That have public hearings then We'll wait until that section. So if I call your name.
Are there for a particular topic, then you can just say skip Just the two topics are one is he might be here for the field use. So that'll come up later. And then the native plant policy.
So if you're not there, then this will be general public comment on matters you wish to.
And also, given the large amount of people and all we have to get through tonight, we're doing one minute for comments so Keep that in mind as well. So first up, we have Nate.
Garbage. Hello. I wrote this long speech. I'll try to do it in a minute.
My name is Nate and I run a mobile sauna called Buywater sauna.
So since last summer, we've operated four days a week in Golden Garden and South High.
Wheels to the beach. People book a seat in a session they cycle between the hot sun and the cold water. Do that two or three times. It feels super good.
I'm here tonight to try to start a conversation with parks about how we can more effectively work together.
Currently, we are permitted as a park use permit, which is a daily permit that has an hourly fee associated with it.
And while I'm super grateful to be able to operate in parks.
That permit has some challenges with it. We have a lot of demand that I didn't proceed because people have gotten so many benefits from it.
We've served over 4,000 people in the last eight months, and now most of our sessions are sold out.
So we want to be open more often. But the Portuguese governments are pretty expensive. We pay roughly seven, eight grand a month in fees. And if we were to operate more, we'd that that number will just keep climbing.
So I'd love to just talk with anybody after to see what we could do.
Yeah, thank you for your time. Will Torres.
Four. Will? Yes.
Are you here for public comment or for one of the either the um two items that we have on the agenda, which is the native plant for the use and scheduling.
Field scheduling? Go ahead. Public comment. Oh, okay, great. Perfect. Okay. Good evening.
My name is Will Sorres. I'm a B12 player. I just wanted to bring to your attention a petition that has about 400 signatures.
Assorted by the mutual community. Continued recommendations on how part-time rack can improve accessibility.
Through a sport. Currently, there are only two courts.
Golden Gardens. In one at Alaki forth in play.
And this is for an entire CEO. 750,000 people.
One of the courts had Golden Gardens. Now calls were in so at the wrong distance.
Causing no standard size. To fit properly properly.
Leaving just two cords for the entire city and the community.
The Russian courts are usually a weapon for extensive beats. Making them inaccessible.
So two courts, if not an outward of thousands of volleyball players But there is, however, a simple solution And that is to designate more courts, I call them guardians and Alachi as drop-in challenge courts.
He will. I'm going to have to If you have more comments, you can get us something in writing. We'll pass it on, but we have so many commenters, so we're trying to make it through. Absolutely. But yeah, we will pass on anything you want to send us. Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Next up, Josh Morris.
Commissioner is my name is Joshua Morrison, the Urban Conservation Manager for Connect Seattle. Just want to continue to express my organization's concern about public work development and park directly adjacent to the wetlands, as well as families and that was a massive investment And nature access. And a lot of people who would like to talk about it too. We'll just read from
One of our young members, a 17-year-old Burden who's concerned about the potential of courts at Anxel Park.
Valuable habitat for animals, providing a workplace for people of all ages to connect with nature.
Remember taking younger students to the wetlands two summers ago. Hummingbirds. But these kids had never seen before.
We hope you reconsider the construction of these courts and continue to protect this fragile impact.
Thank you. Thank you. Sandy. Sandy is online.
I'm going to give you permission to unmute. You'll need to do that. And then you'll have one minute to talk.
Yes.
Great. Can you hear me now? Yeah, great. Thank you. Yeah, so I'm Sandy Shetler. Thanks for having me. I live in Green Lake just 100 yards from the pickleball Courts.
And they're fine here, but I ask that you not build them in Magnuson.
The sound and the activity is great in an intensely urban environment, but it'll have a profound negative impact on the natural area there.
And I just wanted to point out, you may have already read this, but almost 2,000 people who were surveyed on their use of Seattle's parks for the most recent strategic parks plan said that their number one reason for visiting parks by a wide margin was to access nature and green space.
So between the impacts on natural life, wildlife, and the impacts on people who need a green space as a refuge from a densifying city, I ask that you reconsider this plan and build them in a more urban setting.
Thank you.
Thank you. Great use of time. Victor Rice. Victor Rice. I'm with the Seattle Urban Insure Guides.
From the summer statements and discussion on the January 23rd meeting In particular, what was said by Mr. Diaz and Mr. Flynn.
I kind of walk away with the understanding we would set up a meeting to have a more nuanced conversation about practical ways we could preserve the program.
I sent a follow-up email that evening and on the 14th, I got confirmation from Mr. Versos that my request had been forwarded along to the appropriate people.
But I still haven't seen a response. In terms of the essence right now, to act on this, our remaining staff members have a little bit of reassurance.
Continue to have the impact. For many years into next year.
So I'm here now and I'd like to request that at some point this evening, stick around at the end of the meeting if we need to do that, we can open the calendars and get something on the books. Thanks. Maggie Johnson.
Also with Shale Park Environmental Education. Did you know we have many ongoing programs? For instance, at Cleveland High School, 322 11th graders are attending double sessions weekly for two semesters learning about environmental equity in their neighborhoods Then work on a nearby restoration project learning physical and social emotional skills while planting trees, building community, and getting credit.
Went March this last December gave our entire staff offers of unrelated replacement jobs, which had to be accepted by the end of January.
Even though our program is funded through the end of this year, had anyone put any thought into what we would do about these ongoing commitments?
Do we just pull the rug out from under these students and teachers mid-term Some staff had not taken the reports to the jobs.
At risk to their own job security. We need to talk.
Thank you. Florence doula Florence, I believe you're online. I'm going to go ahead and give you permission to unmute yourself.
You'll need to do that for yourself there and then you'll have a minute to talk. Go ahead.
Hi, my name is Florence doula i live just north of Magnuson Park and I'm a member of Birds Connect Seattle. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on protecting the Mangason Park wetlands.
I visit the park and its wetlands two to three times a week, not just as a neighborhood green space.
But as a sanctuary where I recharge. The quiet reflection and deep connection with nature it offers have been essential.
To my mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Rich into biodiversity, Magnuson is also nurtured my love for birds, especially those that nest, learn to fly, and hunt in the wetlands.
Along with other sensitive species that rely on this high quality habitat.
I strongly urge you to explore alternative locations for the proposed multi-court pickleball facility.
Let's uphold our community's values by protecting this irreplaceable natural refuge. Thank you.
Thank you, Laura. Next up is Laurie Ross.
I'm with the Seattle Urban Nature Guides Volunteer Program with the Environmental Education Management and Seattle Parks. I'm here to renew the conversation about restoring funding to environmental education.
That you asked for being to maintain a solid environmental education outreach and programming in the heart and to retain Discovery Park environmental learning center as a hub the unit where public can meet staff and volunteers to reinforce that connection with the park as a public treasure
Knock that out of the way. Just to bring up, we all know that there's a lot of pressure on our natural areas.
Increasing, we've got the Rose Cup coming. We've got federal, we don't even know what's going on with federal land, so that's going to be coming back on us.
Growing city. You'd think that we would be kind of ramping up our preparation for that on the environmental education.
Front where it'd be anyway sorry I do need to let you know that the aquarium The Nationalist Program has been ended.
So that's out there. Thank you. Next up is carol
My name is Carol Fury. I've been a resident of Standpoint for 20 years.
And consider Magnus and kind of the extension of my home. I spent a lot of time there.
I was a science teacher in Seattle Public Schools for 20 years, and I visited the wetlands with my biology students at least 50 times.
Period. We gathered water samples for microscopic study in the classroom. We followed the seasons of the beavers and their new young and the growth of their lodge created plant journals, studied birdsong and behavior.
And environmental ecology End of the year student evaluations revealed that these field trips were their favorite activities and units.
In the classroom. The outdoor pickleball facility that the parks department is proposing is directly adjacent to these restored wetlands of Magnusburg.
These wetlands are now home to more than 100 native wildlife species.
And the ADA compliant trails make this one of the most accessible urban nature places in the city.
Is that my bell? Okay. Then my last statement. There's a walk this next Monday in the park. We're inviting you to come.
I'm going to pass these out quietly. Do you want to do that? And you'll pass them around. Thank you so much. Yeah, they're joining us. You'll learn about that.
Kirstie. Oh.
Christy here. Why is she?
She's not online. How about Ruth? Do you wait
Her name is Ruth Ewell. I runguard. Um and i think should really be focusing on environmental education.
We've reached like thousands of public school students as mostly volunteer organization I think that's… like the city has some great plans for some friends I'm trying to get over to a fiber company. It's really unclear to us and myself as a volunteer and someone who's deeply involved with this
What the plan is. For continuing environmental education in the city.
For reaching as many people as we do i think it's A huge mistake too quick.
Back our program. And I would really like to know.
How the parks and rec would like to continue to support environmental education.
Thank you. Next up is ruth
Good evening. I know eight tenths of a mile from the wetlands.
And I can hear the frogs in the wetlands loud and clear.
Frogs, croak are frogs, Pacific tree frogs crunk at 87 decibels.
Pickleball Bursts of sound up to 120 decibels.
Because sound is calculated on an algorithmic scale that makes pickleball eight times louder than frogs.
Which we can hear eight tenths of a mile away. So the park itself and its neighborhoods will hear pickleball.
Probably… with their windows closed.
And I go back to your mission statement. On which I'm sure you spent lots of And in part, you say the mission of parks and recs is to provide opportunities to learn and contemplate.
And promote responsible stewardship of the land. Responsible stewardship of the wetlands i believe is not to put the pickleballs Thank you. Carrie Christensen.
Warning, this is going to be graphic. So if you don't want to listen, cover your ears. Don't look, please. This is real life.
Demi Blaine Park, warning, graphic. 128, a male in a red truck masturbating as well as doing other things.
I called 911. They said they showed up. They didn't. 129. I sent an email to multiple people at SPR in addition to Joy Hollingsworth.
Seattle City Attorney, East Precinct liaison attorney regarding masturbation and lewd acts and Denny Blaine Park, there was no response from anyone. Why is that?
Version of the guy. 2.6, the fence smasher is in the park.
2.6, the red truck masturbator is in the park. 27, the fence smasher is in the park. 2.7, the beach chair masturbator is in the park.
Okay, just a note on 224, the crime masturbator who i've told you about.
Every single meeting he was arrested on the 24th. I am the victim. Hopefully he's prosecuted.
Patricia.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your work.
Patricia Navani was graded in 1980. My life ever since. During the 90s and 2000, for example, and I had border collie i circumnavigated that park every morning usually between 6 and 7. It was Why aren't there? It was quiet it was beautiful. I'll never forget hearing the beating wings of an owl as it passed by thee and then catching a glimpse of its dark body against its
Kind of brightening sky you know And I remember wealth planning for redevelopment. I was part of the multi-use model in general. We're a sporting family.
I advocated for the nature of stuff and encountering all those animals major and i think wet on the gas bar we didn't get a fair deal nature did get a fair deal.
I'm trying to squeeze two minutes into one minute. You know, so it is something and I want to make a point that the animals that are there in those wetlands today.
This is their homework, right? They need this specific space. They're used to it.
We've lost a lot after redevelopment. I don't think people realize that swallows. Orioles, we used to have to I also understand exercise. I know every joint in my body will tell you about an athlete, but I think we just need to do the pickleball with someone else. Thanks again for all the work you do.
Sally James. Sally, I see you online. I'm going to give you permission to unmute yourself and you will need to go ahead and do that. And you will have a minute to talk.
Okay, this is Sally James. I'm a resident of Ravenna and I've spent like some of the other people hundreds of hours at the park.
With the dog who's no longer with us and with grandchildren so I just want to endorse the idea that The flora and fauna, the nesting osprey that I visit every year.
And the Pacific chorus frogs and some of the greatest diversity of dragonflies, according to a UW entomologist They are all at risk.
From the lights and noise of pickleball and i'm so grateful to all of you that you are Commissioners, I know how thankless it can be to be in leadership, but I really hope you'll rethink the idea of placing the courts there.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Excellent on timing as well. Thank you. Thomas Kelly. Hey, Thomas, I'm going to give you permission to unmute yourself. You'll need to do that and then you'll have a minute to talk.
I'm here to talk about pickleball to suggest that the department should change course on the magnets and I've been doing forest steward type work in Magnuson Park for 28 years.
And in other roles, most significant is that i was in the advisory team for the creation of the wetlands and sports fields nearby Interesting fact about that is The wetlands construction was mandatory because sparse fields were built on pre-existing wetlands and destroyed them.
The designers were very careful to get just the right amount.
Mandated. Now, they've been paying for the wetlands to me is a human impact.
Good for human psychosocial welfare. Health physical health from walking around, all that stuff.
That's really great benefit. A lot of social science on that. You can find I'm sure you're very aware, but you don't want to lose that. It's a real dream. And in the process, I'm really concerned that the process so far has just
No input from people. Nature essentially the conceptual plans. It's shocking to me they didn't include any noise mitigation measures such as some potential for sound barriers, whether it was work or not, I don't know, but people should at least put that possibility in the budget stuff.
That is your You can go ahead and submit any additional comments in writing.
To the email address on the agenda there. Acacia.
My name is Akisha Parchment and I'm a resident of Seattle's Sandpoint neighborhood as well as a member of Roots Connect Seattle.
I am also here today to share any concern expressed by others that the location selected by Parks for the development of new pickleball courts at Magnuson Park.
Is not the right choice given the lost proximity to sensitive wildlife habitat.
In a handful of years since I moved here in 2018, I've spent many mornings camping birds as part of the incredible neighborhood bird project.
I've tracked down the paths with gangles and enthusiastic first graders demanding for driving flyover and other benthic macroinvertebrates as a counselor with nature camp.
And I spent innumerable, priceless hours alone and with friends observing wildlife in the wetlands.
From outside zooming displays of tiny ply built grieves. To territorial butterflies aggressively for butterflies anyways defending their turf. Like most millennials, I have a lot of friends who are enthusiastic converts to pickleball. I play pickleball. I enjoy it. I am fully in support of home public sports.
But the wetlands and magazine parks are not the right place. There are many stakeholders that are deeply invested In maintaining this quiet corner of the park as a center for urban research. Thank you for your time.
Stuart. Excellent.
Okay.
I'm Stuart Lexler. I live in West Seattle and learned about the disrupting noise of pickleball when Seattle parks had proposed a pickleball court for Lincoln Park that we were able to prevent from going in.
Thank you for all for taking your time to hear us this evening.
The people of the city of Seattle are very lucky to have the large, reasonably natural piece of land called Magnuson Park to enjoy quiet walks and nature exploration. This is when a large number of Seattleites come to Magnuson Park 4.
A large part of the value of this part is that it is a quiet refuge for urban dwellers in our noisy.
We turn our quiet, more natural part into constantly very unpleasantly loud And therefore, much less natural space is equivalent to confiscating a large piece of land in the Windermere neighborhood and replacing it with an equal amount of land at the end of one of our airport runways. You'd be throwing away many tens of millions of dollars of the value
Magnusson park put your court under at the end of Boeing field or under I-5 where you would vote destroy so much of our natural or are quiet.
Thank you. Okay, that concludes the remarks.
Oh, Michael. Yes. Good evening, everyone. Long time listener, first time caller. I came on behalf of support by water sauna.
After 26 years in the Army, I've got a lot of Weston good in this vehicle and not always physical, some of it's mental and social as well.
And uh Biowater has helped me kind of get out of that rut.
I'm now, because of them, I'm one of those crazy guys that are swimming in the water when you drive by, I think it's probably too cold for you to be out.
I made friends with people that I've met through it that I would not normally have a chance to to make connections with.
And it told me a lot of the anxiety of being out of the military after 26 years and just social dynamics.
You know the va has all these programs that are meant to help integrate veterans, but it's funny how Bywater has been able to help me in ways that to be able Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay. I wanted to circle back. We only missed Chrissy Mule.
Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes. Yes, I'm so sorry. A long list, and names get missed.
So thank you for speaking up. Okay, so… Obviously, we've had to edit. So some of it might not flow as well, but I'm a stakeholder for the magnificent park wetlands so as a stakeholder myself I see park space that allows quiet and the possibility to both hear
And observe wildlife. The wetlands are a visible dedication to our priorities and enable us to actively use magnificent Park.
The past with with the with which the park department maintains to make it possible Even for those who have decreased mobility to access this space.
To capture glimpses of birds that caught that call this wetland home. I have to listen, attentive for their varying songs and carefully observe their quick movements.
The road is that pickleball is famously noisy. I'm pretty sure that we've all experienced that.
It's clear that even the most limited footprint of pickleball courts At this location within the park will impact the wetland both wildlife and for those of us who want to hear the birds can see the wildlife.
The park is large and your consideration of other possible locations.
Not juxtaposing two events or uses that are so And I really recommend that if you really recommend take the notes from Carol.
Going on one of these walks. To see the proximity.
Interesting.
That's going to do a public comment. All right. Thank you so much. Well, first of all, everyone, thank you for coming down to our headquarters.
Thank you so much for your comments. Taking good notes can we take them all seriously. Thank you. Thank you for loving your parts too.
So again, welcome. This was the very first park in Seattle, Denny Park that we're at right now. I've written down some notes. First of all, I just want to thank you all for your advocacy and passion for parks. As we can see just from tonight in the room, there's so many people that I own the love languages parks. Everybody has their
Unique love language, nature, sauna use, swimming, pickleball It just means that we have a well-loved park system. So we want to thank you for being here. And we will continue to talk with By Water and just want to thank you for coming out. First of all, it's a very unique
Niche thing that goes on. And I know it builds a lot of community and there's a lot of passion for it. And it's also kind of a unique Seattle thing. So I really like that people are enjoying that. You said Golden Gardens
And we will continue to talk to you. Between the differences of a seasonal concession permit and then the regular use permit. There are some other things and We would love to talk to you more. We'll get your information, maybe some alternative uses we've heard about the
The type of kerosene heating system or type of. So I think there's some concern, but we'd like to talk through that with you and see if there's a different type of permit.
That we might be able to give you. One thing I know community is enjoying this because you wouldn't be there if no one was using him. So clearly people are using them. So thank you.
It then can have your information. We'll make sure to follow up with that.
Yeah, will do. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And we're open to talk about any ways.
Okay. Fantastic. Thanks. And are you just at Boulevard right now? We're at Bowling Gardens and Alpac primarily and we've also got a sewer park and actually one of the things we love to do is be able to be in different areas because folks in South Seattle have said, hey, look.
Love to be able to get to the sauna that's far away for us. Don't go by the wetland stuff. But thank you very much. And to the beach volleyball culminar, are you still here?
Yes, thank you. We actually had many, maybe some of your friends or players at our last commission meeting and we've been talking about ways to try to increase more beach volleyball and also if you play there and there's been some safety concerns with
Trash and debris. We've talked to our maintenance crews about that. So thank you very much. I'm going to continue to talk with the commissioners about how we can increase that use. We just also this week got there's always new uses coming. People were talking about tetherball again, that that's popular and that there's certain places that they want to see that. So we appreciate your comment and commissioners will continue to look at
Perhaps enhancing that sport and more opportunities for it. Because it's not too difficult infrastructure to try to find a fund. So thank you for something about that. And to the woman who spoke about denny Yes, thank you again. Thank you. Your statements were impactful at the last meeting and i
I'm thanking you for continuing to log your complaints with SPD as a pointed out, we do not have enforcement mechanisms that the police do activity that may be offensive and I'm sorry, you're a victim of a crime. I understand that you're the manager of the park. You have more sway than I do. Oh, yes, absolutely. Thank you. And I wanted you to know that
Not only from your last meeting, but other meetings we've had about this. I do have a direct line of communication.
With the police department but it's also helpful for citizens to also call in because then they log the complaints and then in case you are a victim You could be a witness. So thank you very much about that.
I'll get to ELC, but I wanted to oh and pickleball. Are there pickleball still here?
Okay. Just know we're still in planning phases for pick a wall and also looking at all the locations and the areas where we could best cite this and we would still have to go through permit reviews. But we also take the comments seriously about, and I see the gentleman speaking about the noise issues.
We're trying to look for alternative means. It's a very popular sport, as you know, and there are some new technology and maybe And saying things like make it quieter. It's not a perfect solution, but it's hard to find the exact right solution. But I understand that there's concerns about
This particular location within a large park. So we'll continue to evaluate that as well.
Thank you for coming to speak about that. Okay. And then lastly, I wanted to speak about the ELC program and tell the commissioners as i mentioned and I hope that you understand that what I'm saying is truthful. There's not a day that my staff and I are thinking about this issue and I was on another phone call about it today, and I know you have shown up in different
Forms as well. And I want to thank you For the public comment.
It is a very important program and a touch and breadth of what our parks department needs.
So many of our staff here love the environmental aspects of our park. In fact, that's one area where I feel we need to grow the most it's one of our three pillars. And everything that we do is important everything
Costs money, unfortunately. And we are in a big budget deficit where we had to propose cuts, as you know um but We advocated really hard so that we could have 2025 to work on this and see if we could come up with solutions.
And that's what we're doing right now. The cuts wouldn't come until 2026.
To the conversation about conversations with employees. We also want to be good employers and talk to potential employees that could be affected so that we could give them alternatives if we were unable to find solutions. And that's why we're having these early conversations and some
With employees also wanted to speak with their union representatives. We're continuing to do that.
But please know um It's not that we don't want to meet with you. It's that we're trying to to work on some solutions right now, also deal with employees and their unions.
So I will meet with you and we will find that time.
But just had a meeting today, going to continue to have some meetings on this. And all I can say right now is that we take this program very seriously and all of the effects. And even though we will still continue to do
Environmental education, it's clearly not enough. If that's what we were doing before, we could argue there was even more need to do more than what we were doing.
All of our employees are important. All of the volunteers are important. And most importantly, the kids who get to experience this program and learn about things about our Seattle is that's what we're known for is our natural environment. And so we need to educate more so
Again. Content had to happen with all departments Thankfully, we had this year because it was important to try to find alternatives. And that's what we're doing right now. And so we'll continue to work on it. And then maybe we can find a time. Victor, right? Okay, maybe we can find a time with your team to maybe get something
Could give us a couple more weeks and then we can get something on the calendar maybe early April.
Because we're working on some things Okay. Yeah. But thank you. And seriously.
Even just seeing the signs of you guys coming out So much is important because it speaks to how serious how passionate you are about this, not just from a job standpoint, but also from the volunteer base, but really about
The educational value of what you're providing, that's what makes Seattle unique.
So we have to come up with solutions and find ways because That's what our park system is about. And so it's not the perfect answer right now but Please know we are.
I mean, but also know that at this point, as far as we know.
We're losing almost at and we are losing our jobs as volunteers as well. That's what we're facing. That's all we know. Exactly.
They have to look out for themselves and less people who are saying And it's the internet now with uncertainty for us, right?
Things are happening and moving already. Exactly. We're not offering our support. We usually have intensive training for volunteers twice a year. This is why this works like a coiled machine because we're really well trained not having it this year because they don't know if we have any future
Yeah, I understand. I totally understand. And that's sadly some of the effects of what we had to do for 2025.
But we're trying to to not have to do that again. It doesn't cost money.
75 plus active volunteers starting their time of course of course no it's a lot for everyone.
Thank you. All right. Do you have any questions, commissioners?
Myself. Anyone online, commissioners?
Okay. Well, I want to tell the volunteers we're going to go into our car business, of course, is public. You're welcome to stay, but I also know it's any time when you came down. Thank you.
Yeah, so let me do that.
Yeah.
So just point for agenda item. We're seeing a lot of kids out here. I have kids myself. It's a school night so we're going to change up the agenda here.
And push up the athletic field item. Is that okay with everyone around?
So we have a number of you all signed up for the public hearing, and we will. Okay, two minutes each you get because you're the public hearing. So I will turn on the alarm.
I'll just remind you. But before the kids.
Can I just get a couple of ground rules on public hearings? Public hearings differ from public comments just slightly, so we will be giving two minutes per comment. We will still give a short And I got a reminder on the comments for this. And I don't see anyone online, but again, same rules will apply there. I'll give you a heads up and you'll still need to unmute yourself.
You don't see anyone on deck online on deck on the real thing but also give you a heads up.
All right. Whenever you're ready. I want to thank you park commission for your work in guiding and direction of the department.
Also for MPDS for the students. Briefly about me, I'm a volunteer.
33 years from the track coach. 31 years. Council.
Eight years art board, 10 years, sports surviving. So I've got a lot. Last month… You heard about the challenges you've used I nurse of the invasion here to give you a lived experience of a face look at the front
So you hear from other folks, not just me. We provide developmental performance training for black and brown youth and others learning about just a while.
During construction, we struggle to find a place to train. Last year, we're at Franklin High School.
The schedule is only five, six-year-olds. Getting out of training as late as 8.30.
The club is now a nonprofit. We do that. Our season starts on March 17th.
Apparently forced himself to West Seattle Stadium outside our community twice a week to train.
We charge 75 bucks for an athlete for the season. The cost for West Seattle alone One day, $200.
So that's $3,600. We're alphabet just to be on the train. So we're already Our request is simple.
We've established historically used Greenbridge High School. We seek the opportunity to go, we'll turn that for something online.
In the meantime, we seek a more affordable option to train in and in our community.
Just in closing. I drove 150 miles to be here.
However, for this community session i continue to show up attract meets and trains throughout the year because I believe the south youth and South Seattle deserve a quality experience.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Okay, next up we have heather And the premise.
Rainier Beach Travel. My family first learned about the club when my son was eight years old and looking for a way to run in our own South Seattle neighborhood. We've been running across country at work.
But we wanted to invest in a program that serves our community.
From the beginning, I was really amazed by the dedication of the volunteer coaches, many of whom, as you just heard from Vic, have given decades of their time to support the local youth.
This program is really a cornerstone for young athletes in South Seattle that has been facing some significant challenges that can be addressed with better support.
As a parent, I found the late night practices especially tough on my then second grader who often do get to bed until nearly 9 p.m.
His school started uh so As a coach, I've seen firsthand how crowded and crowded conditions make it difficult and at times unsafe for athletes to train.
While we were using the track, soccer, lacrosse, and frisbee was often insurance based on the infield. We had to pause workouts to avoid blind discs and balls.
And with a large number of athletes across all the age groups using the track, ranging from sprinters to distance runners, as mentioned, five and six year olds who are just learning to stay in their reins.
I'm a six-year-old, you know, that can be challenging. While also meeting the space for warm up, cool down, recovery.
You're operating a really tight quarter. So our distance runners would often take the workouts to dark neighborhood streets and evenings.
This kind of navigated the overcrowded and scattered conditions that were making training on the track really challenging.
And so given the size of Rainer Beach Track Club, I was a bit surprised that you can use conflicting reservations were possible.
I've been coaching as a volunteer in Seattle since 2005 from Ultimate Frisbee with community centers and Seattle Public Schools in this Northwest, across country, Amtrak.
And I've been part of many impactful community programs, but the Rainier Beach Track Club has exceeded my expectations in fostering true community for all. This program represents the diversity in the area of South Seattle, a place where kids of all backgrounds come together to work hard and build lifelong connections.
Earlier to find a way to prioritize the needs of this longstanding program.
And I think for our youth programs, people are all going to come up together and then just sort of speakers.
But I think they're going to bring up late. Ready to go?
Yeah, he's your next one.
So you can just read through it. Okay.
We'll do our best on timing, but go ahead. It doesn't matter. You have an order?
My name is Seth and I'm 10 years old. I started running when I was six. I came to live with my mom in foster.
I think it has been such a positive thing in my life.
It helps me feel stronger, happier, and part of the community.
Hello, for anyone during your reach because the coaches are really thoughtful And the athletes support each other like a team should.
One of the hardest things for me has been my practice since.
Our practices are started at 7 p.m. And I didn't want to eat dinner before because I feel really sick.
Are the ten practice ended at 8.30, as Thor had to eat dinner and cherve before bed.
After weight practices. It was really hard to settle.
I'd often fall asleep after 9.30 p.m. And I woke up really exhausted and struggle at school the next day.
I know that I'm not the only one who has felt this way.
My teammates and younger runners have had a hard time with weight practices.
That's why I want to underscore earlier practice time so my teammates and I can get to bed earlier.
And still do something healthy that we love. Thank you for listening and for all the work you do to support athletes like me.
Hello, my name is Maya. Since before I can even walk. Is my dog tearing you on the side that practices coaching kids while I watch?
Through this sport, I've had the opportunity to make friends, stay active.
Help me travel to different states. Compete at nationals and grow mentally, physically in this overall.
I really appreciate the time and effort when your reach coaches put into helping me achieve goals and setting new ones.
I'm in high school now and I was planning to volunteer to coach our team, but I might not be able to do this this year because our team was not able to get practice space in South Seattle where the team has been for
35 plus years. Also, where I live and go to school In 2023, our team had to move to Franklin for practice instead of Randy Beach High School because of the construction Because of the construction.
The move to Franklin was challenging and after over 35 years, Monday, Wednesday, 6 p.m. Practice.
Our practice time was changed to 7 p.m. Some of our youngest kids, stages four to five years old, now have practiced or until 8.30 p.m.
Pastor Redtub. At Franklin, we also lost access to infield during our practice. Other sports like frisbee, soccer, and lacrosse practiced at the same time as us.
We lost basically running games and practice field events because there wasn't a safe place to do them.
Well, we ran on the track we also we often had to dodge the balls Because they kept giving them away.
It felt dangerous at times, and I believe our coaches told park staff about these issues, but they never improved in the 2023 or 2024 season.
Now in 2025, our team has told there is zero tech space available in south or central seattle monday through thursday before 8.30 p.m.
We are now at West Seattle, which is a challenge to get to for me and likely others. Please help us with access to safe practice in our neighborhood.
Thank you.
Hello, Parkview North Commissioners. My name is Opal. I love running and I love sports. My friends who also love running. It is my favorite sport and I love the community and the coaches.
I was appalled when my mom informed me that the Park and Rec Department was not going to let our produce do coaching.
Just because they complain about our safety with the Frisbees and the A haywire lacrosse and soccer balls because they complain about the bathroom situation at Franklin High School Which, by the way, we're disgusting.
I'm glad that they can still coach us. I don't understand why the programming rights department isn't running this rent at the Franklin Higher School field again or Cleveland High School.
It's just silly. Why not? Why do we a team based in South Seattle have to drive up to West Seattle?
I'm lucky my mom was able to drive me, but I know that some parents that live in our area will not be able to.
The only upside is that there are a few good vegetarian restaurants.
Lastly, 7.30 to 9 p.m. That is when our practices are scheduled. Do you really think a five or six year old is going to perform the rest at 8 p.m. They will be tired and don't know what to do.
That is just not healthy. Or a brief decision as Coach Fick and Coachella has already said.
It would be better for most of us if it were held earlier in the evening.
Thank you for your time and support my writing. I hope you change the quality of our bathrooms and let us rent a field that is at an accessible time and location for my teammates and our crew.
Hello. Good evening. My name is Jared Mansfield and I am 14 years old and in eighth grade.
I have been a member of the Rainier Beach try to team for the past seven years. I was in first grade when the Rainier Beach track team coaches helped me to find not just my passion for running but my um but my
But to help me in athleticism in general. I am a long distance learner. My favorite event is the two mile or 3,000 meter Great. And this is a very important to me.
Because practicing very long distances on an actual track um is more important because it is more important because One time when I practiced with my middle school Aki, they didn't have a trash I got chin splints, a running injury.
Um because we were running on concrete for the whole time.
And I had to stop practicing with them. Luckily, I was running with Rainier Beach at the time and the volunteer coaches help me to get over my injuries.
And I successfully completed the spring and summer seasons. The Rainier Beach chart team is a vital part of the Rainier Beach community. This team has been always accessible to people In South Bend and uh in the Rainier Beach community
In the rainy beach summer tract program has been competing with exclusive expensive track teams It is our team doesn't have, my favorite part about our team is that it doesn't have expensive fees or dues But we were able to compete against and win against
Some of the best track athletes. In the country.
The Rainier Beach truck team provides track add-ons from South Seattle with the opportunity to compete at our junior Olympics at associations regionals and national level.
Our home track at the Rainier Beach High School has been under construction for several years.
To remain accessible to youth in Rainier Beach and in South Seattle.
It is very important that we have access to a traumatic practice that isn't our community. Thank you.
Who wants to go next?
Thank you so much.
Hello?
Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. My name is Carol Miller. I am the horizontal scope.
Wow. For 18 years. When I first moved here from england I am a child custody in England.
The Rainy Beach Trap Club became a community that made me feel I belonged here in this country.
I think, given a feeling of belonging to a lot of children through the years I've observed coaching them.
We did really well at Rainy Beach High School. We have hundreds of children go through our program, watch them grow in confidence.
And develop into are good citizens and going on to college I'm very concerned with what's happening now without the ability to Rainy Beach High School with particularly with the move to West Seattle, there's a number of the athletes that we've had in the past that
Have really enjoyed our program will not be to come there because the parents will not be able to get them to actually from the community Almost very concerned, but there seems not to be observation of the safety aspects. So I would really ask that when you look at facilities
The team that actually manages that could you make sure that they have the training and the tools to be able to respond adequately to the needs of our team for training facilities And also visibility so we can see what is available and how we can best serve the community.
Particularly as others have mentioned in the late time during that period.
So I'm really asking you to make sure that you can support your community to help them support our community.
In an accessible and timely manner running.
Next up, Michael.
I used to coach all day with And I still provide starting duties for them during the track meet, their annual track meet and cross-country meet.
I Well, I guess the one thing that I would like to focus on is the transparency of the usage of the field so you know we know you know how much usage is going there so because there's a prioritization of these fields that i'm aware of
He said, Chuck. Document. And I'd just like to be able to you know at some way the public could access that information, certainly have data on how many who's used the field at what particular times and So there would be some
Sort of way that the public didn't know
Who's using what and at what times. And then, I mean, I also would go for like uh community centers and things like that was something that I also… participating in.
I'm sure there's data collected on who's using those facilities too. So just want to throw that away Thank you very much.
Kevin?
Kevin Chauvin, Long Beacon Hill. Well, the parents of a couple of kids who've run the strike club.
And also done other sports in the city and I appreciate the challenge that you have As a board and your staff have sorting through all the various requests.
To use fields in their competing interests and competing needs and i see in the historical use.
Sorry, I see in the athletic fields use policy that's in draft form here.
A lot to like. And it seems like a sensible approach We just offer a few suggested amendments to account for some of the things that folks in the room here have been raising.
Has issues and they may be revisiting issues We're further refining the term youth.
Would be something that could be done. I don't know how you sort it out with an algorithm or in the database, but clearly you've made an attempt to separate youth from adult activities and to prioritize the youth and prioritize
You know, which makes all the sense in the world. I think one thing I would suggest is to account for the youngest age of the athletes that are in a particular user group or organization. So you've heard folks talk about four, five, six-year-olds
At least my daughter was five, I think, when she started at Raina Beach.
Drag Club. And you have many soccer clubs and lacrosse and other organizations where there's an athletic team And they're often of the same age group where there's a club that has various teams of different age groups. And they can, once they have access
From you to a field, they can prioritize the activities of their athletes according to age on their own, right? Once they've secured that access A club like ours, the first time I came to Rainer Butte high school to watch
Practice with my children. There were 150 kids out there and you see many of the coaches here eight ten coaches kids running around having the time in their lives from 6 p.m. Until 7 30 And it's just a beautiful part of Seattle, beautiful experience to see that in Seattle is very different than some of the soccer practices I've been to.
But I think you could certainly take into account age and maybe distinguish further there. Thanks so much.
Thanks for confirming that Wesley is not here. Is that correct? Okay. In the package. Okay, well.
Folks, we did it. We made it. That's correct. Anything that was set before 5 p.m. Today, the commissioners received it before the meeting. Is that right, I had emailed in yesterday, but… Gosh, if I missed it, I'm so sorry. But you know what? If you made it in today, I'm not going to turn you away. So yes.
Guys, we didn't do it yet. I'm a resident of South Seattle, parent of a fourth year now at Rainer Beach Track Club. And just wanted to advocate again for the use of field in South Seattle. Myself, I grew up in Seattle, learned how to swim in the Seattle parks rec summer swim league and then moved to the Central Area swim league so spent a lot of time
With a club team at night river school growing up and it was just an incredible experience for me and my family And I just want to say it as being a parent and watching my son be a part of this, we're seeing the exact same thing with Radio Beach.
Can't think of a better organization that needs more in their community.
That has a more dedicated coaching staff that is incredibly accomplished, not only on the field But members of the Seattle Police Force leadership members of Boeing Engineering, pillars of the community that are doing it completely um And as just dedicating their time, not taking pay. And so knowing some of the other things that our kids have access to.
And how expensive they are to have an accessible, affordable program that can span from four and five year olds to multiple national championships in South Seattle is absolutely huge so any consideration you all have to help us with field time would be greatly appreciated. So thank you very much.
Now I think we did it. And again, thank you for all of your flexibility and understanding. There was a lot of public comments, public speaking today so We made it through there. If we're the hearing speakers for the use and that scheduling of outdoor athletic facility.
I think if you want to do something remarks before we jump into Yeah, and Lisa, if you could… come on in a little bit. We're going to bring up this thank you everyone for showing up, especially the kids for writing those statements and being brave and speaking to the public and
That's admirable. And I hoped that that was a good experience for you. Your voice matters and take it seriously and also um raynor Beach running is just awesome so we're excited about that. It's a great thing So thank you so much for coming tonight and also seeing
Democracy is what we're doing right now. So we really appreciate that. And Lisa, I'm going to just turn it over to you if you want to give any free comments From what you heard, and then just also lead in for the commissioners for their
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And I did. I would love to be able to share a little bit of context and just kind of respond. I think it's absolutely fantastic to see the advocacy come out. And my apologies for not being able to be there, a trip out of town is impacting my ability to be in the room right now, but I love to hear and see all of the advocacy and the public comments on track in particular it is um
It's a very unique challenge, I think, as far as our athletic scheduling goes, particular to tracks in our system. Number one, because we only have about 20 of those in our inventory and two thirds of those are SPS tracks.
And due to the joint use agreement, there are pros and cons to that agreement. I think one of the challenges with that in particular that is And being highlighted here is the fact that SPS per the joint use agreement can utilize their facilities until 7 p.m. And as they've expanded and grown, they have really
Taken up a lot more of the time within those established joint use agreement.
Time. So that's up to 7 p.m. At their facilities. And so given already the number of limited number of tracks and fields that we have in our system.
Compared to any fields that we have in our system when we're talking hundreds of fields versus 20 tracks that really, really puts us in a really tricky position in a pinch as far as scheduling and being able to accommodate the differences between youth. I mean, certainly I think we're all in agreement if we could allow and
Schedule our younger youth at an earlier time of day, we would 100% want to do that.
There's just some challenges as far as from an inventory perspective.
And then also kind of the joint use agreement and the time challenges there.
Another one, obviously, that we're talking about in particular to Rainier Beach is the redevelopment of this Rainier Beach High School, which is obviously when those school renovation projects go and they take the field offline, that puts us in even more of a pinch specifically around a track that we have in our system that's offline for a number of years.
There's certainly a lot of kind of layers and challenges to this, but I think it's really important to highlight that. And in particular, it's definitely a conversation that our athletic scheduling team is having in particular around tracks and inventory and use occurring on the field inside of the track and how can, you know, being able to coexist in those spaces in our community use hours.
You know, the high school and the school use hours are a little bit more challenging. We don't program any community use around a high school use on the field and mostly those high school uses are using both the track and the field at one time to accommodate their kind of growing track programs as well. So hopefully that provides a little bit more context as it relates to track and field
In the spring season. And as we've shared before, spring is our most heavily scheduled seasons in the year. And so it is really tricky to find time and so um But I, again, appreciate all of the public comment around this. It just, again, further highlights for our team, things that we can go back and take and dig deeper into and try to figure out where are there spaces and ability for us to
Even more improve kind of the efficiency of how we're allocating that track and field space in our inventory.
So with that I think we'll go ahead and jump in to the presentation.
Perfect. Well, again, and I don't know if I introduced myself before I started to share there. I'm Lisa Nielsen. I'm our athletic and event scheduling manager for Seattle Parks and Recreation. So this is kind of a follow up. We were here a month ago to kind of present our
Updates and revisions to the use and scheduling of our outdoor athletic facilities.
Policy. And so we're just going to do a more brief and quick refresher of kind of what we're bringing to the table and then And then we'll kind of pause for further comment discussion after that.
Next slide, please. Thanks, Ben. So just really quick, again, why are we here? Why are we updating the policy? Number one, we just, you know, it's 2002 policy. It's over 20 years.
Out of date. And so we wanted to be sure we were better aligning the policy to our current use and scheduling practices. Also wanted to be able to create clarity for our community organizations as to how we are scheduling our athletic fields and how time is allocated.
And so felt important to obviously make sure that the policy that's out there for the public to review on this was accurate and aligning with our practices.
So some of those five critical points was discussing about field maximization, historical use.
Capital improvement projects that have impacts to use, the joint use agreement with Seattle Public Schools.
And then also kind of where the scheduling prioritization occurs.
So of our proposed updates. Really what we've done is kind of disaggregated policy components from the more procedural components. So we've removed and updated any of the outdated and irrelevant information We also wanted to clarify More specifically, historical use and kind of how that is implemented and what that looks like.
And also our scheduling priorities within the system. And then also how capital improvement accommodations when some of these larger facilities such as like a Rainier Beach High School goes offline for many years.
How do we take that into account and how are we trying to relocate those ships and permits accordingly?
The next, so a little bit more into the kind of disaggregation of policy and procedure. This is a little bit more along the lines of the direction that SPR is going from making sure that our policies are not as granular, but those procedures are kind of parsed out from the policy in and of itself.
So in our specific policy here, we had a lot of really granular information in the policy document that was kind of updated via a different document, such as the joint use agreement or others that were out there.
So what we wanted to do was be sure that we updated our policy to just kind of nod to those others that would be regularly updated. But what we did retain in the policy was prioritizing our youth.
And then kind of what is the scheduling prioritization expand a bit more on historical use of that policy that we implement is very clear for the the public to understand and named as it does govern a majority of how the scheduling of our athletic fields go.
And then also just kind of general scheduling guidelines in that policy.
And then what we moved to the SOP, the standard operating procedures, was a lot more of that specificity around our schedules and our hours.
Our seasonality of the sports and kind of what what season tends to host, which sport more heavily And then expanding even in more detail about the joint use agreement and how that relationship occurs between SPS and SPR.
And further expanding upon historical use and the addition of kind of how we intend to allocate new field time that comes into our system by way of field conversions from grass to synthetic.
Again, a little just refresher on the use and scheduling hierarchy. So essentially what happens is Seattle Public Schools for a season, they kind of send us their times. They get up to 5 45 p.m.
Monday through Friday on SPR fields or up to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday on SPS fields.
And so we kind of take their information, put that in first. We then roll over all a lot of our community use on the historical side, the horse historical user group side.
Kind of after those JUA hours and then really kind of what is left over after those rollovers occur is what we then kind of allocate for folks that inquire about one-off uses of our fields and kind of take those in the order of which they are received.
We don't have a lot of that time as we've kind of communicated. There's really not a whole ton of regular recurring time that's available out there in our field inventory. But if there were to be a particular request for a same field on the same date and time, we would prioritize that
Based on is it an SPR youth program, then community youth program, then an SPR.
Adult program and a community adult program.
So last month when we came and presented the updates on the policy, there were some kind of questions from the commissioners and we just wanted to come back and revisit that. I think last month I didn't dive super deep into like what we mean when we say historical user group.
And so wanted to elaborate and expand upon that just a little bit so there's a little more understanding of what we mean when we talk about historical user groups who have a majority of the field time in our system.
So when we say that there is a wide spectrum of organizations, but a lot of those range from youth, neighborhood youth leagues providing soccer and baseball, little league, frisbee and other athletic and recreational activities.
Additionally, a lot of the club sports for high school actually aren't within the JUA times because as SPS has expanded and we're trying to accommodate their own varsity JV programs, they're not able to accommodate club sports within that joint use agreement time. So a lot of the high school club sports actually hold community use time after the 545 or the 7 p.m. Timeframe on our athletic fields.
And then additionally, we've got adult recreation leagues and religious or minority ethnic groups that are reserving regular recurring time in our system. So all that to say, when we say historical use has a majority of our field time, it's You know, it's not that historical user groups are necessarily white or affluent or whatever. There's a very wide spectrum of who makes up those historical user groups.
And um kind of as our scheduling has evolved over the course of the last 20 years.
Really, SPR has leaned into efforts to support access to our athletic fields.
Through our fees and charges structure. So we have really, really kept our, it was really intentional for SPR to keep the fees and charges for our athletic fields way lower for youth groups to incentivize youth participation. And when I say significantly lower, I mean we were
You know um you know the next municipalities around us, we're charging two to three times for youth rates hourly than than we were. And so, you know, that did lead us to have the prioritization for youth in our system. So 70% of our historical use is youth organizations.
And then the scheduling time for other emerging user groups when and where available was also a prioritization over the course of the last many years of trying to allow other groups to kind of gain time. And as I mentioned a month ago.
We, in 2006, we were scheduling 140,000 hours a year, and now we're scheduling 250 to 260,000 hours a year. So it really has increased heavily as far as our inventory and what was available to what was being utilized now.
So lastly is just kind of a wrap-up review. The intention for updating the use and scheduling about door athletic facilities policy is really to just bring it into alignment with our current practices and how our scheduling procedures are currently occurring. And so we really don't anticipate any major change to kind of user groups that are currently in our system and the field allocation that they have. It's more intended to just name
And become transparent, more transparent, I think, than that outdated policy is as to how we are doing things and So that folks can see that and understand that and we can be more clear about how we're doing that.
And then additionally, wanting to add the new approach to the field capacity time from capital projects. So when we convert these fields from grass to synthetic.
Our grass fields are closed from mid-November to March 1st, but when you convert that to synthetic, that opens up that field for use during all of those months, especially when you're adding lighting to a project.
In that avenue, we're really anticipating a positive impact for new and emerging user groups, you know, and ideally minority and underrepresented folks that have had a barrier to being able to get any sort of regular meaningful recurring time in our system.
And as mentioned, kind of our next upcoming capital project where we anticipate kind of implementing that new call for interest for that field time will be sound view play field that's going under construction in just over a month.
So that would be an added process for our scheduling team, but one that we feel like is well worth the time and additional investment in ensuring that we're being more intentional and equitable about how we're allocating the limited amount of field space that we have available in our system.
And with that, we'll pause and wrap up and open the floor for any additional comments, questions, or discussion in the room.
Thank you, Lisa. Amazing presentation as usual, what we expect from you um I appreciate you putting that segment in there to answer some of the previous commissioner questions as well.
So with that, I want to make sure that the commissioners who did ask those questions feel like those were satisfactory to you if you have any follow-up opening up the floor at this time feedback.
Was there a question?
Direct message to me then. Please. I can't remember if I asked this question last time.
What is the impact of the West Seattle construction for the Seattle Public Schools.
That use that football field in the fall. With… Lisa, with the Memorial Stadium.
Yeah, I don't. Oh, go ahead.
Because aren't they starting construction soon? As well.
I believe, yeah.
Yes. Yes. So I'll start with West Seattle Stadium. West Seattle Stadium.
We've communicated with the project manager because we too had a kind of lack of clarity around what the implications at that site would be.
And we were able to work with the project manager to put into the bid documents that that facility must remain accessible to allow football to continue to occur in the fall season this upcoming fall.
The footprint of the renovation of the south stands where a majority of the capital project is intended to add ADA accessibility to those south stands and do some improvements there. They're going to leave an access point and entry to the stadium on the southeast. So east of the stands, there's a large gate there that will be accessible for an entry point and then they can walk around the east side of the there's a walking path outside of the track. They can walk around that path to access
The North stands. And the North stands will remain accessible and unimpacted by the capital project there. So although there will be some construction activity and fencing.
We were really intentional about trying to work with the capital project manager there to ensure that that facility remained available and accessible, knowing the impact of having both Rainier Beach offline And also Memorial Stadium intended to go offline this summer after graduations. So we're really grateful and fortunate we're able to ensure that there will be some use. Certainly attendance and capacity will be impacted because the South stands will be offline.
But ideally, there's still a place to play and there is still an opportunity to host and we're not losing a facility entirely, which is so critical right now and in the fall in particular. So yes. And then as you mentioned, Memorial Stadium
I believe that the intended timeline there is to have that stadium go offline right after immediately after graduations in June. And so, yes, there will definitely be some big impacts there. We have requested for SPS to the district athletic office to send us a calendar of kind of a comprehensive
What does that look like? Because I think there's a bit of an assumption that we're going to be able to absorb a lot of that use from Memorial Stadium across our system. And we just don't quite understand at this point what what is scheduled and has historically been scheduled at Memorial Stadium from an SPS competition and practice site standpoint.
So we've requested that from them and we're waiting to receive that before kind of scheduling anything for the upcoming Well, I guess 2025 school year 2526 school year until we can kind of look and review and start to identify how and where we'll be able to accommodate any of that displacement from Memorial Stadium.
Perfect. Thank you.
Yeah, I'm trying to square this conversation with all of the public comment that we heard about the specific group. So I have two questions that are kind of linked together about historical use. I'm not sure if he's you got like a seven page public comment about the Renovirus charcoal. I imagine you have not. Maybe you've seen it. I don't know. But in there
It seems like there's been a split between the Rainer Beach Track Club and the Rainer Beach Community Center that acquired the track club to create their own nonprofit. Does that mean that they you know use their historical use because they're a new organization
If yes. I feel like that should be revisited. If no.
Do they still have historical use of the Rainier Beach track when it reopens because the historical use in the policy says you have to use the same location two consecutive years in a row.
Which they have not because it's been closed. So that's not address like closures of space and historical use is not addressed in this policy So I'm trying to understand both of those things specifically in the room, I know it may impact other organizations.
Hmm.
That was a lot of speaking.
Yeah, no, that's great. So how we treat historical use when there's displacement is that we try to retain their time. So although it's not going to be at the same location, we still try to accommodate their historical time that they've held on the permit that they would hold at that
Site that they're being displaced. And that's tricky, right? Because you take a site offline unless we're adding a site, it's easily to easy to relocate that use too, it definitely impacts other groups and may not have all of the time or 100% of the time that they had, but we try to retain as much of that time and kind of moving a lot of the Tetris puzzle pieces to give everybody as much of what they had when we have that kind of displacement.
I'm not as familiar with the history between Rainier Beach Community Center track and field and then the Rainier Beach Track Club. So unfortunately, I'm not really able to speak to that.
But in thinking about Rainier Beach Stadium complex track and field coming back online, I think we will have to go back to the previous historic schedules and look at kind of what has evolved and who was where and Does that use just automatically kind of get put back or, you know, is there opportunity to retain people's historical use?
But in a different location and kind of, again, maximizing the efficiency of how we're doing the scheduling. But I'll have to look in, well, our team will have to look into that more. And thank you for raising that. And we'll definitely try to understand where maybe that break or split occurred, if that's what you're alluding to, is they were one and maybe now they're two. And so there's some challenges in terms of the use that they used to have and the timing of all of that.
Did that respond to what your question was?
Hmm. Okay.
Yeah, I think it's when it reopens, who is considered the historical group right is it I don't know. And so that's, I think, a conversation that needs to be had. We're just going to say, do you have examples where you've had changes in entity structure
But it's effectively the same use and effectively use have you handled that as a president?
The one that I can think of right now that comes top of mind is um is actually cricket at Jefferson Park.
So we had one United Samoan organization hold the permit for cricket at Jefferson Park. And then there was kind of an internal dispute within that organization and they kind of split into two and became a Seattle Samoan organization and a United Simone organization and ultimately we negotiated and over many, many meetings we ended up having to kind of split that historical use permit into two.
Because there wasn't a way to come to an agreement on kind of who was using what and so we kind of negotiated and try to broker how that occurred. I don't, you know, it's um That's the one example I can think of off the top of my head is we ended up having to compromise to just a 50 50 split of that historical permitted time.
But I think we're going to do whatever we possibly can to get the user groups as much as they're seeking and are hoping for. And, you know, it might be that they were Monday, Wednesday, but now they need to shift to Tuesday, Thursday, but that's how we can accommodate as much of what they had. So we're definitely trying to kind of provide what we can with given the constraints that we have.
But I would anticipate it would just be a lot of conversation and open dialogue about how we approach that and revisiting the history there.
I think this could just be a use case for something added to the standard operating procedures.
To figure out if something like this happens, what's our process? I don't know if that's in there.
Great questions and comments. Trish, I saw you raise your hand briefly. Do you… Still have a question or you get on your end?
No, I'm good on my end. Thank you.
Okay. Sounds great. So at this point, this is a policy that we're planning to vote on. I know that I believe last board meeting we tried to vote on it we wanted some more time to look at things, had some questions which came back today.
And so I wanted to see if there was a motion on the floor to go ahead and vote on this particular item.
For the policy.
Yeah, I can make that motion.
I hear a motion from John. Second. Ryan.
So voting to approve the updated policy All in favor? Say aye. Aye.
Hi.
Bye.
Hi.
And I… Let's see what it is.
Any opposed? And he abstain?
I have to say. Yes, abstain.
What was that, Tricia?
I'm staying. All right. Well, I think we've got a majority vote there. So the policy passes as Five, five, six.
Nine voting yes, one abstain. And I did not hear anything from Maya.
Call that tubes. Okay. So 10 in favor is none opposed, and one abstained, so I'll see.
Approved by the board as written. Thank you. All right. I guess we're jumping around the agenda here and we're going back. Yeah, superintendent's supporting you.
I think we're, so Lisa, thank you very much. I think really appreciate you.
Thank you all.
I, in the interest of time, I would be willing to pass on my superintendent's report because that's okay with you all because I want to todd is online if we have any public comment, we need that.
Okay, so let's go ahead and tee that up. Todd, are you ready to go?
All right. And I only had one potential interest in public comment on this particular hearing, and Mr. Wexler has departed.
Unless he is here and comes back in. We do not have anyone signed up to offer comment on this particular On the policy? On the policy, no. Well, I've got a couple of comments. I'm sorry. For the native plant.
There were no more public comments. So, yes, I believe we have no comments for this publisher.
Okay, sounds good. And AP, did you want to lead us into this before we pass it off to Todd? I'll just, yeah, call Todd on if he can If you're available to come on screen and
Awesome.
I'll do my best. Sorry about not being there today and for being on a phone in a car. But I just wanted to thank you all for the opportunity to do the public hearing again today.
And to bring this forward, it sounds like we don't have public comments, but I did want to update you On a couple of comments that I received following up, I did bring this policy back to the Indigenous Advisory Council, who we had spoken with before.
And had one proposed change from them on the policy that I wanted to make you aware of.
And it was just in the wording that was used in the definition for local tribes.
They wanted to use the term federally recognized tribes. And that's something that we worked with our tribal liaison for the Indigenous Advisory Council, as well as the council themselves when they provided the input. So that's one wording change that
Just aligns with the city's policy as we work with tribes in our area.
And then there was also some feedback from the Washington Park Arboretum They wanted to ensure that the term arboretta was included in one of our exemptions where we had already exempted botanical displays and other such floral displays and gardens.
We felt that this was inclusive, but I think that we're happy to put in that one word in there just to be very clear and to ensure that we're listening to their concerns. But from a content and standpoint, we very much
Intended for the arboretum's displays to not be incorporated into the policy because of their very nature and the special place they have in our city.
So aside from that and not having heard any comments coming from the public, we feel really good about the policy, where it's at right now.
And very happy to take any additional comments or questions from you at this time. But I did not prepare another presentation because of the limited changes and where we're at with the policy. So I'll pause there.
Can you just clarify one thing, Todd? Or maybe this is for Ben and Paula. Is the actual document that we were sent out reflect those amendments I was trying to find like the line items?
No, I was not able to get those in before Ben sent those out to you.
Change.
But I can direct you to where they are in the document if you want.
How many are there, Todd?
Can you say that again? I'm sorry.
Yeah, we're just running into a governance issue where the commissioners haven't actually reviewed policy well that's what I was asking if we have it.
Do we know how many changes are there? It seems like it's two yeah
There are two wording changes. One is to change the definition under the local tribes definition, which is right at the beginning of the document.
To be read federally recognized tribes. So that's the new language.
Bye.
So many 2.5 to read local tribes from Native American sovereign tribes to be federally recognized federally recognized.
And that is the exact same wording that is used throughout city documents.
Federally recognized tribes. Yes.
It is, you know, it's the same language that is recommended by the tribal liaison by the Indigenous Advisory Council.
And by the tribal representatives on that council.
Okay.
That's not the question. I understand that. Is it consistent with the city definition there have been there are different. There's no one standard definition in the city of Seattle.
This has been an issue launch.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And To that point and the challenges that the Duwamish have had in their federal recognition It is the policy of the city that we work directly with the federally recognized Which is our responsibility as a local government for being part of the state government. So in that sense, yes, it is very, very much aligned with that and intentionally done so. And that was why they wanted to make that
Okay.
That particular change. We still work with the Duwamish tribe or with the Duwamish Tribal Group as a Native American community organization, which is how we engage with them.
But in the policy documents, we do need to align with where the city is From that standpoint right now.
So that's 2. Five and the other item is
It's in the exemptions.
Is it 4.22 where it currently read specialty gardens and other parks
That's correct. The Washington Park Arboretum group would like to have Arbarita incorporated into that list in that exemption.
Which is not a substantive change. It is just a wording change to clarify things for them.
Does that clarify that? And I apologize, I did not get those updated.
Thank you.
Language pieces in there for you before tonight.
Appreciate that, Todd. So given that clarification and the explanation of the addendum to the policy that Sounds like we kind of figured out there. Do we have a motion on the floor to approve the policy with the changes as amended?
Motion. So moved. Do you have a second? Second.
Policy has been moved and seconded. So with that, we will call a vote. All in favor to approve Hi.
Hi.
I…
Bye.
And he opposed and abstained. One abstain. So we have one abstain and oppressed. Number 10.
Oh, I don't know the thing. I guess an I.
And Phil, did you vote on that? I was like, all right, okay.
Okay, great. So that would be 10. 10 in favor, none opposed and want to say. So the policy is approved by the board as amended verbally.
Can you please get that vacuum it out with the actual language? Yes, yes.
If you send that to me, I will send that around as soon as possible.
Yes.
Trist, I see your comment, Ryan abstaining. Yep.
Okay. Yep.
Yes, I will send that out tomorrow to Ben to be sent out to everyone as a follow-up.
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Thanks, John.
You're welcome. Thank you very much, everyone.
Okay, so that's that item. At 8.15 and we actually released him because we wanted to make sure that she had an appropriate amount of time to cover that lengthy topic and given where we're at with everything else, you know, we'd rather cut it loose early and give her a good chunk of time at the next school year.
So, you know. I guess, Pete, you're one of your superintendents.
All right. Thanks, Commissioners. I just want to be respectful of everyone's time.
All right, so here we are for our February 27th meeting and we're going to just give you a couple of department updates on what been happening since the last meeting, which has been a lot always in park world. So in our park concessions, which you've heard about, and I think that's why they came up, the 2025 seasonal concessions RFP closed on February 6th.
With 21 applications received, a panel of SBR staff will read, review, and score the applications to recommend permitting back to me. Once the process is complete, the applications will be reopened for any parks without vendors. The slides on the left show some of our current
Vendor. So a lot of our seasonal concessions usually focus around food And again, seasonally and other things that we might need in the park. And so, but we also to issue use permits.
Which is how the sauna people have the right to be in there so sometimes we get requests like, can I just have a youth permit do activity they might just want to be like one Saturday a month or every six weeks or whereas a seasonal concession is committing to we are putting it out and asking
Or a commitment of, you know. This many days, this many weeks.
We yesterday brought to the parks utility commission of City Council granting permission to apply for funding grants for a number of our projects. We've applied for state and federal funding administered by the Recreation and Conservation Office of the state, the RCO.
These grants will help fund First Tee at Bill Wright Golf Complex, Dr. Jose Rizal Park, and the Judkins Inclusive Playground at Spray Park.
Where I was just at a community meeting Right before this. Grant funding helps us close the gap between what we expected and project costs and the actual cost of construction. The funding is critical to our asset management plan.
And we depend on it. We have an amazing grants team and a really wonderful SPR Mo.
Moshe Hat, who oversees that and he has been so successful in the amount of grants that we get every single year, which we could do. Obviously, we're keeping our eye on federal grant applications and trying to be really strategic and follow best practices and applying for those now.
And using some better strategies for that. But hopefully our state grant, RCO grants will come through strong for us. And I have a good feeling that they will.
This past week, we did host or not this past week, I think it was February 5th, we did meet with Green Lake Small Craft Families. There had been some security issues at the park and in particular with the team. And so we had a community meeting with about 80 participants
To talk about our response to safety concerns, including reviewing lockdown and stop standard operating procedures, review of effective communications.
And we also did a safety walkthrough to identify operational improvements prioritizing the key card scan system installation which we're now doing at that boathouse. There's a lot of people that come in and out because it's of the nature of the canoeing, there's also a lot of expensive equipment there and things so
We are working on and committed to improving safety with our safety office and with community members. So I just wanted to update you on that.
In our Parks and Environment Division, we've done a lot of wonderful things. We did a few lunar year celebrations around with our horticultural specialty gardens at Volunteer Park Conservancy. We did some events at the Japanese garden bottom left and some improvements with community volunteering. And we did tree planting.
Through our urban forestry team at Cowan Elementary on the right with community members and In February, our urban forestry staff was awarded the King County grant to help fund ongoing support of tree care needs around the airport where air quality improvements are important for public health.
And trees are an important part of our climate resiliency plan at parks, and we're looking forward to working with other city departments this year. By the way, we have a new Deputy Mayor that oversees the parks portfolio and it's Jessen Farrell and she was the head of
Osc, which is the Office of Sustainability and Environment, now has that portfolio plus parks And Escott.
And so we think this is going to be a really good trifecta of doing much more for our tree canopy and working really closely with the three departments on how we can continue to improve in climate action in the city of Seattle.
Our next slide shows our facilities hard at work. Yesterday, we just did a presentation to the city council on our park restroom audit and We're discussing some of the challenges that our crews meet in the field and some of the creativity that our facility trades literally build things on the spot to accommodate some public uses.
And also this is an example of where we've shown up to do enhanced cleaning team. So we have the ECT, which is the enhanced cleaning team Which provides maintenance cleaning services at places that have a lot of damage. And here is an example of some work at the Discovery Park Visitor Center.
That has suffered a flood down below. We're starting to take care of that and assess that.
As well as cleaning at Magnuson park theater that was damaged from a fire, which is the photos on the upper right.
And trying to bring these facilities back to a safe, clean, and accessible space. So unfortunately, sometimes we have so many facilities throughout our 500 park plus system that sometimes we have arson, sometimes we have electrical failures from improper use of equipment and then sometimes we have flooding
That occur. So we have a really good team that responds to that. And then in the spring, we do some spring tennis cleaning resurfacing and cleaning project and you can just see some example of our crew members who have been doing power washing and prepping of it.
Courts and before and after photos. Which are always needed.
A little slippery with all that. Yeah, it does. And then big time work, our facility metal shop fabrication shop is doing a lot of fabrication that you're seeing Along the waterfront and the collapse of Pier 58.
Our shop was tasked with repairing some historic fountains and sculptures.
And also working to restore fountains to their original form along areas that needed new vinyl finish and installation And the Fitzgerald Fountain is now in place in its permanent location on the newly constructed Pier 58.
With opening schedule for spring 2025 when we hope most of the waterfront remaining projects will be open to the public. So it's a lot of big hard work.
But they've been doing a great job. And our Parks and Recreational Services branch, we've been doing a lot for our CIO mentorship programs and mayor continues to talk about his vision and uh about opportunities for teen programming. I talked about it in the state of the city address and
We're looking at other ways to work with other city departments, but we did an empowerment fall kickoff that you can see up above as part of our Seattle Mentors Program, where we're bringing in community speakers and leadership development for teams throughout the city.
We also did our annual youth land martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration Where youth actually lead out and we just support and follow as they express their celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King.
We're continuing our swim seattle programs and doing more opportunities for scholarship in our commitment to end disproportionate drownings in the city of Seattle.
And then doing the Visionary Voices program, Igniting Your Potential, which was some really motivational speaking that I got to participate.
At NC, also speak, but also listen to some really powerful voices.
In our community. So we're really proud of that work. Next slide. In our Parks and Recreational Services Branch 2, we also focus on lifelong recreation, which is really important and near and dear to me that we're continuing to take care of our aging population in the city of Seattle. And we have so many wonderful staff that work in lifelong recreation. And here's just some examples of
What we've been doing and creating art leading into Lunar New Year's celebrations hosting eight classes over the course of a year to per quarter rotating to different equity priority locations throughout the city to hold these classes.
And at High Point Community Center hosted the annual Tet New Year celebration on February 1st.
Where we had 60 older adults visiting for the first time and participating in the lion dance, karaoke, and culturally significant food.
And it's just another example of how lifelong recreation shows up.
For the community. I gave you a couple of park project updates that are going on. One of them is the expansion of the Chiaste Mountain Bike pedestrian trail pilot project. That was the first project that I open when I came to Seattle. And then there was a second phase of
The North Loop Trail now has reached substantial completion the multi-use trail, it's open to pedestrians, but the mountain bike loop sustained damage during the recent wind events and it's not yet open for riding. However, volunteers and the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance cruise
Are going to complete damage repairs and continue with the finishing touches on the trail.
So please be aware of others when using the new trails and follow all posted signs. We're working with our partners on a ribbon cutting hopefully for June of 2025.
At Bear Sheriff Park, phase two renovation is now underway. We did a big opening, if you remember last year, but now we're focusing on the nearby Raynar Beach urban farm and wetlands.
Where community members have selected their preferred design option. For our play area and an opportunity to improve that area. And we're also at this site looking at how to repair the stage, which was a phase one project, but got damaged during the wind storm. So we're putting a plan together for that.
Community. Okay, and that's our report. So we did have tiles.
Let's cover lots of details. That said, any comments or questions from commissioners?
Yeah, I'm so sorry. I know we're out of time, but you mentioned the park restroom audit Yes, because I know that restrooms are a common topic that comes up for the public.
Is that something that's available online? It is available online and I can't remember, have we done a briefing here on that? Because if not, I will. Okay.
I was actually going to suggest. Okay, cool, cool. No, it's perfect. We just, it finally went.
It is public and we can get you copies of it. And then we did a presentation. Well, the city auditor first did their presentation finally to the city council yesterday. So just yesterday. And then we provided our response. But I would love to bring that back to you because it's important. And yeah, it's a growing concern. So it looks like it was already being
Disgust to come back so tee that up on an agenda for weeks Justin didn't disregard my comment. I just wanted to receive this.
Any questions or comments online, Joel?
Sure. Just very quick. Nowhere close to time. Want to applaud the department's Lunar New Year programming. It was really lovely and
Thank you for that. Thank you. All right. So just a few housekeeping items here before we adjourn.
Looks like we got some SEC meetings potentially scheduled for March 13th.
Is there anything on the books? We have subcommittee meetings scheduled for the 13th. I think… We just hold the 13th.
Sounds good. So then I guess the second upcoming meeting for sure would be on the books would be March 27th board meeting.
That one is for sure skin. So other good order items where we can close up tonight.
Appreciate everyone