SPR Boardroom: Alright. Welcome everyone. This is the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners meeting, and I really appreciate seeing you here today. Appreciate a couple of our folks online, and I think in but let's go ahead and get started. And let's start with some introductions. And because we have some new commissioners who
SPR Boardroom: Some of us have only met once, or this might be the 1st maybe we can. Do, you know, introduce yourselves and what you do in your day job, and which so I will start. I'm Amy Brockos. I'm representing District 6 here on this board today.
SPR Boardroom: I'm really enjoying the summer because I am on Sabbatical from my day job, which is at the Mountains Sound, Greenway, which is really fun the rest of the year. But right now, so
SPR Boardroom: I will pass it. Maybe I'll pass it to him on, and we'll grab the online folks after that.
SPR Boardroom: And I represent District 5.
SPR Boardroom: Let's do the Commissioners first.st Yeah, that's alright.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you. I'm John Flynn. I just joined right before the summer. I think June maybe was my 1st round. Is that right? We all kind of joined the same time.
SPR Boardroom: I represent District 3. I recently retired from Amazon was my last role.
SPR Boardroom: And I'm also involved with the Volunteer Park Trust, which is one of the friends of the parks in Seattle.
SPR Boardroom: Stafford Mays District 7.
SPR Boardroom: I'm on Sabbatical. I've been on Sabbatical for 12 years.
SPR Boardroom: I I'm Brian Ball, Commissioner. I also serve on the Seattle School Traffic Safety Commission.
SPR Boardroom: and I am also retired from a British acts like my townhouse community volunteer.
SPR Boardroom: Steve lair at large. Commissioner. I currently work for Kaiser permanente. I'm 24 years away from retirement and cats on the calendar today. Wesley Beach. They, my youngest, just passed the swim test for the 1st time out there.
SPR Boardroom: Well, maybe we could go Trisha then Lauren, then Phillip, and then come back to Staff with that Mary. Sure.
Tricia Diamond: Okay. Hello, everyone. My name is Tricia diamond. During the day I am an aviation slash aerospace, consultant
Tricia Diamond: and I live in Ravenna, and love representing my area.
SPR Boardroom: Lauren.
Lauren Lanham: Hi, I'm Lauren. I'm the get engaged cohort member, and I live in Capitol Hill. I work environmental health and safety
Lauren Lanham: also with aerospace.
SPR Boardroom: And Lauren. I we just learned that your get engaged term is almost up.
Lauren Lanham: Yes, I think in September.
SPR Boardroom: Want to make sure to say thank you for joining us. Thank you for your service and
SPR Boardroom: Majesty.
Lauren Lanham: Thanks for having me. It's been great.
SPR Boardroom: I know it seems too quick.
Lauren Lanham: Does it does.
SPR Boardroom: Philip.
Phillip Meng: Hi, everyone Philip Mang, Commissioner, district 7. I live in downtown, which you're getting kind of a view of behind me, as you might be able to tell. I have. I have rather underestimated the amount of traffic
Phillip Meng: coming in from Bellevue today. So I look forward to being there with you in person soon, but maybe about 20 min from now.
SPR Boardroom: He's fine.
SPR Boardroom: sure. I'm off screen over here. My name is Ben Bertzos. I'm an admin specialist with parks and recreation, and a former classroom teacher.
SPR Boardroom: Hi, everyone! I'm David Takabi. I'm in the policy unit at Seattle parks and recreation and
SPR Boardroom: filling in for Paula Hall.
SPR Boardroom: Normal stuff.
SPR Boardroom: David David Grace, strategic advisor of sales preparation in the planning and community development branch. And I'm the guest
SPR Boardroom: and I'm Apds. I'm the park superintendent and really look forward to working with all of you. All of you are either it's our resident, a parent, a park user, a park lover. And you will find in your commission
SPR Boardroom: that you know the provision of public space
SPR Boardroom: is difficult and challenging, especially a commodity so well loved as parts, and we have way, more demand than we have supply. But we still provide excellent products and services and experiences. And so I look forward to your counsel and your partnership on
SPR Boardroom: how we can best manage and deliver these services. There will be times when we have challenging and difficult issues from the public to deal with. There are times when we have celebrations and joyful work to celebrate, and there will be a lot of things coming ahead for us. We'll have some challenging budget years. As you probably kind of gathered from just
SPR Boardroom: reading local news and and the forecast of of economics. We don't know the full impacts yet, but we will be showing that together, and making decisions. And I look forward to you having time on this commission. I think you're
SPR Boardroom: probably have one of the best departments and other commissioners. Of course I'm biased, but probably you feel the same way, otherwise you wouldn't have signed up or requested the spot. So thank you all for stepping up to service, and I look forward to embarking on this with you all together, and this is also my 1st opportunity. When a lot of a lot of new commissioners are on commission
SPR Boardroom: as well. So we're sort of starting together, although I will be starting my second year in September, which is really hard to believe we are just doing introductions, and if you would like to jump in now would be the chance.
Whitney Nakamura: Hi, thanks! Gosh! I'm so sorry I'm having zoom issues. Whitney, Nakamura I use she and her. I am a new member in a board and commission seat.
Whitney Nakamura: and and happy to be here.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you. Maybe I'll just take a quick moment, then to say, thanks. Ap, and would like to just recognize that summer is a really tough time for park staff and just kudos to you and the press department and everything. Who's on the ground all the time right now, and the good news is, people are enjoying parks, and, as you mentioned.
SPR Boardroom: and I will now we have the recreation land acknowledgement.
SPR Boardroom: Seattle parks and recreation acknowledges and affirms the indigenous coast salish people as the original caretakers of our waters in the landscape who nurtured and changed today's Portland. We honor their legacy with gratitude and appreciation, and will safeguard their knowledge and stewardship as enduring treasures to promote community welfare, cultivate inclusive expressions of nature and recreation, and commit to land acknowledgement for each ensuing generations. Thank you all.
SPR Boardroom: and then says we have a quorum. Thank you all for being here, and we have 3 consent items to approve today. We have the August 8th meeting agenda which everyone should have in front of them. The June 13th meeting minutes and the July amount meeting minutes, all of which were circulated by email.
SPR Boardroom: Do I have a motion to approve?
SPR Boardroom: Second.
SPR Boardroom: Ollieberg.
Tricia Diamond: Hi.
SPR Boardroom: Any opposed.
SPR Boardroom: and Sunday.
Tricia Diamond: 7.
SPR Boardroom: That's something
SPR Boardroom: hard to tell the money. But assuming that's right, okay.
SPR Boardroom: okay. And then I will hand it over to
SPR Boardroom: Ben and David for coming.
SPR Boardroom: Okay? So we have 2 commenters, ready to present or ready to offer comment today. And they are both online.
SPR Boardroom: So we're going to start with Sandy Shetler. Sandy, I'm going to give you permission to unmute yourself once you have that permission, you will need to unmute yourself. I cannot do it for you.
SPR Boardroom: And then you will have 2 min to go ahead and speak. Okay.
Sandy Shettler: Hi! Can you hear me now?
SPR Boardroom: Yes, go ahead!
Sandy Shettler: Oh, super. Okay. Great. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Good evening, Commissioners, and thank you for your work. I'm Sandy Shuttler, with friends of Seattle's urban forest, and I just wanted to alert you to the decline of large trees in Seattle's parks, and the current practice of either not replacing trees when they die, or replacing them with much smaller species. The city's 2021 tree canopy study revealed that out of all the land management units
Sandy Shettler: parks proportionately lost the greatest number of trees. There are 4,800 acres of parkland in Seattle, both developed and natural areas, and in the 5 years leading up to the 2021 canopy study
Sandy Shettler: parks lost a hundred 11 acres, 5% of its total.
Sandy Shettler: Since then the rate of loss has increased. Parks are vulnerable to increase parks. Trees, excuse me, are vulnerable to increased heat from climate change and heavier human impacts. Post covid and pathogens, such as birch, boar and bark beetles
Sandy Shettler: are taking out our birches and conifers, and while green Seattle partnership plants, thousands of small trees in natural areas, the survival rate is quite low, and volunteer efforts really can't match the scale of this challenge. I walk Green Lake Park daily, where I've documented the loss of 17 trees with trunks greater than 2 feet in diameter. In the past 3 years.
Sandy Shettler: in almost every case these massive oaks and conifers have been replaced with small species, trees like dogwoods and sourwood. While petite trees are charming. They can't provide the environmental and health benefits of large trees. I hope you'll consider the value of Seattle's large trees, and really the unique ability of parks to host our largest trees.
Sandy Shettler: which makes Seattle the Emerald City. Thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Hey? Thank you, and thank you for really nailing that 2 min mark. Alright, colleen you will have 2 min
SPR Boardroom: and go ahead and unmute yourself.
Colleen Kimseylove: Hi! My name's Colleen Kenzie, love. I am here from friends of Denny Blaine.
Colleen Kimseylove: I am asking you to take action on a illegal park closure that happened at Denny Blaine
Colleen Kimseylove: on a
Colleen Kimseylove: July 20th
Colleen Kimseylove: from my Internet research. Well, I was was alerted to this closure
Colleen Kimseylove: from members of friends of Danny Blame.
Colleen Kimseylove: I have pictures I can submit of street closure, sign, street closure signs as well as signs from Butler, valet, parking
Colleen Kimseylove: from my research. It looks like the wedding was that of Brooke Jenkins, and was at the residence of Fred Mall, the north resident of Denis Blaine.
Colleen Kimseylove: I also have pictures of
Colleen Kimseylove: Fred Mall having
Colleen Kimseylove: park event trucks parked in the park, which caused a fire truck to need to turn around
Colleen Kimseylove: and blocked several people from being able to exit.
Colleen Kimseylove: I am confident that this park, this park closure, was not legal, because I spoke to Parks use permits they confirmed for me on August first, st that
Colleen Kimseylove: they did not have a park permit for this event, and Sdot did not have a permit for
Colleen Kimseylove: put on record for posting this park as well.
Colleen Kimseylove: yes, I would just ask you to take action on this. I have no idea of the appropriate process, but I'm sure the Commissioners do thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you, colleen.
SPR Boardroom: hey?
SPR Boardroom: That is the end of public comment for today.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, thank you. I will turn it over to sure. Just a follow up. I don't, Miss Shetler. If you're still on the phone. Thank you for your public comment. About the trees. I would love
SPR Boardroom: to have you reach out to our department and Ben, who facilitated the public comment, or David, who's here? Someone can give you
SPR Boardroom: is our address, but I want to connect you with our park, Forester. We have a wonderful park forester named Jamie Lynn, and I know she would love to talk to you, take a walk, hear some of your ideas, and maybe give you some more informed information about what we're doing with the tree canopy, which we take very seriously. So if you can get connected with us
SPR Boardroom: or we'll get connected with you, and we have 2 staff members here. I'll offer to make that introduction and really appreciate your comments about the tree canopy and thank you for giving us the information about the Denny Blaine Park closure. I will talk to our staff about that.
SPR Boardroom: If it was not indeed a permitted event. Then it might have been something that was done.
SPR Boardroom: Perhaps, as you are referencing in a rogue manner. That we are unaware of. But then I also heard you mentioned about a parks truck. So let me find out some more information. About that closure and we try to make sure that parks are not closed as much as possible unless there is a permit or some sort of maintenance need or something. So sounds like there might have been a a private event, but maybe they approached into the park. But we'll we'll look into that matter.
SPR Boardroom: So thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, I think, are we moving into the presentation? Now?
SPR Boardroom: Yeah, okay.
SPR Boardroom: change that screen on me.
SPR Boardroom: Okay, here we are in August. So I'm happy to present to you our
SPR Boardroom: update from the department of what's been going on in our wonderful department.
SPR Boardroom: Bye.
SPR Boardroom: So we're really excited. If you've been following the news the 20 year vision of the Seattle Aquarium Spectacular Ocean Pavilion will be realized on August 29, th when the new building and exhibit will open to the public. It's really exciting, as you can see. If you've been driving down Alaskan way or following the news. You've seen this building emerge and develop.
SPR Boardroom: It's just, in my opinion, architecturally stunning. You also get a view here of the top
SPR Boardroom: what we call the overlook Pavilion, or the Overlook Park.
SPR Boardroom: Literally a park on top of the roof, which is a beautiful space. It will be connected up to Pikes place market
SPR Boardroom: so that you can walk seamlessly as well as our will be reopening. Victor Steinbrecht Park, which is right at the top of this next to Pikes Place market. So you literally will have that park experience
SPR Boardroom: Pikes. Place market pike, place, market. Start walking. Oh, through the overlook
SPR Boardroom: be on top of the ocean pavilion. Enjoy a a beautiful park there. There's also even some tiny play structures, believe it or not and beautiful areas to see the Salish sea, and then you can connect down those steps
SPR Boardroom: or by elevator down to the main plaza level, which will then take you on to the waterfront park. And what's amazing about this ocean pavilion is there is a huge there are huge windows, one of which you'll be able to see a huge tank and you don't even have to be inside the aquarium and that's gonna be just absolutely stunning. So
SPR Boardroom: it's all located right across from the main aquarium and will feature the Pacific Northwest, largest tropical reef ecosystem.
SPR Boardroom: and the coral Brian which is a region in the Indo-pacific which is rich in biodiversity. So for the 1st time, guests will come face to face with 3,500 extraordinary animals and plants, including sharks, rays, fooling fish, seahorses, mangroves, and nearly 30 species of coral, and so much more
SPR Boardroom: so, just as a reminder as well to Commissioners. The Seattle Aquarium is a park asset. We will own this building just as we do the aquarium and portions of the Zoo and we have operating agreements with both the Seattle aquarium
SPR Boardroom: and the Zoo who manage and run the entire property for us as a partnership. But these are assets of the park department and another public benefit
SPR Boardroom: that goes out to the community. So we also fund a lot of the the work that goes on at the Aquarium and a lot of the King County Park lobby. Money goes to support specifically the aquarium in the Zoo, and I want to thank Mr. David Graves, who's here. He has been really an integral part of the entire waterfront, representing our best interest in the Parks department. So thank you, David, for all of that. And all of this hard work is coming
SPR Boardroom: to be realized soon. So we're really excited about that
SPR Boardroom: we are in the highest level of park use because it's our peak season of summer. So we're enjoying amazing summer weather as usual, which means our parks and facilities are being used to their maximum potential. Big crowds are flocking to events such as seafare,
SPR Boardroom: dancing in the park.
SPR Boardroom: downtown events, activations going on movies in the Park, not to mention our summer camps and our aquatics and our pools and our beaches, and 4th of July celebrations like at Jefferson and Gas works.
SPR Boardroom: All of those things. Are a lot of hard work. As Amy pointed out. Thank you so much for recognizing our staff. But it also means that we have some challenges to deal with
SPR Boardroom: with high use. And so we work really hard. We have had some summer challenges along parts of Alki Beach.
SPR Boardroom: And stand sayers boat pavilion area. So and golden gardens. So these types of
SPR Boardroom: summer. Well, use and activity is not unique to any one part of town. It's actually spread out pretty equally we've also had some concerns at Magnuson late night. So we have some strategies that we've been working with. The police department.
SPR Boardroom: We've been looking at doing earlier closures of some of the gates or programs. Additionally, those can be open sometimes 24 h. But we find that that can be problematic and really challenging for residents and for public safety. So
SPR Boardroom: Those sites are on early closures. And then we open them early in the morning to get voters back onto the water. And so it's a strategy that we employ. And just as a reminder, park rangers now are working district wide or city wide, I should say and there are 28 park Rangers. And they work in 2 person shifts
SPR Boardroom: and the spread from the morning to the night. So it's wonderful that we have this program, but it's still limiting in the scope that we have for the entire city. But they're doing a wonderful job.
SPR Boardroom: I alluded to Victor Steinbrecht Park, which is going to be reopening probably later this month. We're gonna do a soft opening of this park and then do a bigger opening when the Overlook Park opens above the pavilion.
SPR Boardroom: I did want to point out, and you may have received some emails, or if you hear some news about totem poles. I want to reiterate here that totem poles from Victor Stembrick Park are being replaced. They will be put back in the Park, but they're not ready to be replaced during the park opening.
SPR Boardroom: And so we've been working with the Pike Place Historical Commission and
SPR Boardroom: the market to raise some concerns because they are concerned that we're not replacing the polls. But I can say that we are replacing the polls, but they're taking longer than expected. We don't want to rush
SPR Boardroom: the restoration of them, and so we will make sure that the public is aware of that, that when we open, but we do not want to delay the opening of the park for the pools, because all of this is staying on track. So we expect the restoration work to begin this fall, and the pools being reinstalled in 2025,
SPR Boardroom: just to note it might be helpful if it's possible, to create some signage
SPR Boardroom: or facsimile, or something, so that people walking by or like, oh, that's coming here. That's a very good point. And yes, and David is also spearheading, spearheading that. And we certainly lots of questions, especially when we do open. Yeah, etc. So thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Okay.
SPR Boardroom: Nope.
SPR Boardroom: so our parks and recreational services branch and the parks and environment are the fine folk who take care of all of our maintenance and tend to cleanings and keeping the parks really shining and wonderful for reminder. This year we were are now ranked the top
SPR Boardroom: 6th
SPR Boardroom: top, 6 part system in the entire nation. I think I talked about that earlier. But much of it is because of
SPR Boardroom: our maintenance staff and our facility crew who keep our wonderful parts going together. And so you see some of the pictures of a
SPR Boardroom: on the top left. Is he holding a bird? It says a Featherhead friend. On the top left is Gardener Steve, guardian on a break in Cal Anderson Park. You'll notice he is being visited by a friendly starling
SPR Boardroom: co-worker, Justin Green Snap the photo. So that's that's very nice. Seafare prep bottom. Left photos cruise from the grass along Lake Washington, north of Seward Park in preparation for seafare. If any of you have ever been to Seafair, which I think probably you have, you will know what a tremendous amount of people out, not only at Sewer, Genesee, you know all of Lake Washington, like
SPR Boardroom: the heavy uses at Jefferson and Gas Works and other places for 4th July. Our teams do a lot of work to prep up for that. But then they did amazingly fast work to get the parts restored back to the public. I mean gas works. You've ever been there.
SPR Boardroom: you would think, God, this is going to be like a 2 week cleanup job, and within 24 to 48 h that entire part, because you wouldn't even know that there had been a 4th of July celebration so really excited. On the top is, I just wanted to say I think I was down at Sea Fair, I think probably a couple of blocks
SPR Boardroom: north of there, sitting on the grass. And so I just one comment. I really appreciate that
SPR Boardroom: I put it in there. It was really noticeable. For the folks who are gathering right? Yeah. So
SPR Boardroom: and then, you know a lot of restoration work that we're doing, whether it's for trees or trimming. We have some beautiful photos we just shared with the public some of our view spots like at Sunset Park, which is just north of Balor. All the trees have been trimmed down. You have a beautiful view of the Olympic mountains, and we're really trying to
SPR Boardroom: to take care of areas like that. And then continuing to take care of our places. You know, people forget Westlake Park, Westlake Plaza is actually a public art that's owned by sale parks and creation, sometimes very heavily used. Especially if there's celebrations or any kind of gathering. And just some example of how we're taking care of the downtown spaces, urban areas as well.
SPR Boardroom: In our parks and recreation branch. This is where a lot of our activities for youth and seniors come about. Very fun soccer, watch party and clinic that went on during the combined. If you remember, in July there was a combined euro
SPR Boardroom: cup final with Copa, America Final World Cup.
SPR Boardroom: and we hosted a wonderful community watch
SPR Boardroom: party
SPR Boardroom: down at where is this site? It is.
SPR Boardroom: or it doesn't say here.
SPR Boardroom: I say, Meadowbrook. So at one of our community centers was pictured down there on the left. You can see we have a big screen and preceding that were a lot of soccer clinics for youth that were sponsored by the rave foundation
SPR Boardroom: working with our local sports teams, and we've been doing a lot of it, and it's just a snapshot of what might be coming even for Fifa. So we're part of the Fifa planning group, and during that time there will be organized big watch party events
SPR Boardroom: around town, probably at 4 locations. In addition, of course, to the stadium but we anticipate there will be a lot of opportunity for smaller launch watch parties going on in a variety of public places, including parks during the World Cup. And so we really have to kind of test that out. It was really a lot of fun.
SPR Boardroom: Our fall programming registration opens on August 13, th which is the center photo and believe it or not, it's time to register for fall programming and the public. And anyone can check out our website at Www. Seattlegov, Slash arcs.
SPR Boardroom: We also do the food summer program. That
SPR Boardroom: food summer playgrounds program. In 2024. We do it every year. We're more than halfway through our annual summer food program. We're at 13 sites with hunger for associates serve nutritious food for free to the community, and through the 1st 2 weeks we deliver over 2,000 meals in addition to food. We brought that food available
SPR Boardroom: to people who couldn't get to the park but need food services. And we also do mobile recreation as well as recreational events that are associated with this program. So another way that we serve the community. Our youth programs are in full swing in July and August and we also, you know, serve community not only by providing wonderful public programming, but we do youth at work
SPR Boardroom: programs and partnerships we have intern. This summer we deploy 56 youth at work interns between the ages of 16 to 24, so teenagers to young adults to work at a science sites, including our arc
SPR Boardroom: community centers, facilities and maintenance locations and team life centers. And it's a wonderful way for people to get involved. Tricia, I see your hand up.
SPR Boardroom: Oh, okay. But I'm just gonna say and
SPR Boardroom: and we also have a program called Youth Engaged in service where we
SPR Boardroom: where youth, between ages of 13 and 15, can partner with the junior achievement to introduce participants to 16 diverse career paths.
SPR Boardroom: managing money and budgeting and working on pitches for building their business projects. So, but kind of people that want to sign up for early entrepreneurship programs, in addition to
SPR Boardroom: traditional sports or crafts and arts. Yes, I think you can use the service. Oh, you did when I was 14.
SPR Boardroom: Wow! So I wanted to chime in on that. So yeah, that's great. That's fantastic. Okay.
SPR Boardroom: alright. Next slide
SPR Boardroom: our facilities division are our crews that take care of everything from painting crosswalks at Magnusson. All of those streets within Magnusson are the responsibility of the Parks departments, including bridges and
SPR Boardroom: overlooks that go on there and sidewalks entire inside the entire magazine complex as well as other places. Throughout the city. This is an example of them improving on public space, and public sidewalks, and they also work and doing graffiti abatement throughout the entire city.
SPR Boardroom: there will be opportunity. There will be times when you will see graffiti in public parks. But I can tell you, in my 2 years here, the amount of graffiti, the graffiti response by our teams. It's really great. And we also introduced the find it, fix it app, which is where members of the public, like you all, and neighbors and friends, can snap pictures, upload them, send through the app.
SPR Boardroom: And the response, time is supposed to be pretty quick, at least logging and getting it done. But our crews are trying trying to get out and update graffiti as much as possible and as quickly as possible. So just wanted to point that out
SPR Boardroom: planning capital development. That's where David works. And here is this is where a lot of our projects get delivered. A lot of them from the
SPR Boardroom: Our Mpd fund, our Metropolitan Park District Fund, or the Park levy, as it's sometimes called. We're in cycle. 2 of that. You'll have a lot more information about that going forward. And but this is an exciting time, because we're delivering a lot of projects. That were either delayed through the pandemic, or we're just starting funding processes last year. So one of them that you can see on the right is a wonderful park that opened right off 15th Street.
SPR Boardroom: In a sort of downtown area near the CID. This is play my part. It's a Vietnamese style park. Working in conjunction with a little Saigon Friends Association. You can see behind the tent there's actually a
SPR Boardroom: very large, wonderful piece of art that we partnered with the Department of Culture Culture and Arts. That commission a local Vietnamese Seattle woman
SPR Boardroom: artist? Who designed? And she
SPR Boardroom: fabricated. She made that wonderful piece of art. And it's just a very vibrant park and improving this space. Off of King Street. So we recently reopen that park with some of our team not too long ago, which was very exciting. The Lincoln Park play area has been completed
SPR Boardroom: in South last week we we opened the newly renovated Lincoln Park, South Bay area, and kids are already enjoying the space. So that's always exciting.
SPR Boardroom: We've made some at the Ballard playground. Athletic field improvements. Construction will begin at the end of August to renovate the field and improve drainage, air, condition, and accessibility.
SPR Boardroom: If you haven't seen yesterday there was an article in the Seattle Times about what we call the Park Community Fund
SPR Boardroom: actually, a really positive article about parks, which was nice from the Times. And we announced. And they reported that the community selection process for park community funds is open from August 1st to the 31, st I want to thank board commissioners who have participated in processes.
SPR Boardroom: including Josh. Stafford Lauren and Justin. So just as a reminder, the community fund is a direct result of the
SPR Boardroom: Mp. Which dedicated funding that allows community to
SPR Boardroom: that participate, suggest, come up with ideas
SPR Boardroom: on how they would like to improve public spaces. Through projects. Some of these are can be art projects. They can be capital development projects. They can be improving trails. They can be more playground amenities, more recreational. And we have a wonderful team that I hope you get to meet at some point. But there's 2 people, Rachel Banner and Shaquan who have oversee seeing this process and
SPR Boardroom: work really really hard to work with the community and come up with a very robust engagement process. Between March and April they collected over 240 ideas from community. In May the ideas were spring for initial eligibility, feasibility and community priority and narrow to 103 ideas.
SPR Boardroom: And then in June frontline community partners develop full proposals for the ideas, and that narrowed to 55 proposals.
SPR Boardroom: And I know that's what commissioners were actually at
SPR Boardroom: these community meetings. And then in July, Spr. Staff meeting partners and the Sprc. Conducted reviews of all 55 projects.
SPR Boardroom: 27 projects have been moved forward. And so now we're at the august community selection process, where there will be a chance for folks to vote on projects in each of the 4 regions. The North Southwest.
SPR Boardroom: in central parts of the city, and they can submit their selections online, or at any one of the events that would be at during the month
SPR Boardroom: of August, and then
SPR Boardroom: the Commission will hear the results. Assess them, make recommendations back to the Department, and then, October we plan to make announcements of which projects will go. Not all of them will start this year. Obviously they'll be spread out. But it's about a 5 million dollar program. And it's really fantastic. And so
SPR Boardroom: what's the frequency of it? Is it a 1 time program or well, it's in? It's a part of the cycle, too. Which is so. It's for the next 6 years.
SPR Boardroom: And then
SPR Boardroom: we'll see what the next cycle brings
SPR Boardroom: in that
SPR Boardroom: policy and finance. That's where David Tommy works as well as Ben.
SPR Boardroom: Oh, yes.
SPR Boardroom: Oh.
SPR Boardroom: one second
SPR Boardroom: turn on the right. Oh, yes. So Lake City Beach park
SPR Boardroom: park, naming updates for Lake City Beach bar.
SPR Boardroom: We just recently will replace the name from Cedar Beach Park. Name.
SPR Boardroom: how am I get this? Right? Sorry.
SPR Boardroom: The new name.
SPR Boardroom: Lake City Beach Park is located at the end of Northeast 100 and 30th Street and Lake Washington and northeast Seattle. The new name will replace the Cedar Beach Park name, including Lake City in the name, was important to community members who work so hard to ensure. The street became a public beach, so it will be called Lake City Beach Park.
SPR Boardroom: formerly had been named. That's right, Cedar Beach. As for the trees, the community wanted it to reflect. It's 1 of few beaches in the area. And so we wanted to update. And as a reminder again, the Park Commission plays a part in the park, naming, bedding and process and then I have an update, too, on the Will Stacy fields at the Maple Leaf Park. So many of you were here, I believe, when the
SPR Boardroom: tremendous group of supporters came out, gave a very moving presentation. About requesting us to
SPR Boardroom: renamed what had been referred to as Maple Leaf Reservoir Park baseball
SPR Boardroom: fields one and 2
SPR Boardroom: to be named in honor of Will Spacey and if you remember, at the meeting we I had mentioned to them that we would try to make a decision on that sooner than later, so that the community could know and plan a celebration at least by the fall or the end of baseball season, the beginning? No, towards the end of the season. And so we did inform them that we had accepted their proposal.
SPR Boardroom: And we will be renaming fields, one and 2, in the honor of Bill Stacy, who had joined the Marine Corps in 2,007, and at age 20, from Seattle, at age 22, became one of the youngest sergeants in the corps, and received a number of leadership awards, and unfortunately he was still in line of duty in January of 2,012. So it's been almost
SPR Boardroom: 12 years since he's passed away, and I know the community is just as ecstatic with this recognition. So just wanted to give you an update on that.
SPR Boardroom: We have a city council briefing on our State grant applications. And
SPR Boardroom: periodically, we periodically we go before the city Council to brief them. A lot of our work is dependent on grant applications that come sometimes from the State, come sometimes come from our Federal partners. We have really great
SPR Boardroom: grant, a really great grant here at Seattle, parks and recreation. They do wonderful work, and I'm always amazed
SPR Boardroom: at the amounts of grants that we're able to realize. It's a lot of work to apply for a Grant, and if you worked in that space, know that it takes a lot of time, a lot of accountability, a lot of paperwork. But
SPR Boardroom: it's important to augment the work that we do. And so this year we're requesting brands for projects at Smithville Park. Welcome play Field, Dr. Jose Wizard, Hutchinson Park
SPR Boardroom: and Lake City, Blood, Crane Park, and we hope to hear about the Grant awards by next June.
SPR Boardroom: and we've evaluated 2 concession contracts. So once, every now and then we have new concessions that come up. We partner with sometimes local businesses. If any of you go to Golden Gardens, you may have noticed that we now have a new food concessioner there at the Kite Cafe. Which is
SPR Boardroom: great concession. It's gonna be managed by, I believe, by 2 brothers, and you're gonna be able to fly kites and
SPR Boardroom: and enjoy that. So this year we evaluated 2 other concessions, one at the mayor with marination Maikai restaurant at the seacrest boathouse and we're extending their contract through 2,026, and then an extension for the Seward Park play studio at the Seward Park bathhouse. I don't know if any of you have been there. I went there once, and I was blown away
SPR Boardroom: in the wonderful old bathhouse from Seward at Seward Beach.
SPR Boardroom: Excellent park! There's an amazing clay studio.
SPR Boardroom: It's really top notch professional. You can learn how to throw clay, and then they have they sell it to the public. And it's really fantastic. So it's a unique little treasure there at Seward Park. And that's so popular that we're extending that with the local business. So we're excited to report that
SPR Boardroom: upcoming events. We have a lot going on and always reach out to us. If you want to find out about a specific event. We try to keep you informed as much as possible. And the community as well. So we have a lot of more events coming up.
SPR Boardroom: Our sort of what we call the summer series really goes probably towards that to the end of September, and then we start phasing down some of those downtime events like
SPR Boardroom: the music in the park, the dancing, the movies, etc. This weekend on October 10th and 11. So this is the second year that we are closing down streets in downtown Seattle with permit.
SPR Boardroom: Last year we did pickleball and basketball downtown, which was really super fun this year we're doing. We already did pickleball a couple of weekends ago, and then this weekend we're going to have one day of youth, basketball.
SPR Boardroom: and and clinics and opportunities to play all day on Saturday, and then Sunday is going to be a day devoted to Street soccer. So kind of books all
SPR Boardroom: and again, exciting ways. Community really love this and little previews of again, what might be happening during the World Cup
SPR Boardroom: on August 11th there will be an all gender swim at Meadow Brook Pool. We really try to be sensitive and responsive to community who request for various cultural reasons. Opportunities sometimes to
SPR Boardroom: if they can use pools in a way that reflects their culture. So we will place privacy curtains. We'll have, you know, locker rooms be gender neutral.
SPR Boardroom: We'll have 2 single soloquer rooms available for traffic changing and so we're just proud to to do that what's coming up and then on well, before that, on August 17, th is a big day of play in all caps, because it really
SPR Boardroom: is a big day of play. And it's really fun to come out if you have an opportunity. This takes place every year down at Rainier Beach.
SPR Boardroom: all fields, I guess what's called
SPR Boardroom: These are newly renovated, that were built, as we saw, built in partnership with Mlb. And with 2 million dollars from the mariners. This was our legacy gift from the all star game that occurred.
SPR Boardroom: or and
SPR Boardroom: wonderful beautiful
SPR Boardroom: fields. That's a part of
SPR Boardroom: baseball and softball. Both boys, sports and girls sports as well. And they're beautiful fields, and they're huge. And but that's where we have the big day to play, which is
SPR Boardroom: an abundant day of all, every kind of sport you can imagine, and activity and arts and craft and nature stuff and environmental learning and music and food, and it's all free for the community, and it's really fun. So if you have an opportunity, you want to come out and see, it would welcome you to do that February 17, th
SPR Boardroom: and then October 23rd to 25 every year. We have this team summer musical event that goes on, and I'm excited because I'm gonna attend it for the 1st time, and I missed it last year, and everybody raves about it. And it's actually going to be at Benaroy Hall
SPR Boardroom: from August 23rd to 25.th This is like
SPR Boardroom: very quality
SPR Boardroom: professional level. That local kids participate in partnership with
SPR Boardroom: you know, our
SPR Boardroom: the Axon stage which is a black owned and operated community theater, who's been doing work with us for years. And there's just really amazing, wonderful people they love
SPR Boardroom: sharing art with children. And this year's team summer musical is snow white, and the 7
SPR Boardroom: dwarfs
SPR Boardroom: no way, and the 7th and the 7.th
SPR Boardroom: Now wait, and 7
SPR Boardroom: there must be some play here that I'm missing, right? So there must be something intentional here. But and it's at
SPR Boardroom: that are wet. So if you would love to come out, I think you would enjoy it. You and your family, or friends, or whoever that's going on so. And it's an opportunity for local teams. Mostly teams of color to perform in a musical theater production that reflects their culture. And they earn stipends for rehearsals and do performances over 10 weeks of practice and workshops and collaboration over 73 youth
SPR Boardroom: come together.
SPR Boardroom: And again.
SPR Boardroom: What an amazing experience for them that they're actually performing stage! Who gets to
SPR Boardroom: to to say that?
SPR Boardroom: And then on September 7th there will be the CID celebration and the Chinatown International Community District.
SPR Boardroom: A full day. Multicultural events. At King Hay Park, and a lot of opportunities. On September 7th from 11 to 5,
SPR Boardroom: and with that that is our update. I will tell this joke because there's new commissioners. I say it all the time. That's me offended me. It's not, but it could be. Staff never allowed to change that flag, because I actually like it. It's my culture. And so, thank you.
SPR Boardroom: I don't know where that is. That is not me. But I know right where is that?
SPR Boardroom: Oh, yeah, no, actually, that's not it, though. Obviously I'll let you know
SPR Boardroom: we can't delete anything, so I guess we'll figure it out. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions there?
SPR Boardroom: Thanks for having
SPR Boardroom: oh.
SPR Boardroom: any question on just wanted on behalf of the community, especially kids wanted
SPR Boardroom: sons that had to say something about the south opening. We were there. You were there in the morning
SPR Boardroom: room, but I guess I've been
SPR Boardroom: late pencil went down on evening. Next morning the kids were already parents were sworn into it
SPR Boardroom: from Long Nest and related to the eggs.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you.
SPR Boardroom: Other questions, comments 1st off. This is a thanks for thanks for the update. I'm a little bit curious about snow, white and and the 7, and about about pro programs like that, are they? I'm not super familiar with with these kinds of recreation programs, or they run out of
SPR Boardroom: community centers. How? How does? How does? How does yeah, some some of the activities we do on our own through our own summer camps. In fact, I was just visiting a summer camp at Camp Wong in West Seattle. If any of you know where that is. An amazing. 68 acre.
SPR Boardroom: Is that right?
SPR Boardroom: Is that awfully big? It is actually 68 acres. When I say things like that, I'm like, really nothing. But it is very large. And it's beautiful. And it's this forested area. And we do overnight. Camp, which was really exciting, is for 4 weeks. And that's what I was visiting was
SPR Boardroom: programming. We call it our special specialized recreation program. It's for kids with disabilities, both learning, emotional neuro divergent needs and but they were having their
SPR Boardroom: tonight are having their musical at the park. So sometimes that's run by us. This is probably the most professional partnership we have with the community. And so it's that that's on stage group that does it. But you know, and we do wonderful things at Magnuson as well. With partners. So yeah, we have a variety of ways that we
SPR Boardroom: have opportunities for kids to get involved. I always say, you know, parks and recreation. It's a lot of opportunities for sports which are really important. But a lot of kids connect
SPR Boardroom: through nature or arts and crafts, music and and artistic demonstrations. So it's exciting that we have those types of programs
SPR Boardroom: couldn't agree. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: maybe actually more for you, Amy or David, but like the the will, Stacy, naming thanks for that update because I was curious about where that had gone. I don't recall it. Coming back to the Commission. I know you mentioned that usually the Commission is consulted in those normally after with that should that have happened after that comment, like during the new business section. Should we have solicited comments like support, commentary, or like, would that normally come back to the Commission? Or not? Really.
SPR Boardroom: I think the main way that
SPR Boardroom: the board is involved with the naming part name is is being part of, that is, several members being asked to be part of the Park naming committee, so that it's kind of a subcommittee that that meets separately one of the big group
SPR Boardroom: and goes through a process of either naming or renaming parties.
SPR Boardroom: So that's that's the main way. Not necessarily a standing.
SPR Boardroom: I jumped on him.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you.
SPR Boardroom: I was thinking backwards on the public comments after they were hearing about the parks. Do you know, if
SPR Boardroom: we've identified areas of the Berkeley Wind Trail that needed to be updated, renovated from that codec a couple of months ago. I
SPR Boardroom: personally right from the northeast to be retro. Not been
SPR Boardroom: degrees with the
SPR Boardroom: I don't know if we've been able to figure out where we need some more work, because I noticed on the website that the string pairs were completed
SPR Boardroom: happened after the telephone happened after that.
SPR Boardroom: right? I know with the birth. So a couple of updates. Well, one, it's we did get clarification that our.
SPR Boardroom: you know, part of that is
SPR Boardroom: public right away, and ours and elsewhere. But it's part of the there will be monies in the upcoming transportation levy that's going to voters, I think in November.
SPR Boardroom: And there'll be money dedicated to improve
SPR Boardroom: the Burke Gilman trail. But I'm interesting that you say that because I'm actually doing a ride with some of our staff from
SPR Boardroom: the Pcd. Division with the the group. I followed up with them so that they could show show us where. Exactly so. I don't know the exact spots, but I'm hoping to find out. I need to report back. I think our right. It's later next month.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: we also, we have a small paving program we've had in years past. So we've done small fixes on the Berke over the years. So there's it's a kind of a combination of big projects, and then small fixes where we can take out, you know, 10 foot stretch and and kind of spend our money that way. So it's a combination. And there's parts of Berk that we own as part of. It's a
SPR Boardroom: 5 bunch of jurisdictions out there. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: Any questions or comments from folks online.
SPR Boardroom: I'll make sure you get your voices in if you want
SPR Boardroom: back to you for an info. Thank you so much.
SPR Boardroom: So now we're gonna hear from David to talk about the Lake City Green Light community center updates.
SPR Boardroom: 2 highly anticipated community center in a renovation projects the Green Lake Community Center and Evans Pool and the Lake City Community Center. Both projects are in the early planning phases. So tonight David will be providing general information and background and timelines on the processes moving forward.
SPR Boardroom: This is a briefing about these 2 projects does not require a decision or recommendation from the board, as the project progresses we will be coming back to the board periodically, with updates.
SPR Boardroom: and at some point, perhaps even other decisions. So I invite David to come up and give a presentation. And also maybe just if you're not planning to remind the Commissioners to that, we just about the boat house project that just opened. Yes, sure.
SPR Boardroom: And so okay, my apologies. I did not know that I wasn't supposed to change the thank you. Slide, because I did at the end. Okay, so thanks all for having me. It's nice to be here in person. I've been to the Board Migration Commissioners a bunch. It's just been a while.
SPR Boardroom: John, you look familiar. I work on the volunteer Park amphitheater. I I live design process. So that was one of mine back back when but anyway, I am strategic advisor planning capital development branch. I do a bunch of things under agency liaison. I work watch on the 5 20 project.
SPR Boardroom: We do all things waterfront. I've been at Park since 2,005, so I have a while. So that we can get rolling and please both in the room and for folks online I can't necessarily see you as I'm talking so if you have questions as I'm going through this presentation, please stop! You don't have to wait till the end. I don't. That doesn't bug me at all. So if you have questions, just jump in.
SPR Boardroom: So and Ap made a great point. We just opened
SPR Boardroom: the what was previously the Green Lake small craft center now the Green Lake community bone house that was actually also one of my projects, too. We that was a really great partnership with the Associated Record Recreation Council and the Green Lake Group Community.
SPR Boardroom: if folks remember, it was this kind of old funky one story building that you didn't know was a boathouse and the community and we partnered and we got State grants.
SPR Boardroom: and there was Park district funds in there and to create this really great, vibrant new boathouse
SPR Boardroom: they can actually see through. So you can see the boats gets the activity. There's also a great community space that's rentable on the second floor and balcony that has this amazing view out over Green Lake. So it's really it's been a great it's a great addition to the or improvement to the lake experience. We also updated the restrooms. Those are old and
SPR Boardroom: anecdotally. They are the most visited restrooms in the State. Whether that's true or not I can't prove. But that's anecdotally after this. And if I think about Greenlake, if that kind of provides a great rhythm. There is restrooms and facility
SPR Boardroom: at 3 points around the lake, and they're pretty spaced. There's bathhouse here with restrooms. There's the the community boathouse with adjacent restrooms. And then there's Community Center, also with
SPR Boardroom: restrooms that are accessible from the exterior. So historically, the community center was built the initial Community Center, the field house with a gymnasium built in 1,935
SPR Boardroom: And then,
SPR Boardroom: Devin School building was built in in 1,955. It's really unique location. You can see the the photo on the upper left.
SPR Boardroom: The pathway was a railroad before it was a pedestrian pathway. Behind the pathway where the community center fit sits is fill. It's all fill is filled in that the lake used to go all the way back almost to Greg's Green Lake Bike Shop, or at least a Green Lake way. That piece is all fill which creates some significant challenges for community center. That community center is because the crappy fill soils. It's all on pilings.
SPR Boardroom: We can only drain the pool in August. That's the only time the water table is low enough to drain the pool. Because otherwise, if you take the water off, the pool floats because the water table so high. So and that's important when I get to the next slide with cost. But let's say here for a second. Because that foundation really drives some significant cost, and construction challenges.
SPR Boardroom: the thing to know, and we'll talk a little bit in the next couple of slides. Evans pools, a city landmark which also adds a layer of complexity to
SPR Boardroom: to the renovation reconstruction process. To demolish that structure. We need approval from today's landmark reservation board. But the the kind of unique feature of I mean, you know, folk, you've all been there. There's something special about the pool. There's something special about community center, that kind of barrel vault roof that looks like a quantum HUD.
SPR Boardroom: It's a thin shell construction. It was designed by an engineer, local engineer named Jack Christiansen, relatively famous designed the kingdom roof. And there's some other of that. This is one of his 1st
SPR Boardroom: structures you can't really tell. It's a thin shell, concrete roof, but it was a really unique and also very cost, effective way to construct. So it's it's but it's adding some challenges as we're trying to move the project forward. So keep that in mind. next.
SPR Boardroom: Oh, wait. Sorry. And so 3 centers. One of our oldest in the system. I think Firewalk was the only one left. That's older. And that's being renovated. Now it's about 26,000 square feet. Our typical community center program is.
SPR Boardroom: or, you know, kind of proformers, 32,000 square feet. But our more recent community centers, big Northgate. Yesler Terrace. Those are about 20,000 square feet. The pool adds another 15,000 square feet. Rainier Beach, which was our most recent
SPR Boardroom: community center with pool is about
SPR Boardroom: 36,000 square feet total. So
SPR Boardroom: thanks. Thanks. And so kind of here's the process. And this is
SPR Boardroom: kind of
SPR Boardroom: you know, this is a kind of bird's eye view and then site plan. It's really as we're talking about landmarks, it's really this.
SPR Boardroom: that kind of barrel vault roof that the Landmark Reservation Board is most concerned with. So we're thinking about that. So we started the process for a new community center. Back in 2,019.
SPR Boardroom: we issued in our queue we issue for these big projects. You know, when we built Rainier Beach community center that was 2,012.
SPR Boardroom: That construction was about 32 million dollars kind of all in about 16 million in hard construction costs.
SPR Boardroom: Design fees are typically 10 to 12% of that. And so you know, you're looking at, you know, 2 million plus dollars for design fees. So given, you know, our assumption was, it'd be significantly more expensive for that. We went out for a public R to select a design firm which included engineering and landscape architecture and all those disciplines.
SPR Boardroom: we ended up with Miller Hull, a really great local firm. They designed market front, which is adjacent to public place market. They also designed Northgate Community Center. They've done a bunch of they're really super well respected, local and national community. So they've been really great to work with.
SPR Boardroom: We see there are few. In 2,019, we started the public processing. And 2020, we were gonna have our 1st community meeting mid-march 2020. And so we all remember back to what happened in March 2020 the world came to a screeching halt but in some ways
SPR Boardroom: what enabled us to do was we pivoted, and it really forced us to hone our chops and do online engagement. And so we came up with a survey. We did all this. We did all this really great outreach. We put on a survey we looked at. Well, could you put the community center someplace else. And
SPR Boardroom: we got over 3,000 responses to an online survey. We did an online house. We did little video clips. We put online explaining the process. So it really in some ways, that was the 1st project that really.
SPR Boardroom: we kind of honed our chops on, how do we do online engagement, you know, traditionally, we've had these public meetings that you know. You all come to us on a Tuesday evening from, you know, 5 to 7, and you get a very distinct slice of the community.
SPR Boardroom: but at least a lot of folks out. So we went. So going as we're moving these projects to an online. You know, electronic media based outreach.
SPR Boardroom: we're able to meet, meet and reach a much more diverse and much more widespread audience. So it's been great. And we've really tried since then to focus on
SPR Boardroom: it's a it's a combination you have to. You have to go out to the public. But it really showed us that we can do outreach online. And we also can go to other folks meetings, too, and not just make up. Everyone come to us. So
SPR Boardroom: That was the start of that. The original, you know, kind of pie in the sky, let's, you know. Let's hang every ornament we want on the Christmas tree. We ended up at about
SPR Boardroom: 77 million dollars in hard construction costs, which is about
SPR Boardroom: 120 million. Our multiplier so you take hard construction costs. You multiply it by about 1.6 2. It gives you total project costs with public projects. There's contingency. There's sales, taxes, design fees, and there's a whole bunch of things wrapped up on that. There's staff costs.
SPR Boardroom: So you're at 77 million dollars. You're at 100 2,500 thirtyish 1 million dollars in total project costs. Which is way more than you know. We thought we could spend on a community center, because then that sets a a pretty
SPR Boardroom: unreachable precedent for subsequent community center. So we retooled we got it down to 58 million dollars in in our construction costs, which is still right around 100 million dollars.
SPR Boardroom: We reduce the site work. Cause. That's a big driver so quickly out of Green Lake site works a big driver. So we tried to kind of massage it and and reduce the site work and limit it.
SPR Boardroom: so we just got to a point where, like.
SPR Boardroom: let's look at just what would it take to run? Just
SPR Boardroom: bring the structure up to
SPR Boardroom: current standards makes me improvements. We're bringing up the current earthquake standards. Fix the floor in the gym, add some lighting, do some stuff. Make the entry a little bit more welcoming. You're still at 30 to 35 million dollars in hard construction, soft cost.
SPR Boardroom: with some significant contingencies. Right? That that assessment we did complete assessment of the building. We didn't poke any holes in the wall, we didn't drill into any of the foundation. So there's there's some. There's some risk there that that 30 to 35 million dollars very quickly becomes 45 million dollars. Or you know, what have you?
SPR Boardroom: there's also the issue of, or the challenge associated with that is, you're looking at specialty contractors right? Coming in and renovating an old structure like that.
SPR Boardroom: you know. It's not necessarily project that that Walsh or Molina, or some of the bigger contractors necessarily
SPR Boardroom: bid on. There's some specialty work there. So
SPR Boardroom: so 2023, we decided to restart the project
SPR Boardroom: as part of the second cycle in the park district there was,
SPR Boardroom: initially, 56 50 million dollars was going to be bond funded.
SPR Boardroom: that number is 56 with with inflation and escalation.
SPR Boardroom: oh, yeah, okay, I'll get to that. Thank you. So
SPR Boardroom: we have. Now we have a budget of 56. I have also 3 million dollars in hand to get the design process rolling. So my challenge now to back to the. So we restarted the design process in 2,023 with, Okay, here's the dollars we have. We have 59 million dollars, which gives us about a 35 million dollar construction budget.
SPR Boardroom: What can we do for the 35 million? So we look, you could renovate the existing structure.
SPR Boardroom: but we, I think we found a way to
SPR Boardroom: build a project
SPR Boardroom: or our target figure. We've really. And you'll see it on the next slide.
SPR Boardroom: we've really limited the amount of site work which significantly reduces construction costs there was. We had this big discussion.
SPR Boardroom: We should move the parking lot away from the lake. The lake really deserves to have public space next to it. Let's move the parking lot.
SPR Boardroom: Great idea!
SPR Boardroom: There's no way to get any more parking you could. You know you could take. This is the existing parking here. You could move the parking lot here.
SPR Boardroom: It doesn't buy you any more. Parking gives you about the same number of stalls.
SPR Boardroom: And now you've triggered stormwater code requirements. So now you have to deal with Stormwater.
SPR Boardroom: and then we've just spent a bunch of money
SPR Boardroom: on a parking lot that's not any bigger and not spend any money on a community center. So really, it really, we thought, Okay, what do we do? That would what would most benefit the community, and that is really the the new community center. There is the outstanding issue with landmarks. I'll get to that in a second. And then can you put that up that question back up?
SPR Boardroom: So I'm kind of read it. Just yeah. So so question is what steps were taken to ensure you had a diverse response with online engagement, ie. Digital equity. Seniors, non native English speakers, etc, who may not be tapped online. The pandemic exposed fissures and assumptions of engagement with these groups.
SPR Boardroom: That's a great question. I can hit that
SPR Boardroom: when we get to Lake City, because it's it's, I think way more important. We had opportunities for translation with Green Lake. But the Green Lake neighborhood. We're really focused part of the other thinking with the Green Lake Community Center was.
SPR Boardroom: and when Justin Cutler was here and folks remember he was our recreation director before Daisy he had this vision for regional hubs. And so Greenlake was going to be. This regional hub was then, you know, in some ways the thinking at that time was, Oh, well, maybe that justifies 150 million dollars. But
SPR Boardroom: you know, as we retool.
SPR Boardroom: the Community Center really serves a local audience, and and the predominance of the the
SPR Boardroom: residents of Green Lake are English speakers. We were. We did make available if folks needed a translation, but it was brown. Primarily English speakers. When we talk about Lake City. I can talk more about translation, because that, you know, Lake City is a much different neighborhood, and there is. There's 6, 7, 8, 9 languages in there. So there is. There is definitely consideration of of 9 English speakers and how we do our outreach. So that's a that's a great talk.
SPR Boardroom: I'll I'll I'll get back to that. Okay, so next slide.
SPR Boardroom: So,
SPR Boardroom: this is very schematic. What this shows. So the plan current plan is to
SPR Boardroom: take a whole project
SPR Boardroom: to the 60% design milestone, we think. So 2 pools. And then all the rest of the community center space. This is the landmark pool shed. This is the existing outdoor basketball court. Jim gets tagged on there. We're gonna take the whole project to 60 design milestone reassess budget. There is potential that
SPR Boardroom: There's money through the King County products, levy that would support some of the pool so that might take some of the pressure off the 59 million dollars we have that grant application
SPR Boardroom: will go in next year, and that is up to 5 million dollars as an aquatics, Grant, and you dedicate pool, which then
SPR Boardroom: freeze up some of that budget. But we're figuring a way that if
SPR Boardroom: we only if we only have 59 million dollars.
SPR Boardroom: Then we could phase the we could phase the gym in in the next round of the park district. You could build basically a Rec center without a gymnasium. There's a bunch of gymnasiums
SPR Boardroom: in the neighborhood at middle schools, public high schools, private high schools that we could work with. They already have an agreement with the school district, so we could shift some of our recreation programs that need a gymnasium to those temporarily, while
SPR Boardroom: But the rest of the focus of the pool and the rest of the community spaces would be built in that 1st phase. So that's
SPR Boardroom: that's kind of our back pocket if we don't have budget to build it all when it goes out. Do you have a diagram that shows the new footprint? I mean? That's the that's yeah. Sorry. So
SPR Boardroom: here's the existing, you know, kind of driveway. Here's the existing parking.
SPR Boardroom: You can't really see the existing building. Yeah, it's really what I really. And so the the red hatching is really limited site work. I really push the design team. Let's not do anything other than than what's necessary. And so these these red hatches are just making, you know, Ada, improvements and really nothing else. So really minimizing the amount of site work that we're doing and really focusing on the building. We do lose the.
SPR Boardroom: you know. Then keep in mind this is a concept in a sketch. So we haven't done a whole, any design or architecture. You lose 3 of those trees in the in that, a layer of trees on the on the south side. But what you do get is you get this pathway that now goes to a blank wall that actually connects to the community center.
SPR Boardroom: So then, that's been a big thing because they used to before the Evans Pool is built. That pathway least used to lead you to the front door of the field house.
SPR Boardroom: I'm understanding that moves the pool right? Yeah, it moves the pool to the to the west side of the building, and it also moves, sets the community center back from this is the existing trail right here. So it gives you a bunch of breathing space between the trail and the community center. It would go it would go right here
SPR Boardroom: we go right there. The nice thing about a gym is.
SPR Boardroom: Pools are really mechanical system heavy. So you really have to build the pools 1st and design all those mechanical like. They're probably fix yours to go with the pool.
SPR Boardroom: Jim. You could stuff out utilities. You could actually have its own
SPR Boardroom: heating and cooling system on the roof. And so you could actually separate that use it for shelter will preserve the hygiene program that's there. So
SPR Boardroom: adding a gym on is, I'm going to quote, but you know, relatively easy. But as as a thing to add on, it's just a big box. So
SPR Boardroom: so that's kind of the direction we're going.
SPR Boardroom: to King County, King County Aquatics brand the other thing we're looking at. So typically.
SPR Boardroom: our projects are designed, bid built, we have consultant, they design it. We put bid docs together, goes out to the public, bid another
SPR Boardroom: another way to do. It is design Bill. That's what Washdot does with their highway projects.
SPR Boardroom: but another another way to do it is it's called Gccm. It's general contractor
SPR Boardroom: construction manager. So you hire the contractor at at really soon. So it's 30% design. So they're part of
SPR Boardroom: they're part of the design team. And so they're advising you on material choices, and constructability. And this will be with this project.
SPR Boardroom: because constructability is an issue with the soils and foundations.
SPR Boardroom: It may ends, you know, construction staging. This is a challenging area stage, because we don't want to monopolize the parking area. And and so how do you stage this. And so there's some advantage, potential advantages to having a contractor on board during the design phase, and then they just go
SPR Boardroom: It doesn't necessarily save you any money. But it does cut down on some of your risk. So
SPR Boardroom: it's you know.
SPR Boardroom: you good design, good build. You get a contractor with potentially bigger contingencies and change orders.
SPR Boardroom: You go. Gccm, you have a contract around work early. You reduce some of those contingencies and some of the risk. But you're still just paying for those services during design. So
SPR Boardroom: and have you pursued all 3 models
SPR Boardroom: we've we've never done Gccm or design build, so we will make. We'll make
SPR Boardroom: our decision. We're kind of leaning towards Gccm. We need approval from the city through fas to go to do that alternative procurement method. So there's some work to be done there.
SPR Boardroom: So next, for next steps for the project, the 1st thing we need to do is go to landmarks and get their approval to demolish some of the originally. We're going to go to landmarks and say, we're just going to demolish it all
SPR Boardroom: and working with landmark staff
SPR Boardroom: that
SPR Boardroom: They were skeptical, that the Landmark Board was gonna be super enthused with that. So design team
SPR Boardroom: sort of retooling. We think, with this layout we've re. We've figured out a way to save at least the
SPR Boardroom: pool structure that they're most concerned with. We thought about. Well, could you get a gym in there?
SPR Boardroom: It's to the the edge. The edges are too low, there's no way to get. It doesn't meet the height so, and it doesn't work. It's too small
SPR Boardroom: for a real pool like the existing pool is like 6 inches short for high school. So there's there's some. There's some funny things with that pool so, and the deck space isn't very large. So so that's
SPR Boardroom: that's that's green light in maybe a little bit more than a nutshell. So maybe I'll pause. The highest volume
SPR Boardroom: community center we have in the city.
SPR Boardroom: That's a good question. I I don't know certainly one of, and certainly the most visited park site in the city. Some say the State.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah. But not necessarily community Center and and the community center in talking to our Rec. Staff, you know, it's on 2 floors. It's not. It doesn't function as well as it could. So it's probably hard to manage. You know, some of the South End community centers. We're near Beach, which is our newest community center, you know. That's super well
SPR Boardroom: used quickly. That's the one with 2 pools, so that that once we once that came back online that gets a ton of use as well. So but it's hard to separate that kind of use. Yeah, more. It's just the way that it's
SPR Boardroom: designed right now.
SPR Boardroom: not making that.
SPR Boardroom: Hence the need for communication. Is there any incentive package for those Ccms.
SPR Boardroom: The time could stash
SPR Boardroom: over here. Say, do this, do that, and that's a that's a really great question that I don't know the answer to. I'm not very familiar with that that procurement process. So I don't. I don't know. And I just did that with my house. So that's okay. Yeah, you know, construction is really not my world right? I you know my experience is in kind of the the permanent public outreach and design phase, and and not so much any construction. So I can certainly.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah, we talked about that, though, and we're, you know, trying to in working with our teams in this division.
SPR Boardroom: you know, I've asked them to look at these alternative methods, but also, you know, in as an example, so that we can continue to deliver projects
SPR Boardroom: save money and make it more
SPR Boardroom: enticing. As an example, like sometimes we, we may know that we're we need to build 5 restrooms right?
SPR Boardroom: And there is one in the north and one in the south and 2 in the west, etc. So traditionally, we'll go and we bid those out.
SPR Boardroom: This is the Seattle metro area. So maybe a good approach is like
SPR Boardroom: taking the 5 out.
SPR Boardroom: you know. Can you build 5 of them? You're gonna get 5
SPR Boardroom: job board unified business, you know money. So is there a way for you to package that up so that it's an incentive for them? Perhaps we save money and time, etc. So yes, we are looking at that kind of thing as well.
SPR Boardroom: Just one question earlier. From the scope of work. Is this? What what is happening with the existing foundation in this proposal? You know. Well, so and that's the interest coming forward up. And well, I mean, I think there's some work to it. But
SPR Boardroom: the the nice thing about building, all new, particularly with the pool, is
SPR Boardroom: we're not going to try and save any of the foundation. We'll pull piles, we'll drive new field pilings. And so it actually, there's another. I mean, that's a in a lot of ways. It's a cost saving, or if it's not a cost saving, it certainly reduces the risk right? If we just
SPR Boardroom: demolish the whole building.
SPR Boardroom: drive new piles, build a new foundation. We don't. We don't run into the issue with our floating pool. And we, you know. And so if there's a lot of things that
SPR Boardroom: that are
SPR Boardroom: savings quote unquote, or at least say, you know, reducing risk reducing contingency.
SPR Boardroom: So yeah, the thinking is, foundation would be all good.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah. So
SPR Boardroom: think over the years like Greenlake.
SPR Boardroom: the basketball court has been become like an iconic place. Yeah, you know, and I was just kind of wondering if that was brought into the the thought process of the design phases, and he's even been featured on basketball games and things like that.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah, no, the sonics. I love the Logos a little faded out there. If you've been out there recently, sonics put a bunch of money into it when they were still here. And so that layout you can't. It's hard to see but that existing it's a quart and a half is right here, and that saves it so we would resurface it and preserve it. There were some other schemes that you know. Maybe we move it. It's just it's
SPR Boardroom: kind of nice where it is. There's a connection to it. And you're right. It's it's
SPR Boardroom: it's really an iconic
SPR Boardroom: site. It lends a pretty urban feel to to Green Lake into the park. It's in
SPR Boardroom: I went to Mclemore when he played at at climate pledge arena and one of his opening acts.
SPR Boardroom: one of the opening hip hop guys.
SPR Boardroom: his backdrop and video was all employee groups at at Greenlake at that outdoor court. So it is. It is a it's a thing
SPR Boardroom: so which we will try and preserve.
SPR Boardroom: Good.
SPR Boardroom: Alright that. That's
SPR Boardroom: Lake City community center. Really, welcoming and inviting. So anyway, sorry.
SPR Boardroom: so like city community center redevelopment this has been. We've been looking at this project.
SPR Boardroom: Starting in 2,018, we did a feasibility study. Green lakes are really unique or sorry. Lake City is a really unique site.
SPR Boardroom: in in Seattle.
SPR Boardroom: in other jurisdictions
SPR Boardroom: there's with a park zone. So a park has its own unique zoning. And so you can do parking recreation things in Seattle
SPR Boardroom: our facilities, whether it's a park or community center, or you know, boat ramp.
SPR Boardroom: we're subject to the underlying zoning. So, and most of our facilities are in single family zones, and so, which which really limits
SPR Boardroom: height and and bulk, and those sorts of things so think about when we put up life in a play field, or we put up nets, especially with a driving range
SPR Boardroom: that's in a single family zone. Those are over height. We have to go to council to get approval sometime at the Ranier Beach Gym. When we built that new gym that was over the single family height limit, zone, height limits. We have to get Council Commission approval. We always get them, but it just it makes it challenging to do anything bigger than than kind of what's there?
SPR Boardroom: Lake City is really unique. This is zoned neighborhood commercial. And I think they've updated that zoning. So it's it. But it was neighborhood commercial, 3 with a 75 foot high limit. So it really it really this is a teen, tiny building. But you look in like city neighborhood, and you're looking at, you know.
SPR Boardroom: a floor or 2 of commercial, and then 3, 4, 5 stories of residential above. So this really provided an opportunity. We did this Usability study in 2,018, in partnership with the office of housing. Could we build a new community center with.
SPR Boardroom: say, 100 units of affordable housing above it. And you really, you do have. You have. It's not the biggest of sites, but you have the zoning envelope to do that. So that's been. That's been the plan to move forward with a community center with 4 or 5 floors of affordable housing above it. And so we're finally we're finally getting there. So
SPR Boardroom: next
SPR Boardroom: as you probably knew. There was an arson fire at the center last fall, and so we end up demolishing it earlier this year. And it really until a lot of ways. Jump started the process. And ideally, we would have
SPR Boardroom: kept the community center up and running until we're ready to develop a new community center. But that this has really forced our hand.
SPR Boardroom: so we hired broadview planning to lead a community needs assessment.
SPR Boardroom: that was a request from the legislators in the 46 district, which is where, like city is that we really need? We really need to get a handle on what are the needs of the community, I think a lot of what they were focused on was more of the social services needs in the community which some of which we can definitely address in the Community Center, some of which are way beyond what we could ever do in a community center. That's not really our focus.
SPR Boardroom: but you mentioned that building in the slide before is no longer there. Yes, okay.
SPR Boardroom: And so we hired Rodney planning to do community outreach and a needs assessment. In part to inform the development teams of the community center needs but also to be able to to share with the city family and service providers to say, here's what? Because the State legislators we're hearing from service providers in the community, we need office space. We need this, we need that. And so part of what we're capturing is
SPR Boardroom: those those broader needs. And I I'll get back to the we should survey. I'll get back to that and we can talk about languages.
SPR Boardroom: so the office of housing. So the office of housing is leading the process
SPR Boardroom: because it's an affordable housing project with a community center on the bottom. So they issued an Rfq. To prequalify for developers in April. We, the initial thought, was they were going to issue the Rfq. Last year. But they had the Mount Baker project, and they have a couple of big projects going on, and so this one got delayed.
SPR Boardroom: But here we are. They should be off queue in April, and responses were due in May. They end up pre-qualifying 3
SPR Boardroom: 3 developers, bridge Housing Mercy and Lehigh all well known to folks in Seattle, and so and then they issued the Rfp. For the development team
SPR Boardroom: in at the end of July, and there's a schedule we'll get to in a second.
SPR Boardroom: but the teams will have
SPR Boardroom: most of the rest of this year to put their proposal together. They they came in pretty light. So without without an architect
SPR Boardroom: a couple couple of them didn't have contractors, and so, as part of the Rfp. Process.
SPR Boardroom: we are thinking that
SPR Boardroom: we'll hire this, their designer, to build out the community center portion of the project. We'll also hire their contractor separately to build up community center or yeah, build up community center. It certainly simplifies things. If we have to go with a different contractor, we have to wait till the whole buildings and project is done, and then here with Ti work. But we do reserve the right in the Rfp. That if we feel
SPR Boardroom: either the design team and or the contractor isn't qualified to build or design or build community center, we do reserve the right to go out with a separate Rfp for our own design team.
SPR Boardroom: they can pull out of the equation. The community center is not rocking science, so we should they should have a qualified
SPR Boardroom: folks that could do A community center will want to see their qualifications before making decisions
SPR Boardroom: next.
SPR Boardroom: And so part of part of our needs. Assessment was going out to the community. And so we did it in several ways. It was. It was
SPR Boardroom: Our staff sail parks, recreation staff our consultant team, and we also partner with department neighborhoods, has great connections in the neighborhood. So they've been helping us with our outreach. They've been helping us with our translation. They've been leading some in language focus group Spanish and some other languages.
SPR Boardroom: the survey is up online still it closes tomorrow. It we put it up online in on June 10.th So it's been up for a long for a relatively long time
SPR Boardroom: the survey is available in English, Somali, Spanish, traditional Chinese.
SPR Boardroom: Tigrinya, and my apologies. If I pronounce that wrong, it's language spoken in Eritrea in Ethiopia Ukraine. There's a fair amount of recent Ukrainian immigrants in the neighborhood
SPR Boardroom: Amaric and Vietnamese. So we're trying to
SPR Boardroom: cover our bases there in working with Don. They have some community liaisons that also speak in language. They've been helping folks with translation of the survey and and really getting out in the community. So besides our online presence, we've been at 3 of the farmers markets in Lake City which are pretty well attended.
SPR Boardroom: We've been to some other existing community events in at the library and some other spots. We've met with local businesses. And we've had these additional focus groups.
SPR Boardroom: We have a project advisory team that are made up of folks in the community, including one high school student, which has been really great. So we have other connections
SPR Boardroom: to the community that we were working with to get feedback on our survey.
SPR Boardroom: Lake City Community Center has traditionally been used by a lot of seniors. So we've reached out and spent a lot of time with the senior community out there as well. So
SPR Boardroom: This is our survey so far to date. We've got
SPR Boardroom: 208 responses that's of the end of July. So we've gotten a pretty good. We've gotten a pretty good response. 208
SPR Boardroom: responses to a survey.
SPR Boardroom: is for a typical survey for us is pretty good. So
SPR Boardroom: let's see, we got in the chat
SPR Boardroom: on my mouse.
SPR Boardroom: Are these sorry if I missed this? Are these questions all required or optional? They're all optional, so folks can. Folks can pick and choose which questions they ask, and let me
SPR Boardroom: so the the top 5. This is as of
SPR Boardroom: as of the end of July. The top 5 requests I really wanted to know
SPR Boardroom: who the who folks were.
SPR Boardroom: Did they use the community center in the past.
SPR Boardroom: and how they like to use the community center in the future. At this at this point. It's a it's a pretty simple ask of folks, because there's not, you know, there's no design and dig into. There's not a lot. But we really want to know how folks envision using community center in the future because we want to provide that to development teams. And so as we're thinking about how the community center integrates with an affordable housing project, what are those things they need to do? You know, you think about
SPR Boardroom: a gym in a 75 story building. Well, you can't put any columns in a gym, so you got yeah. You gotta think a little bit creatively about where things go and how it relates to
SPR Boardroom: both the is the parking, and how it relates to the library, and then also Albert Davis park, which is right there as well, but
SPR Boardroom: so as of the end of July, the top 5 requests for the future community center, fitness and sports activities, arts and cultural activities, educational and learning activities, outdoor recreation and senior programming and activities. And
SPR Boardroom: that it's
SPR Boardroom: mean, none of those are really surprising. I mean, it's a pretty. It's a pretty typical ask of community center. But it's really the purpose of this was really to see.
SPR Boardroom: what are we missing? You know what you know. Every community is a little bit unique.
SPR Boardroom: and we really wanted to hear from folks. Are there things
SPR Boardroom: that we're missing that we're not seeing. And and
SPR Boardroom: all this will be compiled into the needs assessment and then shared with the with the
SPR Boardroom: potential proposed potential proposers.
SPR Boardroom: So next
SPR Boardroom: and so then this is our timeline. So the Rfp. Was released in July.
SPR Boardroom: info session. September responses are due in November, so they have a really long lead time to put these together, put together, financing and and secure contractor and design team.
SPR Boardroom: our final needs assessment. We'll have a draft ready.
SPR Boardroom: and by the end of August. It'll be available to the potential proposers, and then we'll have a final version. There's a couple of Lake City events this month that we want to include in our outreach and just checking back with folks.
SPR Boardroom: So the final will be available in September.
SPR Boardroom: Well, there's what we'll share with the city team and and other folks in the community.
SPR Boardroom: design teams on board. March 2025. So that's really when the design and and
SPR Boardroom: phase 2 of the outreach starts which puts us in the ground probably late. 26. New community Center. Open 2027, 2028, some sort of time. Something like that. So
SPR Boardroom: it's kind of the the rough schedule.
SPR Boardroom: We'll start our community outreach
SPR Boardroom: before March. We want to get community re-engaged around.
SPR Boardroom: Here's where we are
SPR Boardroom: looking forward. We want to work with design team. I think folks can be really excited to think about the design like, what does it look like when I open the doors to the community center. What's there? What do I have to do? So that's where I think everyone
SPR Boardroom: is really looking forward to this next phase of the night. There isn't
SPR Boardroom: as much as folks want to talk about design. There's nothing kind of there yet. So
SPR Boardroom: and that's yeah, that's it. That's so. I. I've used this for other things. So that's Green Lake on. And that's that field where we put the parking lot because folks are well, no one uses that it's just green space. And I I rode by there on a you know, midweek on a summer day, and like no, I mean, these patches of green space are precious. So I just
SPR Boardroom: they've used a lot. But it's a great reminder that, you know, beyond the the facilities and the space that it sees. It's these spaces in between the the public as well. And there isn't always someone to speak for
SPR Boardroom: with that, thank you. And I'm happy to answer some questions.
SPR Boardroom: One but we look for any online.
SPR Boardroom: It's kind of the timeline is fully reasonable.
SPR Boardroom: The shame that there was a community center, you know it was our sense. Now it can be kind of.
SPR Boardroom: There'd be no activity for 40 years. Yup, is there anything that Parks can do in the interim
SPR Boardroom: in a temporary space to leverage the library. Just sort of keep some momentum going. So you don't lose whatever engagement that community center had. Yeah, the senior programs shifted to land of God, church or local church. Our community center coordinator and his staff are operating at a Meadowbrook. So they're doing summer programming at some of the local parks. They do a food program and they're doing.
SPR Boardroom: we're doing movies. The way the farmers market is back, which used to which traditionally was in front of the community center. So that's back in the street. So we are looking at. We are trying to keep folks engaged. So the staff stated, placing of the building. Yeah, that's great, and there is
SPR Boardroom: You were with me, but you might remember, but like
SPR Boardroom: one or 2 blocks from there. Open this. It's private. But it's like, Oh, yeah, amazing. Yeah. So it's it's now a candy to be Children's Home society and children family services they moved into. It's an old bank building on the southeast corner of Lake City and 125.th There's the big apartment building on the north side, on the east side of Lake City, on the south side of the big bank, or something. Anyway.
SPR Boardroom: they had this great community room. We had like ice cream social there, like 100 people attended on a Friday afternoon. So they provide
SPR Boardroom: and services. And so. But they're super engaged in the community. So we can take advantage of that space as well. If I can just jump in. A couple of programs moved down to the Magnuson Community center as well. So I'm Kim Lemay, the coordinator down there, has done a great job of integrating a couple of new programs in their spaces. Oh, that's great
SPR Boardroom: thanks. That's great, David.
SPR Boardroom: Will the same thing happen when you eventually close green light for construction? Will the staff move elsewhere? Because I feel like there's going to be a huge mitigation for the program to happen. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: push outwards to other things, especially the loss of
SPR Boardroom: yeah. I I think the one thing with with Greenlake different than like City is. It'll be a much shorter timeframe like we won't. We won't close the community center until the city until the construction plans go up until I think, which was what we would have done for Lake City. But because of the fire we're just, we're, you know, 2 years ahead of that happening. So that really forced our hand, which is unfortunate because we would continue to run programs
SPR Boardroom: until we absolutely couldn't.
SPR Boardroom: So it's, you know in Green Lakes, probably a 18 month period, 18 month construction window. So it's
SPR Boardroom: yeah, yeah. And we can do you know, we could do some programming? The nice thing about the new community boathouse with that community room upstairs. It gives us the opportunity to run some programming out of there. It can operate as a kind of a meeting center. We want a pool, but we can do some stuff to keep folks
SPR Boardroom: keep things going.
SPR Boardroom: Questions
SPR Boardroom: just huge. Thank you, David. That's $4.
SPR Boardroom: Thank you all. Thank you. Thanks.
SPR Boardroom: We have a little next agenda item is always older new business which sometimes gets used, and sometimes it doesn't so jump in. If you've got some, please.
SPR Boardroom: We have some events that will come out
SPR Boardroom: by email
SPR Boardroom: to see.
SPR Boardroom: do you? Would you mind for them to be like. What sort of things had to come up with all the new business, or what's appropriate versus not appropriate to introduce.
SPR Boardroom: And
SPR Boardroom: sure.
SPR Boardroom: thank you, David. Thanks, Mel, thank you.
SPR Boardroom: And so all the new business might have been like, let's say we hadn't given an update on that
SPR Boardroom: the naming, I mean. Well, Stacy, hey? What you know where we talked or John was out? Steve was asking about fulfillment, etc. New business we could be. Maybe it's something that's
SPR Boardroom: a personal interest to you or your or your district, or something, you know. Maybe residents or neighbors have been asking you about loyal heights and the likes and so you're asking us the department that do come back and report on the status of that, or you know it could be a variety of things like that. Yeah, program or something. Yeah.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah. And and you all get
SPR Boardroom: lots of correspondence in between meetings and what we try, we endeavor to to give.
SPR Boardroom: I mean, the staff gets that as well. So we try to give you an update on that. But if there's something that really stands out that you wanted to follow up on. That's also a great time to ask a question about that, and maybe Ap. Has an answer for you, and maybe it's a we'll come back later. But that would be an appropriate time to ask about that, too.
SPR Boardroom: I had one then, just to follow up. Really, the pre-meeting correspondence included some complaints about the presence of a
SPR Boardroom: cannabis festival this weekend at a city park, and that has I saw a news report that was moved. Now.
SPR Boardroom: how to
SPR Boardroom: our nation or somewhere on the Far East Side. So right? Just if anybody look at that email correspondence, that's issues kind of off the table because the organizers move the event
SPR Boardroom: and trick
SPR Boardroom: that my understanding in the past. Sometimes it's been held at Marl Edwards Park.
SPR Boardroom: That location Europe. Yeah. Head desk. That location had been sometime at Myrtle Edwards Park.
SPR Boardroom: not so near residents and neighbors. And there were other issues.
SPR Boardroom: This particular right cannabis festival, or whatever it was called.
SPR Boardroom: have gotten scheduled at Lincoln Park.
SPR Boardroom: but they
SPR Boardroom: there was some confusion about the need for more safety and security and things, and that was not in place, and some residents got wind of that.
SPR Boardroom: And so in discussions, the organizers, we had tried to get them to move to Myrtle Edwards, which is probably where we should have suggested at the beginning. But then, for whatever reason, they didn't want to go to Myrtle Edwards. And so they went to this new site. So yeah.
SPR Boardroom: that's what happened there.
SPR Boardroom: And we try to be really you'll learn this in your service to
SPR Boardroom: You know you have to be really careful with
SPR Boardroom: any kind of public, you know, as you all know, but public spaces, you know, we have permitting offices, rules, and regulations and things in place.
SPR Boardroom: And sometimes an event might trigger a citywide per minute from a special event. Perspective. So seafare not only gets permits from the parks department, but that's a city wide. They need transportation and police and emergency services. Right? There's a lot that goes to that. But we really try to be careful. In, not
SPR Boardroom: because we can't legally, you know, over content. So you know, if someone wanted to have a political
SPR Boardroom: march, or whatever the city might determine. You know we can't say, oh, someone wants to do a rally for the Harris Walls campaign. We like that. So we'll do that. Someone wants to do one for the trump. Jd bands. Oh, we're not going to permit that
SPR Boardroom: but we work with partners, because there might be other things related to those events where oh, you know, recent events for any candidate might require more security. So
SPR Boardroom: we sometimes put conditions on permits and things like that. Where there could be a propensity for violence or activity, something, a lot of alcohol, etc. So. But we try to be really cautious, and
SPR Boardroom: and that's a message you all should know, too, with, if you get questions about that, you know. So whether it's
SPR Boardroom: seafare dancing, Vietnamese cultural work. You know, we try to be open to everybody. But you know there's unique permits, and you need plans and sometimes more robust security plans than
SPR Boardroom: others.
SPR Boardroom: Oh, yeah.
SPR Boardroom: right?
SPR Boardroom: Yeah. Anything else. That's it, I think. Alright. Alright. Well, thank you. Everybody
SPR Boardroom: adjourned meeting. Wait before I do that. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you. Trisha. Lauren, best wishes. Don't be a stranger.
SPR Boardroom: and.
Lauren Lanham: Yeah, I don't know if I'm supposed to go to the September one as well. I think.
SPR Boardroom: I I don't know, either. To be honest, I think we'll have to check in with Imani about that.
SPR Boardroom: Yeah, we we do have. We do have a a get engaged cohort. That's a that's a month long process. So it's been going on for a while. But yeah, we do have that going for next for the next calendar year? I guess not, Calendar. The next, you know, overlap
SPR Boardroom: alright. Thank you. Alright.
Lauren Lanham: But.
Tricia Diamond: Bye.