City Council OKs Civic Field plan: Next up — how to pay for it

The City of Edmonds has an approved plan for redesigning Edmonds Civic Field. Now, city officials need to find a way to fund it.

After eight months of study and public engagement, the Edmonds City Council voted 6-0 Tuesday night to approve the park’s final master plan. Councilmember Dave Teitzel abstained from voting because he lives adjacent to the park, which is located at 250 6th Ave. N.

The vote came following a brief presentation on final plan amenities by City of Edmonds Parks Director Carrie Hite and Chris Jones of Walker Macy Landscape Architecture, the lead consultant on the design.

Jones described the recent changes made to accommodate community feedback: maintaining the skateboard park in its current location to address worries about noise if it were moved closer to nearby residences; eliminating a second tennis court proposed for the northwest corner due to worries about fencing that could block residents’ views; and reducing the width of the sidewalk along the tennis court so that it “tapers down as it moves north into the neighborhood,” he said.

In response to a request from the Edmonds Petanque Club, one of the most active users of the current Civic Field, two more petanque courts have been added to accommodate tournaments — for a total of six courts in the park’s southwest corner. Park planners will  continue to work with the petanque club as the design progresses and will also be engaging a skate park designer, Jones added.

Although there have been changes, “the bones” of the park remain the same, Jones said, with a children’s playground on the east side, view terraces at the southeast corner, and as much passive-active open spaces as possible with the multi-use lawn. Also remaining are the shade pavilion and a water feature, as well as the existing Edmonds Boys and Girls Club building, with a place to accommodate any future Boys and Girls Club expansion, Jones said.

Although planners heard some community concerns about removing the existing running track, the design does include a one-third-mile track that should serve the community well, Jones said. The track will feature two, 4-foot-wide rubberized-surface lanes — one for running and jogging and the other for walking. He also pointed to “a number of different loops” within the park that can accommodate runners.

The northern site of the park remains passive, with a picnic area, and there are buffers at the park’s north and south ends, both of which abut residential neighborhoods, he added.

Jones also outlined possibilities for renovating the park in phases, with the western side of the site (pink in the above photo) proposed as phase A and the eastern remainder (in yellow) completed during phase B. There is also a phase C, in blue, for a Market Street Promenade (possibly for the farmer’s market and street festivals) that would run along 6th Avenue North.

Walker Macy also included cost estimates for each phase, which are for construction only. “Soft costs” such as design and permitting, surveys and geotechnical services, will add 20 percent — plus or minus — to the final amount. Cost of completing phases A and B together is estimated at $10.1 million, while doing two-phase construction is estimated at $5.4 million for phase A and another $5.3 million for phase B. The estimate for the promenade is $4.2 million.

Hite noted that next steps involve incorporating the master plan into the city’s updated comprehensive plan, which will be adopted later this year. The city is also awaiting a State Environmental Policy Act review from the state.

In addition, Hite said, the city has $35,000 to $40,000 in leftover grant money that can be used to demolish the structurally unsound wooden stadium grandstands. Councilmember Kristiana Johnson pointed to the sentimental value some long-time community members attach to the stadium grandstands, which were used by former Edmonds School District students during athletic events. In response, Hite and Jones said the plan is to retain some of the grandstands’ historical significance by incorporating wood from the grandstand demolition into the park redesign.

Another issue raised by some councilmembers was whether there would be sufficient parking to accommodate the increased number of visitors the redesigned park could draw. Councilmember Adrienne Fraley-Monillas also said it is important to ensure that there is parking nearby for people with disabilities. While a decision has already been made — based on community feedback — to not include parking as part of the 8-acre park site, Hite agreed to include cost estimates for a parking impact study during the next phase of design services.

As for finding dollars to actually pay for the Civic Field redesign, Hite said that she and Mayor Dave Earling have already had “several conversations” on the topic. The goal is to use some capital improvement fund dollars to fund further design work in 2018, so the city is ready to take advantage of state grant opportunities that become available that year. In addition, the city will be looking at private donations and real estate excise tax money. “If we can come up with a pot of $5 million here then we could probably then look at bonding $5 million,” Hite said. “We’ll be back to council with some options to consider, but [we are] really looking at grant funding and resource development and design in ’18 and building in ’19,” she added.

The council also on Tuesday night voted 6-1 to add a fourth option, Option D, to its review of possible alternatives for establishing buffer areas next to the Edmonds Marsh. The options are being considered as the city prepares its response to the Washington State Department of Ecology, which has been reviewing the city’s Shoreline Master Program.

Citizens as well as some councilmembers advocated during the Feb. 21 council meeting for creating a fourth alternative in addition to three options that have already been presented — one that in their view would better protect the marsh from the effects of future development.

In developing Option D, Councilmember Buckshnis enlisted the help of retired fisheries biologist and Edmonds resident Joe Scordino, who sat next to her at the presentation table while she outlined the option for councilmembers. Scordino’s involvement was initially questioned as a point of order by Councilmember Teitzel, who noted that Scordino was not a city official nor councilmember and also belonged to the Save Our Marsh “special interest” group. But City Attorney Jeff Taraday said he wasn’t aware of any requirement “that proposed legislation come from any particular source,” adding that individual councilmembers are welcome to work with constituents.

Buckshnis explained that the goal of Option D (attached here) is to ensure the maintenance of a 110-foot fixed buffer for the urban mixed-use development area next to the marsh. Under Option D, any consideration of an alternate buffer width as part of an approved master plan development must be “derived from a rigorous site-specific scientific study, and must includes biogeochemical, hydrologic and food web and habitat functions,” she said.

The council voted 6-1 (Teitzel opposed) to include Option D along with the three other options “for vetting and deliberation” as the council continues to formulate its response to the Ecology Department regarding the City’s proposed Shoreline Master Plan. A public hearing on the issue has been scheduled for the March 21 council meeting.

The council also:

– Received the official presentation of $125,000 from Snohomish County for the city’s planned waterfront redevelopment and restoration project adjacent to the Edmonds Senior Center. Councilmember Stephanie Wright, whose district includes Edmonds, made the presentation.

– Heard the annual report regarding the Edmonds Public Facilities District, which oversees the Edmonds Center for the Arts. We’ll recap ECA Executive Director Joe Mclalwain’s presentation in a future story.

– Learned about the latest bids received for the 76th Avenue West and 212th Street Southwest intersection improvements project, which had been put on hold after an earlier round of bids in 2016 came in far above the engineer’s estimate. City engineer Rob English said that more competitive bids were received this time around, and additional details will be presented at next week’s council meeting.

– Approved for next week’s consent agenda the initiation of a property rezone for land located across the street from the Perrinville Post Office, at 18305 80th Ave. W. The land had originally been rezoned for a planned residential development that has since expired, and the development services department had proposed starting a process to consider whether the land should be rezoned from an RS 8 (8,000 square foot minimum lot size) to an RS 12 (12,000 foot minimum lot size).

– Also approved for next week’s consent agenda an amendment to the ordinance creating a City of Edmonds Salary Commission, stating that the commission will meet every other year.

— Story and photos by Teresa Wippel