those neighborhoods
1:04:52 um there have some private parks you
1:04:54 know in them
1:04:55 um and some of them have tennis courts
1:04:58 so it is sort of an interesting
1:05:00 idea i think to provide a little bit
1:05:02 more flexibility with the use of the
1:05:03 course
1:05:04 courts in mirwood
1:05:07 i'd be curious what the neighborhoods
1:05:09 would think
1:05:15 thanks danielle anybody else question
1:05:18 comment
1:05:20 blackberry
1:05:26 not seeing anything
1:05:31 you got anything more on this jennifer
1:05:32 or is it time to move on to wayfinding
1:05:36 i think we can move on if there's no
1:05:38 other questions from the board
1:05:40 i've seen anything okay
1:05:51 so wayfinding it has been
1:05:55 quite a while since we've done an update
1:05:57 on the wayfinding project
1:05:59 so please forgive me i'm going to take
1:06:01 kind of a half step back
1:06:03 as we begin to move forward and tell you
1:06:06 where we're at
1:06:07 on this project um you may recall
1:06:10 back in 2019 we had set on rfq to
1:06:14 establish the wayfinding program
1:06:16 for the city of issaquah and through a
1:06:18 selection process we picked kpg
1:06:21 which is a multi-disciplinary firm that
1:06:24 was hired
1:06:25 to be our consultant team uh but what is
1:06:28 wayfinding
1:06:29 um a lot of people don't know what
1:06:31 wayfinding is and what is being
1:06:33 addressed as part of
1:06:35 our wayfinding package is it's a
1:06:38 cohesive system of directional signs
1:06:40 that help residents visitors
1:06:42 and employees do decision making
1:06:45 as they navigate through the city
1:06:47 guiding them to destinations parks
1:06:49 trails
1:06:50 identification of city facilities
1:06:53 schools
1:06:53 and transit stations wayfinding can be
1:06:57 particularly important for active modes
1:07:00 of travel
1:07:00 such as walking biking which also can
1:07:04 connect us to nature on our trails
1:07:06 as we rely on these visual cues whether
1:07:09 as we approach a street or a path as to
1:07:12 which way to
1:07:13 which way to take and where to go
1:07:16 wayfinding is also
1:07:17 a really good visual communication tool
1:07:20 that can help provide a sense of place
1:07:24 after selection of our consultant team
1:07:28 established a steering committee and
1:07:30 that steering committee
1:07:32 is made up of several members of the
1:07:35 community
1:07:36 including the downtown squad association
1:07:39 chamber of commerce
1:07:40 representatives from visit issaquah
1:07:42 department of natural resources which
1:07:45 abuts some of our public land the rally
1:07:48 properties
1:07:49 park board arts commission
1:07:52 representatives as well as a member of
1:07:54 the transportation advisory committee
1:07:56 issaquah food bank and the issaquah alps
1:07:58 trails club
1:08:00 we met four times from december 2019
1:08:04 through march of 2020 and then the
1:08:06 pandemic kit
1:08:08 and because of covid we did lose some
1:08:11 funding for this project and it was
1:08:13 pretty well stalled through the rest of
1:08:16 but the project received new budgeted
1:08:19 funds
1:08:20 in 2021 and we revived the project again
1:08:24 in february of this year
1:08:27 midway through the design process we had
1:08:29 an internal workshop
1:08:33 where city staff was able to address
1:08:35 issues such as maintenance and the
1:08:37 integration of this project with other
1:08:39 city work that is underway
1:08:44 at the end of 2020 the arts commission
1:08:46 received a state grant to come up with
1:08:48 signage for the creative arts district
1:08:51 and they hired an artist to assist them
1:08:53 with that project
1:08:55 and knowing where we were in our design
1:08:56 process we partnered with them
1:08:59 to help get an artist's view on the city
1:09:02 signage
1:09:03 to help reflect a more vibrant sign
1:09:06 design that really spoke
1:09:08 to issaquah and so in your packet
1:09:11 presentation i'm going to quick run
1:09:13 through kind of
1:09:14 where we are this is the most recent
1:09:18 package that was shared with the
1:09:21 steering committee
1:09:23 and you can see the work that they have
1:09:25 been doing to date
1:09:28 so we have been working on finding
1:09:31 gateway vehicular location signs
1:09:34 for the city monument signs at all of
1:09:37 our different entrances
1:09:40 we've been looking at gateway
1:09:43 boat bicycle and pedestrian sign
1:09:46 location maps
1:09:47 for some of our major routes
1:09:51 and identifying these major routes and
1:09:53 where some sign
1:09:54 locations are really critical for
1:09:57 decision making points
1:10:01 we've also been looking at more of our
1:10:03 pedestrian facilities
1:10:05 directional signage and different
1:10:06 location maps
1:10:09 as well as where regional attractions
1:10:15 city trailhead and parking sign location
1:10:21 park sign location maps
1:10:25 as well as city facility sign location
1:10:32 through the work with the artist and the
1:10:35 steering committee we have been able to
1:10:36 come up with four different
1:10:38 concepts that each uniquely represent
1:10:41 issaquah um and
1:10:45 after our last steering committee
1:10:47 meeting they
1:10:48 gave us the okay of look after looking
1:10:51 at these concepts to move forward
1:10:53 with our public engagement process
1:10:56 i'll first walk through um some of the
1:10:58 different kinds
1:10:59 sign concepts um and to let you know
1:11:02 these are not the updated graphics
1:11:04 um like this sign concept for instance
1:11:07 um concept one has a nice green
1:11:10 background
1:11:11 we have after the steering committee
1:11:13 meeting we are no longer using
1:11:15 a crane symbol but we'll sub this out
1:11:17 for a
1:11:18 salmon instead so that is the only
1:11:21 modification on this one
1:11:23 but you can see the different suite of
1:11:26 designs that would be going forward
1:11:28 we've got
1:11:29 monument signs both horizontal which
1:11:32 might be placed
1:11:33 in a roundabout vertical of large and a
1:11:36 small one
1:11:37 we've also got vehicular signs
1:11:40 directional signs pedestrian size signs
1:11:43 we've got trailhead signage
1:11:45 park signage and some city facility
1:11:48 signage
1:11:51 sign concept 2 kind of reflects this
1:11:54 view of
1:11:55 mount rainier between squak and tiger
1:11:57 mountains
1:11:59 and steering committee
1:12:04 really had a lot of thought around this
1:12:06 design concept
1:12:08 you also one thing we have to take into
1:12:12 mind as we look at these concepts
1:12:14 they're very flat
1:12:16 um because they're on paper right now
1:12:18 but as we talk through these design
1:12:21 concepts we've also thought about how
1:12:22 they'll be
1:12:23 lit as monument signage or on facility
1:12:26 signage
1:12:28 so that also plays into the depth or the
1:12:31 creativity of each of these different
1:12:33 sign concepts
1:12:36 the third con sign concept um kind of
1:12:40 talks about the
1:12:41 quiet mountain scape that we have and
1:12:43 the trees
1:12:45 with issaquah
1:12:51 and sign concept 4 is more of issaquah
1:12:54 creek
1:12:54 running into the mouth of lake sammamish
1:12:57 with some topography
1:12:59 and different blue colors now all of
1:13:02 these different concepts as we
1:13:04 take them out to the community
1:13:07 we know not either one of these are
1:13:10 going to be the final product
1:13:11 we know it is likely going to be a blend
1:13:13 of pieces and parts from all the
1:13:14 different sign concepts
1:13:16 and we'll be asking the community but we
1:13:19 did do some photo simulations
1:13:21 so you can get an idea of what some of
1:13:23 these might look like
1:13:24 in the various locations
1:13:28 here is a roundabout monument signage as
1:13:31 well as
1:13:31 some vertical signage both on a trails a
1:13:34 regional trail system as well as a
1:13:36 vertical gateway
1:13:39 there's some directional signage
1:13:45 some park and facility signage as well
1:13:47 as trail signage
1:13:52 and again for concept two same different
1:13:55 simulated images
1:14:07 and concept three
1:14:19 and concept 4.
1:14:29 and that's it so given the direction
1:14:34 the steering committee
1:14:37 we as i mentioned are working with our
1:14:40 consultant team i'm putting together
1:14:42 a public engagement plan we are going to
1:14:45 be doing some online surveys as well as
1:14:48 have some
1:14:49 physical signs out and about located in
1:14:52 various places throughout the community
1:14:54 that we might be able to um have qr
1:14:57 codes that people could
1:14:59 scan and take a survey right then and
1:15:01 there and gain feedback in many
1:15:02 different ways
1:15:04 um long will likely have a longer
1:15:06 engagement period
1:15:07 for this we're also trying to figure out
1:15:09 how to reach some other
1:15:11 languages as part of this outreach
1:15:13 process as well
1:15:14 so a lot more to come but it is our goal
1:15:18 by the end of this year
1:15:19 to have all of this information a final
1:15:22 concept that will get shared with the
1:15:25 community like i said it's likely a mix
1:15:27 of the different concepts shown
1:15:31 and then we'll put that into a master
1:15:32 plan by the end of the year
1:15:35 that will have a phased implementation
1:15:38 we don't know what that phase
1:15:40 implementation plan will look like
1:15:42 however we'll want to make sure that
1:15:44 it's consistent routes
1:15:46 facility signage and a mix of things so
1:15:49 i think there's still some further work
1:15:51 we need to do on that but we anticipate
1:15:53 that being done by the end of this year
1:15:55 and then implementation would start to
1:15:57 follow in following
1:15:59 calendar years so with that i'll take
1:16:02 any questions
1:16:06 so i have a couple jen um
1:16:09 are there any more access points uh that
1:16:12 still need to be done or is that all
1:16:13 been established at this stage
1:16:16 it's pretty well established at this
1:16:18 stage
1:16:20 so for the most part we're just really
1:16:22 kind of talking about design and colors
1:16:25 really kind of what the main part of
1:16:28 public outreach is going to be about
1:16:30 correct correct
1:16:35 and then once approved um
1:16:40 what's the forecast in terms of
1:16:41 implementation is this going to be
1:16:45 basically just presenting new signage on
1:16:48 places that probably don't have any
1:16:50 right now is that is that going to be
1:16:53 the priority or is it
1:16:54 the priority going to be replacement of
1:16:56 what is existing
1:16:58 that's a great question brad like i said
1:17:01 we don't really know what our criterion
1:17:04 implementation is going to be i think
1:17:06 there's still a lot of
1:17:07 discussion as far as what the mayor's
1:17:11 priorities would be
1:17:12 on that as well as how what projects
1:17:16 would be underway
1:17:16 where it would make sense routes um
1:17:20 entrances um i think there's a lot of
1:17:22 conversation that still needs to be had
1:17:24 about what that prioritization is
1:17:26 but i would see and it's all dependent
1:17:29 upon how much money
1:17:30 uh we want to invest annually
1:17:33 um as to how long it would take to
1:17:35 implement
1:17:36 all of these obviously we do have some
1:17:38 perks like confluence that has a newer
1:17:41 probably be at the bottom of the list
1:17:44 for replacement however we do have many
1:17:46 many signs
1:17:48 that are in dire need of paint job or
1:17:51 replacement and even some of our
1:17:52 facility signs are very outdated we have
1:17:55 quite the
1:17:56 um quite the mix out when you look at
1:17:59 what our existing inventory is
1:18:01 and so trying to determine
1:18:05 where to start um is going to be a big
1:18:09 big point of conversation until we're
1:18:12 able to face this project
1:18:13 so more to come on that jennifer if
1:18:16 i can just add real quickly brad great
1:18:19 question
1:18:20 this is going to be a multi-year effort
1:18:22 multi-multi-year effort
1:18:24 right so i i think as jennifer said i i
1:18:27 think as we get an idea of what
1:18:30 uh the design concept begins to look
1:18:32 like um and begin to have that
1:18:35 public dialogue with council with
1:18:37 community
1:18:38 as to what implementation looks like i i
1:18:40 think we're quite confident like many
1:18:43 cities this is going to take many many
1:18:44 years
1:18:46 to begin to prioritize
1:18:49 what installation looks like whether
1:18:50 it's replacement of old signs
1:18:53 or identified priorities such as
1:18:56 wayfinding
1:18:57 a priority or is entry signs
1:19:00 uh the priority that's all to be
1:19:02 determined but
1:19:03 this is not this is not
1:19:07 thought to be a you know two-year effort
1:19:11 to totally
1:19:12 switch out signs this could be again a
1:19:15 number
1:19:16 of years five six seven year effort
1:19:23 to that i just want to say we're also
1:19:26 looking at doing sign cleanup
1:19:28 as part of this new installation to help
1:19:30 with some of the sign clutter that is
1:19:32 out on some of our streets
1:19:36 so just to bring that to everyone's
1:19:38 attention
1:19:40 i noticed today that the city uh posted
1:19:43 a meeting for
1:19:44 um tpc
1:19:48 to be doing some work about commercial
1:19:51 signage
1:19:52 and uh is that going to have any impact
1:19:55 or influence on this
1:19:57 wayfinding project yeah so what you're
1:20:00 mentioning brad is i think there's
1:20:02 updates taking place with the sign code
1:20:04 right yeah so so jennifer and i have had
1:20:07 conversations with
1:20:09 uh planning department about that in
1:20:11 this effort and
1:20:12 um yeah making sure those
1:20:16 those two actions uh speak to one
1:20:18 another right the the
1:20:19 this wayfinding and park um sign
1:20:22 facility sign design effort is really
1:20:24 about
1:20:25 public signage uh not about uh
1:20:28 commercial private
1:20:29 corporate signage at all
1:20:33 reuben you got something
1:20:40 yeah i was wondering if you guys have
1:20:41 given any thought to um
1:20:43 letting many community organizations
1:20:46 sponsor a sign
1:20:53 great question reuben i think as we
1:20:56 begin to
1:20:57 get into what implementation looks like
1:20:59 that could be something that
1:21:01 um that we look at and consider
1:21:05 what are what what those options look
1:21:07 like yeah
1:21:13 i'd love to um um kind of
1:21:16 to just put something else out there um
1:21:19 i think
1:21:20 and i've mentioned this a few times over
1:21:21 the years but um i think our parks
1:21:24 the names of our parks are not always
1:21:27 helpful
1:21:28 in figuring out what's there
1:21:32 so we just we sort of like for a bunch
1:21:34 of years we're naming parks just you
1:21:35 know whatever it is park
1:21:37 that park might not have any amenities
1:21:40 in it right it might just be a natural
1:21:42 area whereas some of our parks have
1:21:45 you know are more like like tibbetts
1:21:48 it's almost like an athletic complex
1:21:50 it is serving like an athletic complex
1:21:52 right now and um
1:21:53 in the highlands as well and so it might
1:21:56 worthwhile a worthwhile exercise to kind
1:21:59 of go through our list
1:22:00 and see if there are
1:22:04 names that we might if there might be a
1:22:07 naming convention that would be more
1:22:08 useful um
1:22:10 and to do that ahead of you know ahead
1:22:14 of getting any other signs up
1:22:18 that's a great point i i think one
1:22:20 example would be indy johnson park
1:22:22 right though named a park it really is
1:22:26 functioning as
1:22:27 flood control storm water capacity and
1:22:31 a wonderful open space natural area
1:22:34 yeah so could you call that you know you
1:22:37 know natural
1:22:38 space or natural area or something else
1:22:39 like that so that stuff so somebody
1:22:41 who's not familiar with the area
1:22:43 isn't following a sign you know to go
1:22:45 there thinking that there might be
1:22:46 restrooms for example
1:22:48 right yeah so yeah those naming
1:22:49 conventions we would want to have that
1:22:51 discussion before
1:22:52 exactly before investing in a yeah
1:22:55 that would be a good exercise for this
1:22:58 yeah yeah and as a reminder we do have
1:23:04 statute for a park naming committee uh
1:23:07 so it would likely be an ad hoc
1:23:09 committee of the board
1:23:10 mm-hmm yeah i think
1:23:14 it might be worth looking at those i you
1:23:16 know i know we have like parameters for
1:23:20 you know how we name parks and so it
1:23:21 might even be that the criteria
1:23:23 itself might need to be tweaked or
1:23:25 revised a little bit
1:23:39 uh i agree that um we need to do that
1:23:42 danielle and i think it would go hand in
1:23:44 hand with the
1:23:46 you know a park naming committee because
1:23:47 we do need to you know address some of
1:23:49 those issues as well
1:23:51 and seems to make sense to do them
1:23:53 together if possible
1:23:59 given that this is such a long
1:24:02 tail project though i'm not seeing any
1:24:06 urgency for not necessarily any of that
1:24:11 it might be kind of good to actually get
1:24:13 some of the design
1:24:15 stuff done you know now so that we know
1:24:18 what we're working with
1:24:20 you know and can revise it i like
1:24:23 april's comment about
1:24:25 about temporary names that could
1:24:29 actually
1:24:30 be changed easily is that something
1:24:32 that's
1:24:33 come up in with the consultants as an
1:24:35 option
1:24:40 um no it's not something that we've
1:24:42 talked about
1:24:43 however what has been talked about as
1:24:46 each of these signs
1:24:47 being of durability that if they should
1:24:51 damaged through vandalism that they're
1:24:53 readily replaceable
1:24:56 through fabrication so um
1:25:00 we'll have to see what that would be but
1:25:02 um temporary signs
1:25:04 we'll have to or letters to be able to
1:25:06 change out we'll have to
1:25:08 check into that
1:25:13 right i agree that there's no urgency
1:25:15 you know on this
1:25:16 but i also think you know there are
1:25:18 times that are naturally
1:25:20 like super busy for us as a board and
1:25:23 staff and there are other times where um
1:25:27 you know it's not quite as busy and so
1:25:29 you know to the extent that
1:25:30 um if if we're at a point where we're at
1:25:34 a little compared to you know
1:25:38 some sometimes that we've had in the
1:25:40 last few years um it would be good to
1:25:43 sneak it in right
1:25:47 yeah i was going to add that danielle
1:25:49 that's a great point i i think
1:25:50 brad as as you as the park board chair
1:25:54 right as we're looking at agenda
1:25:55 building and projecting out i think we
1:25:57 can try and identify
1:25:59 uh when is that right time um to maybe
1:26:03 have that naming convention
1:26:04 conversation um as this as this work
1:26:08 continues
1:26:11 agreed
1:26:15 any other questions or comments about
1:26:20 wayfinding
1:26:22 i just have a quick closing comment to
1:26:24 that um
1:26:26 again jennifer thanks for the for the
1:26:28 update i you know
1:26:30 uh that presentation certainly
1:26:32 represents a lot of work and and
1:26:34 wayfinding
1:26:35 is many more things than just a fancy
1:26:38 looking sign
1:26:39 at the at the entrance to a park or or
1:26:41 the city and so
1:26:43 i really appreciate the work that
1:26:45 multiple departments have done
1:26:47 uh that that jennifer's been leading the
1:26:49 steering committee work of the community
1:26:51 has been very helpful
1:26:53 i think at the end of the day that the
1:26:55 goal of this effort is really to take
1:26:57 our trails and our parks and help them
1:27:00 function better
1:27:01 right connectivity becomes that much
1:27:03 more useful when
1:27:05 um there's a there's a really intuitive
1:27:07 way finding program whether it's for
1:27:09 bikers
1:27:10 uh or for or for pedestrians so i think
1:27:12 the goal of this effort is more than
1:27:14 just a fancy sign
1:27:16 it's really functionality and it's those
1:27:18 functional goals that that have really
1:27:20 been a priority for this community for a
1:27:21 long time so
1:27:23 we're excited late april early may to
1:27:27 launch into this degree of public
1:27:29 engagement for this effort
1:27:31 as jennifer mentioned we really want to
1:27:34 do a mix of of online but also
1:27:38 on trail if you will though we can't
1:27:40 host giant public meetings we think it
1:27:42 would be great to
1:27:43 to have some of these concepts out on a
1:27:46 couple of our trails and really invite
1:27:48 the community to go
1:27:49 look at them and and see them and and be
1:27:52 able to respond to the survey
1:27:53 as they're physically looking at these
1:27:56 boards and signs and just trying to find
1:27:57 creative ways in this um
1:28:00 covid recovery phase that we're in and
1:28:04 really engaging with the community in in
1:28:06 different ways about
1:28:08 about this work so thank you for
1:28:11 for the discussion and the feedback and
1:28:13 thank you jen
1:28:16 yeah i agree the priority would be to me
1:28:19 anyway you know how to find places and
1:28:22 where to find parking and that kind of
1:28:24 stuff
1:28:24 and quite frankly that probably would be
1:28:27 less expensive
1:28:28 you know because that's you know the big
1:28:30 cost is going to be
1:28:32 the the the main signs
1:28:35 uh you know it's at the entry points and
1:28:37 stuff that's where a lot of the cost is
1:28:38 going to be
1:28:39 where these signs that point out
1:28:42 direction
1:28:43 to here and there probably wouldn't be
1:28:45 as expensive and could be done much
1:28:47 sooner
1:28:54 so anything else on that don't see any
1:28:57 hands up
1:28:58 danielle i also i'm i'm
1:29:01 i'm super excited for this to get rolled
1:29:03 out i know it's a long-term project but
1:29:06 you know when you're especially if
1:29:08 you're a visitor to an area it's
1:29:10 it's so nice when you know
1:29:13 when when it's easy to figure out where
1:29:14 you're going so
1:29:17 thank you for your work on this
1:29:24 we'll conclude that and on to reports
1:29:30 and i guess that's me first step
1:29:34 don't have much i'll just say um
1:29:38 current terms run through april
1:29:42 and uh new terms will start in may
1:29:46 uh we do have a few people that are up
1:29:51 um new terms and we've already completed
1:29:55 most of the interviews we have one more
1:29:57 interview yet
1:29:58 to complete probably sometime this week
1:30:02 and then jeff will send off some
1:30:04 recommendations to the mayor by the end
1:30:06 of the month and we should have
1:30:08 final results uh in april
1:30:12 probably before our next meeting i would
1:30:14 think
1:30:16 and the only other thing i have is um
1:30:20 all the public lands forum which is
1:30:23 being sponsored this year by
1:30:25 the issaquah alps trails club as well as
1:30:28 mountain sound greenway as well
1:30:31 and i sent the registration out
1:30:35 to everybody some time ago uh
1:30:38 the meeting is coming up this thursday
1:30:41 march 25th at 6
1:30:42 30 p.m it's a virtual meeting you do
1:30:45 have to register
1:30:46 for it uh if anybody
1:30:50 would still like to go that hasn't
1:30:52 registered and don't still have a copy
1:30:54 of what i sent
1:30:55 out please let me know and i'll send you
1:30:57 another
1:30:58 i'll send you another link to register
1:31:02 for that it's going to be a good one
1:31:04 this year
1:31:06 since we have a guest speaker of sally
1:31:09 jewell
1:31:09 which is the prior ceo of rei
1:31:13 and was also the us secretary of
1:31:15 interior under the obama administration
1:31:18 so she's a real powerhouse here lives in
1:31:20 our community
1:31:21 well not necessarily nissa qua but at
1:31:23 least in puget sound
1:31:25 so i'm sure she'll have a lot of good
1:31:27 things to have to talk about
1:31:30 so i encourage people to try and join us
1:31:32 for that if possible
1:31:34 so like i said if you still need the
1:31:36 link to registration please let me know
1:31:37 and i'll send that off to you by email
1:31:40 uh reuben you got something
1:31:50 send me the link that's all okay
1:31:55 anybody else
1:32:00 hey i'll get that to you reuben
1:32:03 uh that's all i had for chair report so
1:32:06 i guess uh
1:32:07 jeff you're up for director's report
1:32:12 good brad thank you um yeah that public
1:32:14 lands forum this thursday is going to be
1:32:16 a great one as
1:32:16 as brad said i just want to add one more
1:32:18 there's one more uh
1:32:20 sponsor to that event and it's the city
1:32:21 of issaquah along with
1:32:23 upstrails club and mountains of sound
1:32:25 greenway so
1:32:26 300 plus attendees have already signed
1:32:28 up for that so
1:32:30 uh should be a a great evening and
1:32:33 you're right sally jewell is a
1:32:36 inspirational speaker a couple items i
1:32:41 um one is just a quick project update on
1:32:44 central park
1:32:45 pad 3 the turf replacement thank you
1:32:47 again for the discussion we had earlier
1:32:49 this year about options
1:32:52 and how we want to approach that project
1:32:54 um your input really helped
1:32:56 to shape that i wanted to let you know a
1:32:59 contract has been awarded
1:33:00 um with field uh field turf uh we will
1:33:04 be proceeding with that
1:33:05 uh project we're gonna be utilizing um
1:33:09 the mix of cork and sand uh as the
1:33:12 infill
1:33:13 for that project then it will be
1:33:16 starting june
1:33:17 7th the goal is to be completed by
1:33:21 a time for youth football to start as
1:33:24 well as false
1:33:25 soccer there in august so
1:33:28 mordecai we've been um getting news out
1:33:32 to sports groups as well as
1:33:36 highlands community and uh look forward
1:33:38 to that
1:33:39 project getting underway uh in june
1:33:44 another update i have really quickly is
1:33:46 on green issaquah our ongoing
1:33:48 operational partnership with forterra a
1:33:51 couple things going on there if you
1:33:52 recall we initiated some
1:33:54 uh recruitment and training efforts for
1:33:56 forest stewards
1:33:58 uh that work continues we have another
1:34:00 uh training and recruitment uh later
1:34:03 this month and and one in april as we
1:34:06 begin to line up
1:34:08 uh stewards uh certainly a lot of
1:34:10 interest that's happening in the
1:34:11 community
1:34:12 as covid recovery and healthy washington
1:34:15 plans begin to
1:34:17 enter future phases uh we're optimistic
1:34:20 uh that there'll be opportunities to
1:34:22 begin to initiate some volunteer efforts
1:34:24 um in that work
1:34:28 in the in the coming months we also
1:34:32 as part of that work have been putting
1:34:33 together and working with forterra on an
1:34:35 actual implementation guide
1:34:37 as to what that looks like if you recall
1:34:39 part of green issaquah was a forest
1:34:41 assessment that we did
1:34:42 of all of our um all of our urban forest
1:34:46 acres
1:34:47 city-owned urban forest acres the
1:34:49 implementation guide really takes a look
1:34:52 if you remember the the triage analysis
1:34:55 that was done
1:34:56 with each acre to identify
1:34:59 the health of our forest and in relation
1:35:02 to invasives and
1:35:04 and other key factors of of the forest
1:35:06 that are really going to help us to
1:35:08 to prioritize our invasive removal
1:35:11 and restoration efforts so that guide
1:35:15 should be coming our way here in
1:35:18 april i'm hoping either by our april
1:35:20 meeting or our may meeting be able to
1:35:22 share that
1:35:23 share that document with you um also
1:35:27 just looking backwards as to
1:35:29 to last year i wanted to highlight um
1:35:32 um you know as we're getting more
1:35:35 intentional
1:35:36 with our tree succession plantings
1:35:39 understanding that urban forest is a
1:35:41 living breathing
1:35:42 entity the city's always been committed
1:35:46 tree plantings last year
1:35:49 we we heightened that effort we planted
1:35:52 10 000
1:35:53 trees within our within our urban forest
1:35:57 and uh certainly an exciting effort and
1:35:59 not something we did alone
1:36:01 uh we did with a number of partners uh
1:36:04 washington conservation corps
1:36:06 um as well as mountains on greenway um
1:36:08 matt meckler and
1:36:10 jen fink certainly deserve a lot of
1:36:13 rounds of applause for uh for that
1:36:16 effort
1:36:16 we also were able to complete that
1:36:19 volume of trees through a grant we
1:36:20 received
1:36:21 through king county you may be familiar
1:36:25 um a grant a county-wide grant effort
1:36:27 that they had underway to try and plant
1:36:29 a million trees
1:36:30 we took it upon ourselves to to get 10
1:36:33 000 of those
1:36:34 planted just within our city-owned
1:36:36 properties here in in issaquah
1:36:38 um so um exciting accomplishment and
1:36:42 again hopefully one that
1:36:43 we begin to model as we move forward
1:36:46 with greenness aqua
1:36:47 and again understanding the the ongoing
1:36:50 stewardship effort that's needed
1:36:52 to stewarding and managing our our urban
1:36:56 forest
1:36:56 the last item i have is is more of a
1:36:59 heads up
1:37:00 hopefully more coming definitely more
1:37:01 coming in april
1:37:03 this is a year every other year the city
1:37:06 updates
1:37:07 its six-year capital improvement plan
1:37:09 it's six-year cip
1:37:11 uh this is an update year and so the
1:37:14 capital improvement plan
1:37:16 includes every really all of our various
1:37:20 pieces of public infrastructure whether
1:37:23 that's
1:37:24 our utilities our storm water utilities
1:37:28 transportation and road capital
1:37:30 infrastructure
1:37:31 as well as facilities and parks and
1:37:34 trails
1:37:34 so jennifer and i are working with
1:37:37 finance and administration right now on
1:37:40 uh what that update looks like i'd like
1:37:43 in april be able to bring that back to
1:37:45 you and share with you what that update
1:37:47 looks like
1:37:48 you may recall as we adopted the 2018
1:37:51 park strategic plan
1:37:52 that would become the anchor document
1:37:55 that would inform
1:37:57 our capital improvement plan and that is
1:37:59 the very thing that's happening with
1:38:00 this update
1:38:01 as well taking really the near-term
1:38:05 priority projects that were identified
1:38:06 in the park strategic plan
1:38:08 aligning that with available funding or
1:38:10 anticipated funding
1:38:12 coming from finance really being able to
1:38:14 lay out a capital improvement
1:38:16 plan that that tries to show what we can
1:38:18 afford
1:38:19 in the coming six years with anticipated
1:38:21 revenues
1:38:22 the six-year cip is not a budget
1:38:24 document it really is a financial
1:38:26 planning document
1:38:28 that lets um the city uh begin to look
1:38:31 and see
1:38:32 how far its revenues can go relative to
1:38:35 the community needs and interests
1:38:36 of all of these varying degrees of
1:38:39 infrastructure whether it's parks trails
1:38:42 roads facilities um etc so
1:38:45 um morticom as that begins to take shape
1:38:48 and gets into a form that um i can share
1:38:52 um share with all of you that's it
1:38:56 thanks brad thank you jeff
1:39:00 and um looks like ryan got a few words
1:39:03 for us do you
1:39:04 i do thank you brad um so i also just
1:39:07 kind of go over what we did in our last
1:39:08 two meetings we've had two meetings
1:39:10 since
1:39:11 the last park board meeting the first
1:39:13 one was just a work group meeting
1:39:15 we have a lot of events coming up in
1:39:18 april
1:39:19 uh including a food drive we have a few
1:39:21 different conferences that's sort of a
1:39:23 lot of groups have been focusing on
1:39:24 conferencing just because that's
1:39:26 uh ben's we viewed it as the best way to
1:39:28 sort of do things
1:39:29 uh through zoom and virtually so we have
1:39:31 one on racism
1:39:32 civic engagement and then state of mind
1:39:34 which is our mental health conference
1:39:36 that we try and do each year and then
1:39:39 last week we had another meeting
1:39:41 with the puget sound regional council uh
1:39:44 and mayor paulie
1:39:45 we did a lot of brainstorming about what
1:39:47 the future of transportation looks like
1:39:49 um sort of what youth are
1:39:52 where youth are sort of interested in
1:39:53 going in a sequoia today
1:39:55 um and also looking towards sort of what
1:39:58 we value in transportation in the future
1:40:00 what is going to be important to think
1:40:01 about uh as the population and landscape
1:40:04 change 50 years from now um yeah
1:40:09 thank you ryan for that by a lot of
1:40:11 great things going on with the youth
1:40:13 here in our community appreciate that
1:40:18 uh jeff you got anything from the mayor
1:40:21 for the mayor's report
1:40:24 uh no specific um updates other than
1:40:27 again a
1:40:28 a big thanks for um the work you did
1:40:32 the work we did with central park in
1:40:33 terms of having that discussion on what
1:40:35 kind of
1:40:36 um product we want to proceed with and
1:40:39 and that really helped shape that that
1:40:40 contract
1:40:43 okay uh anybody have any announcements
1:40:48 other business to discuss
1:40:52 have you guys um i saw that rei is going
1:40:55 to be moving in to one of the
1:40:57 um they've kind of
1:41:00 broken up their headquarters and we'll
1:41:03 be moving into
1:41:04 issaquah and that seems like a
1:41:08 natural kind of partner or collaborator
1:41:10 with us
1:41:11 so i'm just wondering if you guys have
1:41:13 had any contact with them or if there's
1:41:16 opportunity to do that uh there's been a
1:41:19 welcome to the neighborhood but
1:41:21 uh we we want to let the new neighbors
1:41:23 have a chance to move in before we uh
1:41:25 uh have too many discussions or
1:41:28 conversations about ways to partner
1:41:30 um yeah it is it's terrific news uh
1:41:32 terrific news for issaquah
1:41:34 i i in my previous job intent
1:41:36 coincidentally which was
1:41:38 uh the headquarters of rei before
1:41:41 um they were amazing partners and and i
1:41:44 know uh we'll certainly look forward to
1:41:47 likely partnering with many of the the
1:41:49 amazing agencies
1:41:50 um here in issaquah but um i think the
1:41:53 goal is to really give them an
1:41:54 opportunity to focus on moving in
1:41:56 they're really
1:41:57 looking at a new a new opera a new um
1:41:59 office model
1:42:00 um so um a lot of a lot of work for them
1:42:04 to figure out what that looks like um
1:42:07 before
1:42:08 we as a community come knocking on their
1:42:09 door so more to come
1:42:12 yeah i think this is great this is going
1:42:14 to be their first satellite office so
1:42:16 i'm sure they'll be investing a lot of
1:42:20 a lot of thought into how that rolls out
1:42:22 almost kind of like their flagship of
1:42:24 the satellite office concept so
1:42:27 i think it's super super exciting for
1:42:29 the class so
1:42:30 i agree yeah probably super exciting for
1:42:33 raleigh too to actually have their new
1:42:35 building already have a tenant
1:42:37 you know
1:42:40 any other uh announcements comments
1:42:46 that i have one i have a personal
1:42:48 privilege super duper fast
1:42:50 my youngest girl anna um turned 16 today
1:42:57 way to go as any 16 year old she would
1:43:00 be super embarrassed if she was
1:43:02 listening right now but
1:43:03 um she'd be more embarrassed if you
1:43:05 started posting pictures or a video of
1:43:12 director who sometimes has to do evening
1:43:14 meetings for birthdays and whatnot so
1:43:16 there you go well you only got two more
1:43:20 years before she's off to college so it
1:43:21 takes a good time to take advantage of
1:43:23 all that
1:43:26 and go zags yeah my son's a freshman
1:43:29 there so
1:43:32 okay everyone well thanks so much for uh
1:43:34 showing up tonight and appreciate all
1:43:35 your input
1:43:36 and we'll do it again next month so
1:43:39 take care of yourselves uh meeting is
1:43:42 adjourned
1:43:42 thank you everyone bye thanks thanks
1:43:45 everyone thank you
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