Yes. Okay.
Welcome everyone for joining us tonight. Of when a thousand will do commissioners 1st and then we need to step.
Board chair. Amy breakfast. Stafford May's District 7. And then do we have any commissioners?
You made it just in time we're doing introductions. Do you want to do yours please? Have a minute.
Sorry to be a couple of minutes late. Philip Meng district 7.
Excellent. And then one would go around for staff. Sure. Jonathan Garner, Sale of Parks, Thank you everyone and it looks like we have for.
Great. I'm gonna move on to the landing. Okay, see out parts and recreation acknowledges and affirms indigenous coast sandwich people as the original caretakers of our waters and last Nature in to shape today's apartment.
We honor their legacy with gratitude and appreciation and safeguard their knowledge and stewardship as enduring treasures to promote me in welfare.
Cultivate inclusive expressions of nature and reparation and commit to Atlantic novel for each consuming generation.
Yes. Alright, moving into next part of business here is approval of consent agenda items. That will be the meeting minutes from March, the 28th this year as well as the agenda for today.
I have a motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Next item, we will move into public comment.
Okay, we have. Quite a big list. So I think we're gonna try and do.
90 seconds. I'll see you some of my time. To make sure we get through all Mike, I see you in the online.
You have permission to unmute yourself and go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to submit a comment. I can't tell whether I'm visible or not, but hopefully you can hear me.
My name is Mike Pearson and I'm working with others in the hopes of seeing the existing public tennis courts at Magdalen Park substantially refurbished.
At a minimum to realize their great potential as a public community resource and I'm speaking to encourage support for that effort.
I moved to the Wedgwood neighborhood in 1,988. I cherished Magnuson Park.
I'll spare you the history of my family there, which is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of visits.
There are 6 public tennis courts at Magnus and they've been there a long time. Unfortunately, they're in really poor shape now though they've been there a long time.
Unfortunately they're in really poor shape now though they still see some tennis and pickle ball use.
The refurbishing of these existing courts so that they can provide a strong public tennis space amongst the other attractions at Magazine Park.
And with the increase in housing at Sand Point and nearby and the potential for youth and other programs through the Magazine Park Community Center or in conjunction with the nearby private tennis center standpoint, there are increasing community benefits that can be realized from.
Revitalizing these 6 public courts. I've spoken with others who agree. I've had a number of contacts with the US Tennis Association which has encouraged us to pursue this and I believe there's a real potential for some at least outside money toward this project.
My additional hope is to see refurbished Madison courts named to honor the late pioneering black Seattle architect Mel Streeter.
Mel was featured in last year's Mohi exhibition on significant black architects in Seattle.
He was also a leader in Seattle tennis circles over many, many years, decades, and he had a particular interest in Magnus Part.
So in summary, 3 things. First, st let's get these existing public courts fixed up so they better serve the public.
Second, there's the potential for some outside money. And 3, rd let's name them to honor a really deserving Seattle hero, Thank you.
Thanks, Mike. Right. You're perfect on your 2 min. We appreciate.
Kirsty Mull? Okay.
Oh, good evening. My name is Personal. I'm an urban conservation specialist and wildlife biologist.
Hi, comment is in regards to parks. Send us a bit of all vision. Having been involved in Stamless for the last 9 months.
And working on a team with Parks and Andy Shepherd. I have unique insight into Park's continued failures to be honest, keep promises and openly communication updates this team.
I'm here representing over 8,000 community members. We continue to urge the Parks of Arts to prioritize transparency, honesty, accountability, and public involvement in its processes and visions for the shared use of parks moving forward.
I work together, we can create and maintain vibrant, sustainable parks that benefit us all. Transparency is essential and building trust between the Parks Department and the community that it serves.
By providing clear, accurate, accessible information about Parks management decisions and plans. The department can foster it says openness and accountability that benefits everyone.
Honesty and communication is key to maintaining a positive relationship with the public. Sharing openly allows for a constructive dialogue in collaboration between the parts department and community stakeholders.
It is important to acknowledge the states and learn from them too through part management practices for the benefit of all.
Accountability ensures the parts of our is not responsible for its actions and decisions regarding our green spaces.
Establishing clear evidence for feedback and reporting mechanisms. Parks can demonstrate its commitment to serving our communities, the 1st interest in.
Public involvement in decision making and visioning for the future of our brain spaces is essential for creating a sense of ownership and pride among Seattle residents.
We're seeking and put in to by the community for a to ensure. But their management reflects the diverse need and preference of those who use and enjoy these spaces.
Thank you. Okay.
Next up is break 2.
Okay, thanks a lot. I represent a group of about 2,000 people who signed a petition that calls for the government of 24 dedicated football courts in 124.
And I'm here tonight because I wanna make 3 points. One is that Seattle right now has the dubious distinction of being the worst in the West in terms of providing dedicated vehicle courts.
Number 2, the solution to that problem can be done immediately and it can be done cheaper. And the 3rd point I want to make is that so far we presented a list of recommendations to the superintendent and his staff and so far they have not been addressed on how to deal with this problem of being the worse and the less.
So let me address the 1st issue. Over 5,000 C's have been assessed.
Okay, just gave it into the.
Over 5,000 cities have been researched to determine how many dedicated pickleball courts to look at the facilities.
And in them by fiddleheads. Calm and the for city. Our sides is having 27 dedicated pickleball courts.
Seattle has one. It's a moral verse. And even if you throw in 4 other courts that are substandard and have things like jogging.
Tracks go through them. You're up to 5. We're still at the bottom of the list.
So we think we can do much better. There's, there's over 10, a hundred tennis courts in Seattle.
Some of them under you. L us. If you took 6 of those courts, 24 are dedicated to all courts.
We know that it can be done cheap. In fact, it was then, 30 more seconds over again.
It was done last year here in Seattle where the Pacific, where the, pickleball association, National Picketball Association, created a hundred $1,000, converted 10 tennis courts in a 24 pickup off courts and then they were 2 weeks later to turn back.
So we know it can be done cheaply. We support our long-term development pickled upward to the idea of Magnus and that they talked about that's really worth doing.
But we have such a huge number of people that are out playing pickleball, we need more clips.
So I hope you'll encourage the superintendent to bring to you a proposal. Is part of the courts this year about 6 of the tennis courts.
Thank you. Oh, Alright.
Oh, thank you. I'm speaking on behalf of Birds Connect Seattle about cheesy green space and natural area.
We are concerned about 2 issues. First, st the construction of the second mountain bug trail which has already begun.
Our concern is that heavy machinery and materials and ongoing construction activity will happen very near a Cooper's hawk nest.
Cooper's hawks are a protected species in our state. We know the adult female has already laid eggs, and we believe that such human activity may cause the parents to abandon the nest.
We ask that construction be postponed until the young have fledged, meaning after the 1st week of July.
Doing so would be following best verting practices outlined in the training of our forest stewards.
We're also concerned about a larger issue, namely Svr's responsibility to the habitats and wildlife of our city.
Was responsible not just for recreation but for sustaining the great diversity of birds and other wildlife in Seattle's parks and green spaces, especially in our urban forests and tree canopy.
Too often the needs of wildlife have been ignored as SBR continues to put human recreation above the needs of wildlife above the needs of people who want the benefits of connecting with nature.
I've been leading monthly BCS censuses at Cheesy since 2021. Over the years we have found 64 different bird species there.
More than 1,700 individual birds, an average of 197 a month. Cheesy is home to year round birds such as peliated woodpeckers the 3rd largest bird in the world.
It's home to migratory birds on their way to and from areas as far apart as Patagonia and the Arctic Circle.
It hosts winter birds from the far north who seem to think that we are the balmy South. It also hosts summer breeders coming from as far away as Argentina.
I invite you to come and see some of these wonders of nature with us and to realize the value of places such as chaste we would love to show you their world.
Thank you.
Alright, thank you so much. On your time. Appreciate that. Kathy, Columbo.
All right, Kathy, I'm going to give you a permission to talk. You may unmute and have 2 mess.
Great. Okay. Thank you so much. I am here to follow up with you regarding our recent submittal.
Following the application to rename the golf related areas of Jefferson Park to the Bill Wright Golf Complex to honor our hometown.
Gulf, a African-american hero in celebration of inclusive one Seattle. I come to you from Beacon Hill, the golfing people of color and mainstream communities to honor our authentic local hero who broke.
The golf glass ceiling for African-americans to people of color. With his historic victory in 1,959.
National USGA amateur public links championship. He is a man of noble character. He was persistent, disciplined, hard-working, circumspent, circumspect athlete scholar teacher mentor for youth and inclusive golf community builder whose life aligned with our beloved city of Seattle, values of race and social justice.
Okay.
We respectfully asked that Miss Hough convene the SPR naming committee to fully consider review and approve our at the latest by the end of May so we can organize a celebration and ribbon cutting.
With your presence and with our honorable elected officials and dignitaries on October, the 12,024.
We are available to present at the SPR naming committee and answer any questions. In the interim, please contact either myself, Kathy, Columbo, or Mark Solomon.
Thank you.
Kathy, can I ask you to stay on really quick? Can you hear me?
I'm not sure who's talking.
Yes.
Okay, my name is ADGS. I'm the superintendent of Seattle Parks, and I don't normally do this, but I didn't want to lose you.
Actually, your your advocacy as well as the community we've actually. Have our meeting to feel right that the committee has formed and that decision was made and we will work with your group, but we are organizing a celebration and a ribbon type.
So I just wanted to share that good news with you because I don't know how it was not connected but.
Within that, what you just said, I just wanted you to know that we are indeed doing that and to honor this great man.
So thank you for your advocacy. I hope that provides some joy to you. Right.
Oh, thank you all so much. I will pass that on to the community with an email and we look forward to working alongside of you.
Thank you so very much. We're very excited. I can't wait to share it with the community.
Great.
Whoo!
Hey, keep moving. Sarah. You are up next. As soon as I find you in my list here, I will unmute you and you have it on me and you will have 2 min to speak.
Hello, thank you for the time. I would like to have actually my husband speak because he's a better speaker than I am.
Okay.
This is Brad Barnett. And we're talking about pick a ball at Lincoln Park.
Good evening. Thank you very much for hearing us out here. This isn't the 1st community. By any stretch to put in pickle ball courts in one place or another.
And this was done in Lake Oswego at Westland Park. And unfortunately for them, the parking demands and the highly impulse.
Sound of pickleball impacted the entire park to such a degree that they really had to study it in detail.
And they hired sound engineers, they did noise abatement. And they came up with some real cost and eventually they end up pulling up the courts for the simple reason that having it within 550 feet.
Yeah.
Or close to residence was far too loud. Now this partially is why this particular court at Lincoln Park has been selected because it's 500 plus feet from the nearest residents like legal residence, but it's in the middle of the park.
So every resident who's trying to use the park. Is going to be affronted with this noise.
Also, this one time tennis court has been used for a material storage site for the last almost 20 years and it's been thoroughly thrashed.
I don't think anyone's being honest about the actual costs. Of rehabilitating this site.
Neither have they been honest with the costs of what happened. To the material storage site that was being used there as now the trucks were rattling all the way over to Beacon Hill to do the same job.
An increased cost. There are some wonderful sites available for indoor pickle ball right up the street. At our local shopping center.
Which is in some dire needs of some help. That Staples is gone, bed, bath, and beyond.
And there's some reasonable rents to be had. I don't understand why this isn't being looked upon.
Other than the fact that it wouldn't be the parks department because it's a private thing. And I think we need to be honest here with the pickle ball community being Such a large group of reliable voters by age and demographic that they're definitely someone that everyone, it's the maybe kissing of this generation if if you would have it.
Okay.
And again, there's a lot of good things to do with pickle ball, but. People I know play, they drive to the courts, see if it's busy.
Line up, get in and play. This court, you cannot see the court from where you would dream about parking your car if you could find a space.
Yeah, this parking lot is full almost all the time. Any accurate parking study would lead you to go somewhere else. Also you're a
You're well over your time there. And you can send comments and if you have more to say where circulate them for reading to all of the work.
Thank you. I'm Robyn Schwartz.
I do not see Robin. Online.
In the room. Okay, and next step we have 5.th
Good evening. I'm Dick Lustard. I'm Yeah, since you're talking to be talking about the vision for tennis, it's been a long way to say something.
I'm against any pickup all legs or taking over any more self art sports. I'm totally support looking at the and mansion, building, of course, inside.
And you start on sports like, you know, thousands of people take up football recently, but I like that they're history of racket sports.
Millions of people took up racket ball in the eightys and 1,000 records took up racket ball in the eightys and 1,000 records were built and public and private and the eightys. And 1,000 records were built and public and private.
And there were multiple pro-sircuts. Oh But we're at the Rockwell Thursday. 0.
Legal winners. I venture, you can't even identify. Best friends or players. Yes.
Tanzanian. It's not a family breakfast. And it's pickup off and Who knows?
My baby boomers go away. It is bad. So I just want to plan for our plan to think about this when they talk about our planning and use your choose a facility that can be transitioned or not have a heavy expense.
Perfect. Okay. Give you permission to unmute yourself and you will have 2 min. Go ahead.
That's great. Thank you very much. Great to see you all again. Thank you for hearing me.
Terry Home with Reneer Valley Greenways. And save streets and Seattle neighborhood green ways.
I'm speaking tonight in regards to the current Lake Washington Boulevard. See our public recreation.
Parks and Rock design concepts for like Washington Boulevard improvements. I've sent you an email which you should now have in your inbox and I'm encouraging all the commissioners to read that.
This an abbreviated form of what I said there. As you may know, SPR staff working with S.
Dot staff is in the process of gathering public input. Related to upcoming expenditures on the Lake Washington Boulevard.
Between Mount Baker Beach and Serb Park. Please review the project website, which is on available through the Parks website.
Including in the website is a survey which will be open until May, We encourage your participation, which includes an opportunity to add written comments.
Please see the Renier Valley Greenways and Safe Streets, like Washington, but Rev.
Renovation project responses. Attached to my email. This is a granular response. The design concepts.
We have endorsed, endorsed some of the planned work. That are adamant that the project as proposed will not adequately address the safety of everyone using the boulevard for the 3 miles included in the plan.
For this project to be successful, it's imperative to complete more traffic coming improvements than are currently proposed.
The SPR design concept is based on currently available metropolitan part district funds an amount that is inadequate to the task of significantly improving safety on the roadway.
In your advisory role, we respectfully, respectfully ask. You to encourage SPR city council and the mayor to more fully fund this work.
The future of this park and the safety of park users is at stake. Thank you again.
Alright, thank you so much, Harry. Patricia. Okay. Patricia, I'm going to give you a permission to unmute yourself and you'll have 2 min.
Thanks very much. Yes, I'm Patricia Guj. And I'm, I'm really going to speak from the heart.
This is about pickleball chords and the noise problems and the sighting problems. Earlier on it was mentioned that there's 1 dedicated pickup all court in this, in the city of Seattle and that is at Laurelhurst.
Well, we live within a within about a hundred 20 feet from that cord and the court came in with no meeting notice.
No community input. And it has been a thorn in our sides ever since. The screaming, the noise.
Just the pickup on both itself. The there's a real I hate to use the word bro culture but there I go that is associated with the people I see grandma's up there screaming.
Twenty-something screaming it's a real problem we've been working with the Excellent.
Trying to get some noise basement, abatement put in, but it's a real problem.
Be very careful where you situate. The chords. I looked at the, at the, there's a There's some sites that we're dying within for potential support, dedicated pit bug, work works.
It's on your website. Bitter Lake, Magazine Park, Genesee Park, Georgetown, Hiawatha.
I looked the maps for each of those to see if they're close to homes. With the exception of Magnuson, all of those sites are too close to homes.
So it's you're buying a problem and we're living with the problem and we'd like to we're living with the problem and we'd like to we'd like to keep other people having to go through the misery that we're going through with the court next plus.
Alright, thank you, Patricia. Next up, Gordon. I wanted to get over what you can see.
Criminal walking advertisements. I understand. AD. My name is Borden and I joined the board of Seattle Metro Football Association 2 years ago and I was a tidal space on empowering play.
Well, I would like to preface this evening's presentation about S. Sr's vision for pickle ball was a recent history.
In 2,023. 29, semi permanent or permanent deaths. Workplace, 27 in the Seattle area.
Phone that's actually purchased by SPR using 2,022 budget. The rest were community fund.
One beautiful court restoration, vegan hill, the creation of 2 dedicated pickle holes with a lot of community sort was it was built in downtown Seattle bringing a number of dedicated people up courts up to 5 inside Seattle which is paltry compared to our suburbs and no further gains in courts or court mining with the whole of Solstice in Lakewood Park.
This year, 2,000 paddles will be hitting the immediate area. 500 from the University of Washington where they're very The mayor decided over a football event during a London basketball game which will be followed by another associated with Husky Football and even Benton the mayors can be pumped up for that.
And we also have to give credit to UW. Sickleball team, which line 12th course in the brand new downtown Senate Convention Center.
Can you even imagine that in the heart of Seattle to continue? 1,300 petals are coming in from the Seattle Mariners pickle all night where the mayor has also been requested to attend.
100 more are dual branded with SNPA and the diversity and inclusion and pick a hole where the mayor and superintendent spoke last year and took long complimentary patterns.
And finally, 112 panels donated by SNPA and mashed by Tripoli Central to kick off to kick off pick the ball in Seattle Public Schools K through 12 I may 1st in the Franklin High School gym.
The Seattle, Monica, Seattle, that's all think of all, lot of kirk is 4 chords for play.
I'm looking forward to seeing how . S. And see how ready it is for business. People ball is still hard charging and growing.
Closing seconds, pick up all noise. What is the planet? A year ago in December, we talked about acoustic events getting installed at 3 locations.
Then it was 2 locations. And not is there a plan to address the Thank you. Oh Stuart Okay.
Inexpensive to pickle ball courts in Lincoln Park, I'm arguing it would come at great sense nearly every day for the last 20 years I've spent maybe an hour or more on Lincoln Park both enjoying the natural environment and then it's a volunteer controlling the weeds to protect the natural vegetation and help the landscape.
There recover some the additional wealth of nature it might have had before the city was felt around it in reality I come to this quite peaceful and beautiful place as much to avoid dealing with the rest of my world as to help with protection and recovery of the perks natural wealth.
That's all the more reason I value the quiet. My concern about pickleball and Lincoln purpose is primarily for birds.
My concern is primarily for the people who come to Lincoln Park to enjoy both the birds, sounds of birds, and the wealth of nature there in general.
As well as the relative decent of one of the rarest and best bits of nature left in Seattle. Even the dog walkers come to Lincoln Park to enjoy the sound sights and smells of nature together with their dogs.
Pickle ball is known for the loud and far carrying noise it makes. This would degrade the value of Lincoln Park as a natural area for the people that come from all around the Seattle to enjoy the rare wealth nature that is still there in the city.
Seattle couldn't buy another place like this in Seattle for a billion dollars. Rather than degrade the unique wealth of nature, people enjoy in Lincoln curve with a, with a noise of pickle ball, find a vacant block by Boeing field or in an industrial area for another pickle ball court where there would be the least conflict of interest and the least segregation of wealth from other people.
Thank you.
Next step we have French. Well done. Yes, thank you. Hi, everyone.
I'm Frank Chiponi. I am president of Seattle Metro Football Association. 1st of all, thank you.
Thank you to HP. Thank you, Andy. I see you on the call. Thank you, Jonathan.
Your collaborative approach and dialogue over the last, well, several years. And I love forward to doing more that.
1st of all, I have a controversial statement to make. I believe football, tennis. Nature lovers, dog walkers, neighbors can can coexist.
I like boards. You can't figure out ways to do that. I will ask the board to continue to put the pressure on AP and his team.
To be leaders in this space and in the community and fighting ways to know we need the growing demand to pick a ball and and the expanse of off the ways that meet the needs of all constituents and also provides a balance in resources that that Seattle Parks has across Pickle Ball and Text.
I look forward to seeing your plan tonight. I look forward to working with you all on the FLAN, iterating on us, make it better, making sure that it needs a needs of our community as well as the test committee.
I want to offer SMPa's assistance and helping you realize that plan with not only people power thought power but also financial power in ways that you can and so I just wanted to stand before you and offer that and thank you again for your time.
Okay.
Alright Peter Siteel, I'll be brief. I represent that Green Lake, like football players.
I want to. Say I support everything that Frank has just has just said I thank you AP Andy Jonathan I hope you as well will continue working come collaboratively with us on getting pickup off facilities in the right places.
2 points I want to make. One is I don't believe this has to be a fight between 10 people and people and nation people.
I think if we sit down in a room together, we can work these things out and we can find for all the sports and all the activities that we're talking about.
I do not want to be in opposition to any any votes that are here that previously spoken. And then the second thing I would like to mention is, Amy, I know you have been to Greenland, like this facility you saw what the culture is like there.
It's different than than a tennis environment. It's different than many other sport environments.
It's open, it's welcoming, and I believe that if you all the rest of people on board and others in Parks Carmen would come down and visit these facilities you would see how different they are.
And it would help you figure out how can we make this scene, the pickleball scene, work inside Seattle.
Expanded inside Seattle and be able to. In coordination with and in a friendly way with tennis players and people.
Thank you very much for taking the time to try to figure all this out of us.
Yeah.
Hi everybody. I'm Nicolas, And I've been following, for it's, creating Google.
Words since, 2,016. And, I'm just gonna ask one thing is that in your upcoming vision and plan.
You include a needs analysis for both pickle ball and tests. For current needs and projected needs.
And, some of your conclusions to be rooted in data. Yes. Thank you.
Oh, hanging by your minutes. Alright, I'm doing a time check here. You're at 7 0 5.
How'd you like to see one of those friends? Okay.
Or why don't we maybe since this time folks are here have go into our pickle ball before then earlier.
Welcome to Go ahead. Yes, you want to do a remarks for this yet?
Okay.
Hi, I'm in. Oh, hi. I'm Andy Schaffer, deputy superintendent planning and capital development.
And I'd like to introduce Jonathan Garner. Are lead pickleball liaison from Seattle Parks.
And when Jonathan was asked. To take on this planning role. The 1st thing he said to me was, when are we going to play pickle ball?
He said, I've been playing tennis. And. If I'm going to take on this assignment.
I've got to play pickle ball. We played pickle ball that evening. And, you know, I think that's critical as planners, as parking recreation.
Professionals that we engage in the activities that we're supporting. Both tennis and pickle ball. Walk in the environment and Hi, Jonathan has engaged with all the stakeholders before this meeting and I just want to applaud them for his efforts.
I'm looking forward to this presentation. In this presentation, we don't address Lincoln specifically. We are.
Of a decision forward on Lincoln. I just got a text from. One of our partners, we're exploring a number of avenues.
And Jonathan, do you want to take it from here?
Oh, and just before Jonathan gets started, thank you, Andy, so much for being a partner on this.
I'm working. Part on this issue and before we get to Jonathan's presentation as there are many members here public I want to thank you 1st of all those who spoke in favor and having to see a tennis, which I also play.
And I didn't know how to play a ball until I came to Seattle and some of the fine folks in this room taught me how to play and have been gracious and then lots of community members doing that.
I love all sports but beginning to learn them all. And as well as when people ask me what my favorite parks are in Seattle, so it's hard for me to say because that's like asking where it takes children.
In the top 3 of thought for all the reasons you said because I just find it being idle for many reasons.
And so as Andy said, we have more information on that coming, but we hear what you're saying on that.
But commissioners, I want you to know too in public that, you know, since my time that I've been here, clearly one of the strongest and growing.
Sports stems from where this sport was discovered and originated just across the Elliot. On Baybridge.
And so there's a tremendous love and it's also a sport that speaks to young old. And adults.
And that's a unique thing that I think we want to lean into to continue to advance. So.
We are committed, we believe, however, that, you know, there is space for everyone and it's important not to denigrate any other sports and I don't think the advocates of the ball are trying to denigrate other people who enjoy other sports.
Even tennis players. So you'll hear tonight report that we are working on and we certainly want to continue to lean into our partners to help us shape this.
But before I turn that over, I would IT was. We're going to, 24 by 24 tomorrow.
I would love to. It's not that we're not. Wanting to lean into the wall and that we're not going to and that we're not going to have plan it's so I just want people to know that it's not because we think it's a fad or we don't believe in it or we just don't think it's important to the contrary we spend a lot of
time in this department on it. We're not great at it. We're getting better, but it's the partnership that makes us stronger.
And so with that, I will turn it over to Jonathan Gardner to give a presentation. How we are visioning an approach to football and tennis in the city of Seattle.
Thanks. Andy. Everyone in the room, I'm Jonathan Burner. I am a singer player with parts playing couples development.
When I was approached to. To be a part of this pick-all thing. I like Andy said I jumped fully and I like complex problems.
This is a complex problem. It's something that's happening. Not just in our city, nationwide, across the country.
And even in many parts of the world, this is a, this is a big problem that a lot of planters a lot of minds are.
Putting forward to try to solve. I'm not bringing solutions tonight. We don't have those.
We have a path to find solutions and that's what we're working on.
So just quick background. I'll go quick through this in 2017. You know, we really started to invest some infrastructure.
We added new courts in places. As a pilot study to see how we can how we can do this.
That led to a pilot report in 2019 that was, Done in house with some consultants.
To look at ways to experimental striping, find other locations, refine the stripe, the standard from the striping.
And. And then that led to the 2022. You can't see it there, but the outdoor pickleball study.
This further the recommendations from the 2019 report and responded to a lot of college which led to, I think, a win for the pickleball community and that we started to dedicate planning and funding in our municipal park district cycle.
That's a big win that we started to put money schools in. But you can see there's a big chunk there.
Or 2017 to 2023 that were very pick of all. Heavily focused. We swung the pendulum.
Pretty far to one side. Oh, which we needed to to sort of. So we needed to do that to address a lot of these concerns.
But along the way we kind of left tennis in the lurch.
So going forward, we have. Some ideas that they're more present and that's where we are in 2024.
Next slide.
This is the current distribution of pickle ball transports. These are the current numbers I have heard from my fine fellows and the pickup ball association that These numbers are not entirely accurate.
That's something that we need to work on this year to make sure that our records, our databases.
Is accurate and it's reporting. They can see on the left here, we're showing that we have.
So take that, you know, the understanding that there could be some error here. We have 94 courts.
87 of those are shared among 3 other core sports, tennis basketball badge. Which means that we really only have 3 dedicated couple of courts in all of Seattle.
On the right side, we have tennis courts. Current numbers are showing a hundred 35 total.
If you take away. The ones that are dull stripe for pick a ball were left with only 52 dedicated courts.
That's severely undercut. Tennis's ability to play. A sport because once once we added pick a ball.
In some places we had of one court to attend court and in some places we had 2 courts on either side of the nest.
And if you do that Yes, you might expect here. You had pick a ball somewhere, football players come, like, ants to a sugar cube.
So. So you can see in some places. Especially like Gilman and Northwest area, you know, we had 2 tennis courts, went to 4 pickleball courts.
Effectively that took away 2 test scores because it's it's full up to both players often. It's anything happening at Al Qaeda.
Same thing happening in place like right in your beach. It really undercut the ability for players of tennis.
To play their sport.
Okay, next slide. Okay, you just go back for the commissioners, which so when you say that Is that wanna be clear here too in our presentation, talk about dual stripes or dedicated football.
We're saying 3, but I only see 2 on the map. I also include the Taylor. As part of our dedicated football sites downtown.
There's 1 of the Royal 1st in the northeast and then just that may believe there's 2.
Again, these numbers might not be pretty accurate. This is from our current database. Okay. Leaf which shark Right.
Sorry. So far of our work is to get these numbers accurate to reflect them accurately. Okay.
So what we want to do is, we recognize that They pick a we have 2 highly engaged communities of their own sports.
There's a high demand of needs and wants from each community. But you know, it's so secret, we have limited funds.
We have We have limited staff to dedicate towards just these things. So we have to find the bounce.
With that and we also have to find the balance between the natural environment. We can. Yeah, what's a big attractor for a lot of people in the city of Seattle and I think what kind of puts our park system ahead of a lot of cities, our sizes that we.
Dedicate a lot of space to nature to just natural areas. If we go in and pay build hard infrastructure and that, and we lose that credibility, we lose that.
Alright, that feeling that a lot of people. So. Appreciate and at once.
So we need to find a way to swing that pendulum back closer to center.
Right. Next slide. So before we get into it, just a little fun fact. One of the most decorated tennis players in the world, Senator Williams also.
They took a ball at the pro level. Just kind of, Alright, thanks. So our vision forward Like many people who spoke tonight, we also have 3 main points that we want to cover and that is our capacity, our utilization, and our communication.
With our capacity, we really need to put a stake in the ground for tennis and for pickable.
We need to forward the capital projects that we have in the works and keep pushing us to realization. And, and along with that, we need to also make improvements to the existing infrastructure.
That we have. So. You hear a lot of.
Requests for new facilities. New places to play but there's also a lot of existing places that need a refresh.
And we need to balance what we're doing there with refreshing those and providing new spaces. Our utilization of our existing infrastructure, we have a reservation and system in place for about half of those courts.
It's not working as well as it should be, so we need to find ways to revise that.
Make it better. We are looking at some noise reducing impacts. You heard some stuff here about some fencing, some netting.
We also have some panel technology looking at to just a minute. And then we need to also partner to partner with some other organizations institutions to increase those number of courts in places like parking garages or parking lots and places where it makes sense.
Okay, our communication needs to be better. In 2022 when the study was being put forward there wasn't advisory committee they had 9 meetings I don't know the history of why they stopped me, but it is part of our vision to revise.
That or to to revive that. That council bring together people who play football, people who play tennis.
I think it would even be important to have some people who represent other parts of. City parks you know to find that balance between nature.
Bring that that council back together. Meet on on a regular basis. And find they work together to to find adequate solutions to this problem.
Another piece of our communication is we're building an online engagement hub, which I can get into.
Just a little bit, but it'll be a 1 stop place for everybody in place. Both tennis and pick a ball to come together.
To have a place to talk, to work through issues. And, So next slide. So with our capacity.
Like I said, we want to put a steak in the ground tonight. We are in order to dedicate.
Hubs for tennis at Lower Woodland Park. And at Amy E part. I mean, Tessner, excuse me.
And we're going to edit GitHub for pickable at the screen link. Now Vadja High School still continue to play there during season.
Work that out with school but Pick a ball will be at East Green Lake and we're currently like, yeah, of then, you know, east, year early when I came here.
I think I told the story several times in the community that I went to visit Green Mate for the 1st time because everyone talks about green light, green light meaning just in general.
Like such an amazing part. And I remember pulling it in there on a Saturday or something and my 1st stop was, do we do, do we do feeding outreach programs here?
Did that. Okay, that's interesting. And like that up in realize it was the paper wall.
So that is really important because we want to not only establish that as a hub but then Our goal is to find another solution for the tennis team there.
So that we can then truly make that a dedicated court. Doesn't have the dual striping and that we can also work on making it sharper and some of the things that we've talked about there.
So I do want you to know that that's why you'll continue and I think some of you know that.
Continue to see the dual overall goal would be that when we have a dedicated or it's truly dedicated.
Meaning that tennis player from those dedicated tennis courts and not have to worry about dual striping or other uses and pickable players can build a confidence too nice.
Striped quartz or pickle ball only. So that's the whole thing.
Yeah, we're still looking for a location in South Seattle. But we're confident that that by the end of this year we can find that.
They make that I think that reality.
Again, part of our capital projects resurfacing some of the tennis courts. There are 12 projects currently on the boards for 2024 to be done we're working together to find we're working internally to find the places where as we research those do we need to dedicate those to one specific sport or do we need to distract them?
And those will be strategic throughout the city and where we find usage. And find a balance there. We also wanna.
Look at possibilities for high density core structure which I have some examples for a second and this idea of a shared distinct use pilot that was brought forward by our good friends at the Seattle Metro Pickwall Association.
And then also. Current planning, magazine and Georgetown or in current conceptual planning stages that those products are going forward.
That's like. Okay, or our hook criteria, these are sport specific facilities like AP was mentioning players can come here and be part of that community that know where they are they know that they're gonna go and do that and not have to Not to battle with conflicting sport there.
These may be indoor outdoor, you know, that's something that we'll look at.
There's desire on both sides. For both of those. They'll be distributed well across the city and looking for desirable locations to ensure the utilization that I talked about earlier.
Criteria for hubs. We want to look at minimum of 8 quarts. Find ways to find that lighting at these chords.
Pickle balls, a sport that could be played kind of year round because of the ball on the racket.
It's none of this affected as much by the rain. But you can't play in the dark, so.
We'll find ways to make that happen and then you know and few days winter that we do have dry.
Tennis can also play. When we have lighting courts. We need to find we need to locate these.
These hubs near transit. So that we can. So the people can get there more easily.
It also would reduce the infrastructure needs for parking if we can locate these near. That's transit that either bus or micro, ideally.
And then the layout. I'll mention the identity core structure. I wanna find ways to make them USTA or USPA sanction.
That's 10 such big will. Association and then make sure that we have space consideration for queuing or we went to MIT also queuing both an extra.
Just to make it extra long, but, so that's just space reserved near the courts that.
People line up like like we heard about Okay, let's get into some upgrades, some core density.
This is kind of a typical layout that we might see. Court tennis courts on the left, pick up all points on the right.
These are to scale with one another. In the picture, not any other skill besides that. So.
The idea behind my density is that we can maximize space by. Essentially just shrinking space between course.
Tennis recommends. The space between courts be about 20 feet. But that's really only for competition play.
For recreational play, we can shrink that size down. We can make that closer to to 10 to 12 feet like you see in the bottom left image.
That, that would reduce our infrastructure. Footprints, which means less money to build these chords and we can achieve the same number of courts in a smaller space.
Same with pickle ball. We can reduce the space between the courts. I think of all recommends 10 to 15 feet.
That can be squeezed down to really less than 10 feet, which is pretty narrow. But you don't, unless it's a sanction competition event, they don't need space.
So that that helps us save somebody. But also, in existing infrastructure as we resurface, some of our existing facilities, we can look at ways to.
Possibly reduce this size and squeeze those down so we can maybe add more cords in the same space.
Or less before.
One thing to note is that the baseline space at the end of each court really needs to stay the same.
As they are now just for her safety click. Okay, and then next slide. That's to get into the shared state use core structure.
This is a pretty bold idea, but what we might see at a tennis or a sport core facility.
6 courts. You can see we have 6 tens quartz on the far left image. They're spaced out will they you about 20 or so feet between each other baseline space for either one.
This takes up the data here. When we dual stripe it, typically what we're doing is we're adding 2.
Pick a ball chords to each. Tennis court one on either side of the net. To yield 12 tennis or excuse me 12 pickable courts and 6 tennis courts like I said at the beginning though So as we do that, we bring football players in.
And and then tennis is left with. With really no places to play, even with our reservation system.
There are failures there that keep tennis players from being able to access these chords that are still should be available for places.
So the idea with the shared distinct use is Well, frankly, everybody loses, but you only lose a little bit.
Not as much as you don't lose a lot. So we take existing 6 chord structure.
Reserve 4 courts specifically for tennis. And then we can still put. 2 4 6 8 chords per pickable.
And both sports can play simultaneously. And we don't have to rely on our reservation structure. This works in a model where we have 6 cores, which is pretty standard throughout the city.
This can also be scaled up. Or down. You know, accordingly to that, that facilities.
Could do one tennis court. To pick all courts, share distinct use. For a you see how that works so this is something that we want to look at especially as we're doing these research and projects put a few of these facilities in place, pilot them see how it works.
See if I can take some pressure off of our prescription system, but also. E of tension between 2 sports and the players themselves.
Alright, next slide.
Along with our utilization, like I said, we're gonna dedicate courts specifically, reserves our scheduling.
And then, of our props, when we talk about noise reduction. So this is some of the noise reduction technology.
I'll pass these around actually. Care and And you can see thanks to our good friend who brought a standard pick of all petal.
You can hear the noise difference. Between these 2. Yeah. All right.
So we have a few of these bottles that we're going to be, Yeah, so if you want to play pick the latest check, you know the most inexpensive way to get into the sport I last check whatever our retailer from Amazon 2 paddles, 2 balls and a net is 20 bucks.
Okay. But they sound like this. And that's what our neighbors are saying they don't like to hear with these technology These quieter pals, which by the way, yeah, which by the way were developed with you research researchers and students.
This pilot is going to happen at the courts at 5th and Taylor just up the street here. They'll be on a lower, status.
You can go to one of 3. Businesses nearby, sign them out with your name and your phone number.
Go play at Python Taylor. Go play the, it's a Belltown pick of all course.
They, they work just as well as these other pals do. They're just a lot quieter.
No, they're not heavier. There's also technology that's happening. We don't have them, but there's technology, quieter balls that are threed printed.
We don't have those right now, but What we want to do is, is 1st try and put the word out about these paddles, this technology, as we also look for ways to capital fund.
Things like the noise reducing netting. And
And. With the dedicated courts. Bye, where some of the courts are.
Too close to proximity to residences and dedicate those to tennis. And we can. We can pull back and put pick a ball in a place where it's, you know, the noise factor is not his.
As a disturbing to those neighbors.
Okay, next slide. What's our communication? I mentioned the thing about the the council. Whatever they wanna get into is this interactive website.
This is technology. Produced by a company called we, build a platform. It really operates like a social media site.
I'm sure there's tons of different groups on Facebook and Twitter and everything else but this is one that Parks will be hosting.
It's so, dedicated to. Both sports to this and pick a ball. We can create surveys through this.
We can create. Forums that people can talk about noise reducing technology. We can host events, we can advertise events, we can.
Even set up ways for people to find partners to complete with if you don't want to show up.
I can have very little timid to just show up by yourself at a core to begin. Kind of put that out there like, you know, find a player.
Sign up here. Citizen Lab is some really excellent technology. We're holding out to be of our other projects.
It's going to be a major tool to help us communicate. To all users, to all players in both sports and to create that kind of collective feedback.
And collective community that we need to establish. Also core signage we're putting core signage out about noise we're using technology but as we Also go forward with resurfacing and restriping courts.
And we dedicate one chord to one sport to another that in the community shows up thinking, oh, I can play pickleball here, but now it's all set up to this facility.
We're gonna put signage up. We're going to strategically find where there are courts within close somebody to say.
If you came here to play pick a ball, this is now tennis only, but just a few miles down the road.
This other facility is cookable homely. Start going there and vice versa. Also with the reservation system.
We want to to find ways to make it work better and to do that is to create some QR codes so that when you have a reservation system you show up, you sign in with your QR code.
We can monitor usage a little bit better that way. And we can hope to result some of the conflicts that are happening in their reservation.
And then I mentioned the thing about the meetups. We're also looking at ways. Internally, you know, we last summer we did a lot of pop-up events, cost a lot of things at community centers.
We want to continue that forward in 2,024 and beyond. And also find some other events that we can just pop up through places.
We have some good partnerships with the US. A pickable associations. There's 1 partner with us to, some rollout courts that we can set up in places we can host kind of ad hoc little tournaments here and there.
There's a lot of things that we can do. Just communication wise. They're bringing community guys.
Alright, So just real quickly, some other topics. We're inviting the Pro Tour Pickable to host an angle events.
That, Amy, this is one of our best chances to have that because there is space to do 24 chords that's the minimum requirement for a critical alternative.
Snpa, unfortunately, not able to host a term in Seattle. They move their annual tournament up north to shoreline.
But with So forward. Thinking and some planning we can. We can hope to achieve that soon one day.
We do need to develop a standard for dual stripping color so I'm not saying to start things going away completely.
So I'm not saying to start things going away completely. We will still have to strike in places where it's going away completely.
We will still have to destruct in places where it makes sense and the usage of both sports and places where it makes sense and the usage of both sports is pretty low.
But we need to develop standards so it's easier for players to see and be able to confidently know if they're.
Okay. Mentioned that the interagency partners, the course, at the Taylor, definitely owned by using them to play them.
Also looking at some joint use agreements with school system. To the call courts there that they can be played.
After hours or when school non session, that would be a big, that'd be an easy way for us to.
Good, a lot of courts out there. But we also have heard. From the schools that they want to have course to because it's a great recreation program for the students themselves.
Continue to look for investment from private. Right partnerships. I mentioned the partnership with You and that stuff.
That you do doing the research with paddles. Other technology that they're developing. It's great.
And then trying to do some nearby partnership with other jurisdictions. The That's it for my presentation, the vision.
Like I said, no real solutions to 9 just pass forward for solution. Open any questions and Andy also there's anything he wants to share.
For sure. Sorry, I'll see any questions from the. I'll just add before. Commissioners can ask questions just to share for that presentation.
You know, it pained me to see the pickleball association come in and do that wonderful events last year.
And then have to take it down. Because I don't like missing opportunities like that. And I think that was a great opportunity, but we Cool.
And I want to get to a vision 2 of a USDA center so that we can That's And Vancouver and people mentioned on the phone.
That Magnus and courts, the ones that are in the course, they're the old tennis courts.
That's a right potential. Location and we do have a partnership right now. With USTA, we're doing a study and an inventory of our entire system.
So Hello, long-term vision is that we will have more dedicated pickleball ports and dedicated tennis courts.
And higher quality with cool branding and maybe painting, and also lean into public private partnerships. I think the biggest message is that we continue to I want to emphasize the public is that we can't solve the entire pickleball crisis.
In Seattle. It has to be public spaces as well, you know, getting in and hopefully more private people will continue to develop these spaces because the demand is so Okay.
So as Jonathan said, this is our, our vision to go forward and it's adaptable.
We have partnerships, but I want the commissioners to know and the public listening that we want to grow.
This for, and I want to not be able to turn down opportunities and not have shoreline.
So that's kind of where our vision is going to. I appreciate it. 1st of all, Jonathan, appreciate the presentation.
Very thorough. A lot of good stuff in there. Missioners, do we have any comments? Maybe one question.
Jonathan, thank you very much for the presentation. Really appreciate it. Could you or have you already as you're looking for new sites for any kind of court?
Have you been able to prioritize parks that need activation? So need more of a presence need for any number of reasons.
Places there maybe getting some negative use that could sure that's that's really that's a great comment.
Good question. Thanks for that. That is something to be looked at. I was just this earlier today I was at West Seattle and I drove by the ECU.
There was one guy out there with this dog. It's a big park. It's about 5, 7 acres.
Of course, the weather, you know, probably turns people away as midday week, so, but there's some space there.
That they could use. Some activation. You know, it just has a fairly new playground. I think in summertime, be activated pretty well, but and there's a basketball court there, so.
If we're looking at a place to maybe rest something. Or to add a facility somewhere, that's a good one to look at.
It's away from a neighborhood far enough. That's a big enough space. I don't think we'd have any sound issues, but.
Yeah. Yeah, looking at places like that to activate Parks more. Also looking at where again like I said we have you know several parts that are within pretty close proximity that already have some infrastructure.
Oh, like, Lake. When I get this wrong, I'm not gonna say that.
But, you know, there's, there's a few courts that are in, you know, kind of, I'll say they're clustered, you know, they're clustered enough that we can provide directional signs, and dedicate one to once more another and direct traffic that way.
So that's all part of the. The plan just to look at the whole city system. And find wherever you can do that.
Find activation line where we can separate things, but where we can put the share and just use together.
Andy, that's your answer.
Yeah, I was gonna add, we need activation downtown. The vacancy rate is high.
Parking garages are at 30 to 50% capacity. We've been touring the UD.
Blocks downtown. Will likely put pickle ball courts. On top of the Olympic. We're looking at the convention center as well.
It is a great tool for activation. If we're able to control this down. The courts at Taylor.
Were the result of meeting active recreation to deter, some of the illicit activity that was going on there.
We're comparing crime data. From pre court condition to current conditions right now. As a case study and in order to control.
Noise to designate some of these courts for noise reducing rackets only and we're working with the United States pickle ball association to certify these rackets.
That we're using at Taylor so that will gain better support nationally for that direction.
I'll also say with the U.S.A. people that they offer to do come and do some some acoustic testing pores and locations.
I had the equipment for it. The managing director there he said you know I'm not looking to make money off of go right it's easy just wants to help out and so That's another tool in our in our toolbox that we can use for some of this.
As we start to roll out where we're gonna put the different sports, kind of do some of these acoustic testing.
I know how much the sound carries and if there's something else. Maybe we need to find it in our location.
Okay. Okay.
Thanks, so much. Well, I want to say first.st I really appreciate the detailed presentation.
As well as the thoughtful approach that, that the department is taking, thinking both about, the interest in growing, growing the sport as well as as well as as what what residents are saying.
I also want to say that that it's it's exciting to hear about plans to bring pick a ball downtown.
I recognizing too that in downtown both noise expectations and sound the infrastructure is a little bit different from the rest of the city.
I wanna ask about what it means to designate. A pickup all court for. Lower noise or quieter.
Quieter rackets. What would that look like? Would it be? Practically speaking, would that be a placer?
Would there be some way of enforcement for that kind of designation.
Yeah, so we're gonna designate Taylor. Or we have the rackets.
And if folks don't have the rackets, they can check them out. At 3 of the local businesses, local businesses are enthusiastic because it will support the local economy.
And while the big banner out there That's will save for noise, reducing rackets only.
The national association is gonna advertise the 2 different rackets the rackets for competitive play. That don't have any noise reduction.
And the recreational rackets for noise reduction in order to kinda support this designation. It will be an honor system, but I can tell you.
When I'm a block and a half away from those Taylor courts. I can tell who's playing with the noise, And I think that it will be self-policing.
I don't really like the word self policing, but it kind of, explains it clearly.
And, yeah, so this is the pilot. We'll see how it goes. But we're, gonna widely publicize it.
I think that's very important. And I think the public's going to support it, frankly.
Right, thanks.
Sounds good. Great commentary. I'm looking at time and in the interest of trying to get to the rest of our presentations.
I think we're gonna close up this one if that's alright. Thank you so much, Jonathan.
Appreciate everyone's commentary. Nice robust conversation. Looking forward to seeing next steps. Thank you.
Suggest that maybe for tonight we pass on the superintendent's report. Okay. And we go into the elevated connection project.
Would it be appropriate to just email off the? Yeah, you know, this version of it to the board members they have.
It's not I don't want to get and there's 2 delegates because I know that you know people put in time and effort to do these presentations and I want to respect that.
Alright, Mr. David Graves, would you like to give us an update and just a snapshot again of what this project is and why we're here.
Okay.
Sure, happy to. Sorry, I can't be with you all in person. I was on out and about today and time got away from me.
I have a quick presentation on the Elliott Bay connection project and it's probably Now if I can share my screen or if if Paul, you can control it from there.
Okay, let me just open it up on the screen then.
I think it's gonna be easier David if you share it from your app. Oh, I'll turn this off while you're getting that up there.
So the LAB. Project is the existing public and you realize the link parks along the Seattle Waterfront from here, 60 to presentation by June 2026 when Dale was part of the World Cup soccer tournament and is funded entirely by philanthropic donation.
So largest gift ever to the Seattle department and I would reckon to a private it's some 75 to potentially 80 million dollars.
Thank you.
Yeah, and thanks for that. That's really kind of sums up the project in a nutshell.
It's a pretty light touch focus pretty much exclusively on past year and bike infrastructure. This is kind of a sky view.
Looking north, Murder Adwards looking north to Centennial Park, which the, is the poured on property kind of the north, what people think of as north half of Murder, Edwards, but it's actually Centennial Park owned by the port of Seattle.
And this is a presentation that the LABA Connections team gave to us, as part of the the pro view our internal design review process so I'm just gonna click through a bunch of this and stuff.
You can see here kind of this is the executive summary and I'm happy to send this.
Presentation out to folks. There is really a a protected bike facility. On the very left this is pure 62 63 the aquarium And this is Bell Harbor, so they really start right here where Pier 63 used to be.
You continue all the way along Alaskan Way with the bicycle facility bicycle pedestrian facility.
Right up to the Olympic sculpture park. They're not making any improvements in the in that area that the sculpture park.
And then they pick it up again. In Murder, Edwards and then again and then as a connection into Centennial Park all the way north.
You can see the green terminal here and all the way north right up. To right in front of the Expedia campus.
So this you can see this is the greenway element that's a long Alaskan way. No real changes to the roadway, but it's a fair amount of planting and striping and improvements to the sidewalk.
And out into. Where parking is along the East Side of Alaskan Way.
And you can see here, across section of, kind of what that streetscape, elements looks like, plantings and then the let's share the bicycle path and then pedestrian, pathway as well.
And their whole list of plantings. Different zones. Again, this is all. Focus along the Alaskan way right away.
And just a little bit more detail here. Taking over the old trolley tracks, moving the trolley tracks,
Asphalt walkway, walkways for pedestrians and bikes and then plantings.
And then just clicking through kind of and then it stops all the improvement. Stop it broad and then we cross broad and get to the sculpture park.
What is the one continuous theme is pedestrian scale lighting these long, light columns that were really, be a focal point for the for the pedestrian pathway all the way.
Going north and south. And then you can see the details of in these cross sections of the. Boys here, this is all going through, sales department transportation review.
It's all in the Alaskan way writing. Alaskan way right of way.
And then this is some of the signage that's similar to the signage that you're seeing in the downtown area.
Consistent with the cities. Overall downtown signage. Kind of a kid of parts that we use all all throughout downtown.
And then we get into, Park property and then, Port of Seattle property. So this, at the far south end.
Is the Olympic sculpture park beach so it really picks up with landscaping along.
From that beach it moves north.
And I get into some details of this. There's some. Improvements of the bike trail.
And additional and adding in that lighting that was shown previously. There's a firm on a tree planting they've also, which is super exciting for us.
We've been doing some pollinator pathway work. So leaving some areas of some grassy areas.
To be more sort of prairie with flowers and those sort of plants that support pollinators, bees and those things.
So they're continuing. The work that we've started to do and working with our crews out in in Murder, Edwards and adding and kind of enhancing that.
And adding some plantings. I'll get some details.
Making improvements to the pedestrian and both. The bicycle path that's along the east edge of Myrtle Edwards and then making improvements to the pedestrian pathways as well.
And then you can see some. The cross sections of the so improvements significantly improving the asphalt bike path that's out there adding a gravel shoulder.
And then adding gravel shoulders to the pedestrian pathways as well that don't do not exist out there today.
Preserving the existing trees and doing a significant amount of additional tree planting to enhance tree canopy.
You can see there's some views of Murder, Edwards, the strawberry trees along the bike pathway, shorelines underneath the Thomas Street overpass and then that there's that large group of cottonwoods on that that mound area and then also some Douglas Firs that are out there.
This gives you a little bit more detail. You can see here this is the. The Hiser sculpture and that the lawn that is around it.
This area in orange is more of a metal planting. We are working with them on some incorporating some some play elements into it.
There's no real play area out there. But some elements that kids can interact with and play on.
But super exciting if folks know. There's 2 sort of pocket beaches. There's 1 here to the north of.
And then there's 1. Right here. Adjacent to the King County.
CSO facility and they're gonna make those beaches much more accessible to the public right now.
Right now they're not very accessible. It's there can be a little bit chat if folks have mobility challenges they're hard to get to there's rocks and logs and things that people have to clamber over.
So, That's a big piece of what their work is focused on. It's making the areas of the park much more accessible and having those beaches.
Be much more accessible, super exciting. It, you know, Beach access is a finite resource.
So. You know, in the downtown environment being actually able to touch Elliott Bay and touch the water and stick your toes in it is something that I think is super exciting for folks and We've seen a lot of success at the.
Olympic sculpture park beach and so having our beaches in Bird of Edwards, you know, as or if not more accessible will be really great.
And then you can see here some cross sections of the plantings and you can see the relationship of the the bike path to the pedestrian pathway similar to what's out there today.
And then some additional, plantings. Along there. Some work in the lawn and you can see an example of the the pollinator lawn so those areas that Don't need to be mode as much.
I was out there, through Murder, Edwards on Friday. It was a beautiful evening and people had volleyball nets and people were on blankets and there were kids running around and dogs and so You know, particularly in an urban environment, you know, a dense urban, you know, downtown core having areas of lawn are super valuable for people, but actually, you know, providing these pollinator areas and
polynomial pathways and pollinator lawns. Are also really valuable for for the native environment and and so we can I think we can accommodate both out there and so that's that's the goal of that.
And then just a little bit more detail. And like I said, the native the beach metal long is in hanch beach areas and then moving up to more Showline plantings in the Rose Garden, which is up on port property.
And then probably the biggest move. Up on Centennial Park is a new restroom facility, a new, which would be a new building.
But and that'll be up on port property.
And this shows a little bit. More detail. It's just north of the grain terminal where the post restaurant building is.
Fish and Wildlife is going to upgrade or make improvements to the fishing pier. It's been been pretty run down recently, but they have plans to improve that.
So overall experience of, centennial in Murder, Edwards Park will be, will be much improved by this project.
And I think with that, I know you folks, Maybe have some questions or time is short, so I'm happy to click to anything you want to look at or happy to answer questions.
I think for project timing, They're hoping to start construction early next year and have it completed in time for the World Cup in 2026.
Yeah. Hi, David. Stafford lace. Do you think
There will be any issues with direction. Remember how we have those issues a year or 2 ago with the Green Lake going one way and he had a dedicated lane.
Because that seems like that's gonna be a high volume traffic walking rollerbladed area. Do you anticipate will have any issues?
Well, I mean, yes, you always run into those issues. So I, you know, I can't say it won't happen.
It's in some ways it's similar, you know, they're not making significant changes from what's out there today.
If anything, they're making it more legible. They're keeping, oops, sorry, they're keeping the separated, the bike path runs along.
The kind of east edge of Murder, Edwards and Centennial Park. So that's gonna stay a 2 way.
Bike path you can see it's 12 feet wide and then the pedestrian trail that's more on the water side along the kind of west edge of Murder, Edwards and Centennial Park, that's going to stay pedestrian only.
You do get the occasional crossover today. So I don't. I don't foresee it.
Getting any worse and hopefully with little bit better signage the signage out there today is not great and having a little bit Phillies being a little bit wider and having that growl shoulder on both facilities will maybe add a little bit of, you know, add an element of legibility and safety to it.
Thank you.
Yeah, hi David. Thanks so much for the presentation. I'm very excited for Waterford Park in the early vacation project.
It's a long book for downtown, so appreciate that. My understanding is that, security will be provided.
By public donation by public funding at Waterfront Park is a similar plan in place for the LABA connector.
Is it? Get different treatment. Yeah. Yeah.
To my knowledge, there there's no, there's no plan for additional security here.
I mean, it's a different. This is a different. You know, the LPA connections is really making him.
Making pedestrian bicycle improvements to what's out there today. So it's a little bit.
It's less managed than kind of the downtown central like waterfront park. You know, the Park Boulevard that basically goes from Pier 60 to down to Dacom and on to Railroad Avenue.
Where there is dedicated security. Whether it's. They, emergency services unit through Seattle Center and Seattle Center folks out there or our friends of Waterfront Seattle.
Just because that They're trying to manage that as a park, but this is a much more of just a connection.
So it isn't, it doesn't come with the same. Sort of security need. You know, it's, it's as far as, we'll have.
Yeah. I can. Yeah, David, I can't have that too. There is a significant operating maintenance donation that's coming in or I believe up to 10 years.
Yep.
Not quite sure on that, but a significant amount to give us over that. So part of that can be seen, you know, if there are needs for security, you would have the funding source, but in conversation with.
Oh great.
The planners for the LAPA connection. I actually asked for and they plan to put in, these sort of blue security lights for people running evening time because we we do think that there will be a lot more people now.
That's downtown continue running and hopefully using that area and lighting. So and then hopefully by then our, you know, we'll have a stronger range of presence and if we need to use some of the O and M money maybe to contract with the security that's going to be used on the wirefront we'll have the ability to do that.
So that's that's really good. I'm also thinking a lot more people are gonna hopefully be using this and potentially in the evening.
Right.
Absolutely, and I really want to lead into that too. I would, I think for about 3 straight years I used to run that trail, you know, lunchtime and then after work hours and start get dark and especially with life hours aren't very long.
It gets a little sketchy out there so wanted to you acknowledge appreciate the added light columns that I think was helpful.
And if there are emergency telephone though as safety. I think interactive elements would be great. We talked about how there's a variety of different Park users there.
You know, it's definitely great for, you know, the able body and I also want to make sure that we take their account accessibility, right?
For folks to be able to get these LS and enjoy open spaces and the less they know wanted to touch on and this kind of goes along with staffers comment is when I would go running out there it's great when the bite pat the walk got separated.
Totally financed but it's when they merge is when everyone tries to do their passing or leaving.
So, you know, I know that other bike protected lanes in areas, there might be that little.
You know a whole that's the guy grab it you know then you really wouldn't caught the damage ran into him but if there's something that could be exported of that nature just to make sure that those points were the paths join you know the only reason you step off of those path or for very specific reasons or not accident.
So, those are my comments, otherwise really excited to see this. Looking forward to seeing that happen.
So. Do we have any other comments from commissioners online? Don't ask race. So.
Oh.
Okay.
Just a very quick, quick comments. I know where we might be a little bit, better, a little bit behind scale, but just that this is incredibly exciting and living downtown just seeing the progress made in activation and on new projects over the last couple of years has been incredibly exciting. So thank you all.
Awesome. Great presentation, David. Appreciate you.
Yep.
I do wanna ask. That presentation can be made available to commissioners? Yes, Thank you so much, David.
Any closing words? No, just, thank you very much. And at our next meeting, we've had a Betty, really great openings of capital projects and things.
So we'll make sure to highlight those at our next meeting because we'll have a few more and then we'll be able to do a really nice presentation on that.
So we are at almost 8 1080. I think you mentioned that we wanna forego the, report and send that up. Yes.
Okay. And then so I think with that, do we have enough time to go through the last order of business here, which is, .
MEORGE. Yeah, we do. Awesome. Good.
Yeah, so the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners has its bylaws operating procedures a provision for leadership in the form of one or more chair positions.
Traditionally we have had 2 over the past several years and the other thing that we have had has kind of an informal tradition is that we have retained one of the co-chairs for one year to the next to retain some continuity and leadership.
So we sent out kind of a call for nominations a little bit ago. And did hear back a few games and and also heard some interest from the commissioners themselves.
And so we were excited to hear that that Justin and move one of our co-chairs this year was willing to consider Sorry, that role for another year and it was also willing to consider serving in that role for another year.
And so I wanted to turn this over to the commissioners for any further comments. This discussion debate, but ultimately we are looking for a motion.
And a second to further the nominations and support. For Justin and Andy or anyone else on the commission to Google wants to wants to step into these walls.
How's your chance? I motion, I'm very happy that people Okay. So then. If we're on the.
For the election if Stafford motions the only rule here so I motion to you can move to nominate move to nominate both just in any.
Okay.
No, enthusiastically second.
And then you can call for the book, right? Okay, so I do want to call for the vote and then I'll just have a comment afterwards.
Hi.
So all in favor. Right. And we'll have those 3. Okay. That said, both passes. Thanks so much.
We will do our best to live up to the responsibility. Anything else I need to do before I go to my concert?
I don't think so, but I do want to say next month we will see some So a lot of these sharing will be full.
So we're looking forward to that as well. We'll keep you off of it. Appreciate that, Paula.
And that's kind of a good, great, to the comment I wanted to make. Right now I believe we have 7 commissioners and we may potentially be close to doubling that in the next month or so here.
And so with that said, I really want us to be focused on our perspectives, our skill sets to the table.
And being able to form a community of commissioners to get to know each other so that we can lean it better to support.
So just want to put that out right again when we get these commissioners in we want to make sure that we're bringing them in to the full making them feel comfortable to to lean in support.
So that's it. Yeah. I figure it out. I think the last piece of just any all the new business I have done.
Find breakfast. Okay. So,'ll see a good number of us there. She was sure.
Okay