City Council - Parks and Recreation Committee

okay welcome to the Parks and Recreation committee meeting I am joined today by council members uh cotton and cotton and huthman and uh we have two items on our our agenda today the first one is agenda bill 24296 which is um is going to be addressing a contract award to premium Services Incorporated for Boulevard Park Shoreline and Public Access enhancements uh the bid number on this project was uh 64b 2024 the project includes a creation and enhancement of two Beach areas uh to improve Public Access and access and to address ongoing erosion erosion along the Boulevard Park Shoreline completion of this project will will increase public access to the Shoreline through a removal of the rock armor from the beaches uh removal of uh failing revetments the addition of a a stable Trail the addition of educational signage and a new backshore planting along high elevations of the beach which will also Aid in mitigating the impacts from sea level rise and Coastal erosion the Parks and Recreation Department was awarded a $500,000 Grant from Washington Recreation and conservation office to assist with the costs of this project the city uh publicly opened 10 bids on October 8th 2024 for the Boulevard Park Shoreline project premium Services Incorporated is the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest respons uh responsive bid of $835,000 including applicable sales and use tax the engineers estimate was 26334 34 uh 32 and uh because this contract is under a million dollar it it is not

subject to The Apprentice you uh uh uh utilization program because of that um of that um project being under a million dollars so I'd like to turn it over to Nicole Oliver who was a director of our public parks department thank you council member Williams I'm going to turn it directly over to our project engineer Gina Austin there you go thought we would give again I'm Gina Austin Austin I'm your Park project engineer and we thought we would just give just a short presentation because it is a pretty interesting project and it was ranked number one for a grant award in the state um this picture is Boulevard Park this is a beach creation project that we did in the background there in 2013 where we came before city council with a similar project of a failing revetment and we built the beach and it's been functioning very well so project is at Boulevard Park and there's the location so I know we put plans in the uh Council agenda bill that are black and white but that's actually where we're going to be working in Boulevard Park where we have some areas of the old rock revetment rock walls that were put into place to protect the shoreline and have now gone into the beach area over uh the last few decades this is an aerial view uh this is the coffee shop the paddle Point Trestle this is the South Bay Trail on the red line and what we're going to do is bring actually we're going to build a beach we're going to build a beach and bring the um um walkway back up onto the shore and put

uh some plants in and do Beach nourishment it'll be like a fine grain uh rock material that's suitable for fish habitat and we're also going to uh do some improvements on this side Beach nourishment which is that uh what we call the Fish mix gravel that's the plan that was in the um Council agenda packet shows the realigned Trail and we're going to do a lot of backshore and Nearshore planting in this area if you're at the park um you'll see it looks like this so you're up high and you're on the trail and you don't feel like you're at the beach and we're going to create that Beach area and there'll be a uh a little bit of a grade change but there'll be an area where you can roll off of the trail safely and get down into the beach area and have access to the Shoreline that's what that crosssection looks like in the plan uh these are actual pictures on site so this is all of that rock material that was up above that has failed in the shoreline and it's being eroded now with storms as they come in so we'll remove this we'll re rebuild the rock walls off to the side and then have that Beach area created in the middle that's kind of another closeup showing what it looks like today it is fenced off because it is right next to the trail so there's a bit of a drop off and this will all get corrected and rebuilt into a Beach area uh this is one of our top waterfront destinations so we feel it's a very important project for beach access uh it's areas where you can paddle up this is our

2013 Beach that we created uh just giving people access to the Shoreline there's a current picture you can see the edge of the South Bay Trail it's being eroded away at Boulevard Park that's that fielded revetment again the coffee shop you can see off in the distance there um this is our beach that we built a few years ago it is resilient to uh climate change sea level rise can handle lots of storms I threw this picture in here CU I thought it was interesting it doesn't look like much but this is a king tide in a storm surge where the rest of the park is flooded but our 2013 Beach project that we created functions very well it dissipates the energy and that's what this new beach will do that we create there's another view of it uh what you'll see in the new improved condition is this will be all finer grained material and have beach access where you can come right out onto the beach similar to the other Beach that was there this is the before and after the 2013 Beach that we built thought that would be interesting to show just another kind of picture of what the erosion looks like today and then we will have signage on site to explain the shoreline process the importance of backshore planting and the new beach creation area and how these new soft beaches are resilient and preferred and better for habitat and people than just a rock revent or a um concrete wall and that's the end of my presentation you have any questions are there any questions from the committee seeing none

anybody else well then I'll entertain oh I'm sorry council member Anderson thank you um when this project is done are there any future Shoreline projects or any spots remaining for this park or will this finish that off this will finish off the beach creation areas um we do have the cleanup site the South State Street manufactured gas plant on the north side of the park and that Beach area that's there will get rebuilt um but we did look at creating a beach in the North End of the park and the elevations and the um exposure doesn't quite work out so we're trying to get the the most we can out of these smaller beaches that we can create okay anyone else okay the staff recommendation is to authorize the contract and I'll entertain a motion to do so move approval second okay any further discussion um okay all in favor I all opposed seeing none the motion carries unanimously and that will be reported at our evening meeting the next item up for discussion and information is to receive an update on the Civic Athletic Complex Master planning the staff will provide an update and show a presentation regarding the community planning and public process underway for this key Recreational Park in the Heart of the City information and the narrated presentation is located on the city's engaged Bellingham page under Civic Athletic Complex master plan at engage bellingham.to to director Oliver you council member Williams um I am going to play a presentation that is online right now and then

afterward I'm going to tell you a little bit about our pretty innovative um public engagement we have started so we go is as our community continues to grow we need to update our plans for civic to reflect our changing needs we are updating the 1980s era Civic Athletic Complex master plan to develop a new plan that will be used to guide future development and uses of this important Recreational Park we have a unique and strategic opportunity to reimagine the Aging Civic Athletic Complex as an exceptional community space for generations to come the Civic Athletic Complex has not received this kind of holistic attention in more than four decades just as we've built a renowned network of trails parks and Greenways this is our opportunity to plan a similar Legacy for our community central location Central Recreation Complex this moment is also exciting because as Carl koser Elementary School is nearing the end of its service life there are possibilities to invest collaboratively with Bellingham Public Schools in ways that can benefit but all members of our community we are partnering with the school district to consider new locations for an elementary school within the Civic complex and that's why you'll see that the Carl koser School site will be included in our studies and finally we also know that while Civic will continue to be a destination for city-wide Athletics its future can also better serve the surrounding neighbors with play spaces lighting and other amenities found

at neighborhood parks to start this work the city conducted a recreation needs assessment in 202 2 that included a survey of how all all our athletic and Recreation assets functioned and what gaps existed in the system we also conducted a complete inventory of the area including the environmental constraints deed and Survey history buildings and other data and we will share those findings in this presentation and in February 2024 we entered into a formal agreement with the school district to evaluate opportunities to relocate Carl kosher Elementary while meeting the recreation needs of our community we are now embarking on the planning phase to begin to spatially map out the future of the site this will consist of a series of community conversations this fall before going before the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and city council for final approval in the first half of next year as we start this work it's important to recognize that we are not starting from scratch we are grounded in our existing planning documents like the bike and P master plan the pet neighborhood plan and the comprehensive plan perhaps most importantly we are Guided by the six principles the community established in our 2020 parks recreation and open space plan and those are preservation connection play Equity resiliency and inclusivity these principles will serve as the foundations for our work we now wanted to to share some of the findings from the initial assessment work first we know that Civic

is a well-used and much-loved asset in the community it is our most visited park with the most demand for its facilities with nearly double the number of visitors compared to Boulevard and Lake padon Parks combined in fact we average 72,000 people uh visiting this park monthly through our 2022 Recreation needs assessment we also know that Civic has not evolved to keep up with the community demand for recreational amenities like a community recreation center more sheets of ice expanded Aquatics new covered Recreation spaces and more during our assessment phase we also learned that the park has some unique conditions that make it unlike most other Parcels of land in the city first the way that certain amenities were financed has left various obligations on them that limit their uses to recreational purposes this protects recreational facilities so that they don't lose them to Redevelopment over time second while it may appear that there are city streets running through the park there is actually very little city R of way in the park this offers opportunities for some flexibility but may also pose challenges when thinking about emergency response times it's also important to remember that the site plays host to some important natural resources the forest in the Northwest Quadrant of the site hides two tributaries of wam Creek and recent assessments have shown small Wetlands dotting the landscape ape these natural features offer an oasis for people and provide important ecosystem

services to the entire community of plants animals and people turning now to some of the built facilities Civic generally offers well-maintained facilities but as more and more of those assets are brought online and age we also know the maintenance obligations necessarily increase we should also note some trouble spots we know that Jerry field number three has an outfield that is often unplayable for much to the year due to poor drainage and several years ago a large storm created heavy erosion on the forest side of the skate park in the future we also anticipate that Jerry Fields 1 and two Downer fields and Civic field will need upgrades Beyond normal maintenance to prolong their lifespans similar to the fields the buildings and structure on site are well used and wellmaintained but the maintenance burden is increasing Joe martinfield is in F fantastic shape with a potential upgrade of the concessions being one potential in the future Civic stadium has ongoing repairs for leaks and the Sports plex is currently finishing up a roofing project finally the Arne Hannah Aquatic Center we know has aging mechanical systems and a separate study is underway to understand how to improve this whole building's functionality as the city went through the assessment phase inevitably opportunities emerged these included repositioning the complex as a campus by clearly identifying entrances and gateways creating a central destination to improve understanding and orientation when you're inside

Civic adding more vegetation and perious surface taking opportunities to improve Energy Efficiency and climate resilience especially for our high energy use public facilities offering the site as a sports tourism destination by hosting various tournaments and athletic events adding Park amenities to improve Neighborhood use and integration and improving circulation at the site that assessment helps inform our next opportunity where to locate community uses that we might characterize as high-intensity development high-intensity development means developments that are more significant with a larger footprint like a community recreation center additional sheets of ice expanded aquatic offerings or the relocation of Carl koser Elementary our work started to focus on what parts of the Civic complex would be best for this type of major Redevelopment the relocation of Carl koser Elementary might be a perfect example of this kind of high-intensity development Bellingham Public Schools is looking for about 5 acres of land though most of their school sites average 8 Acres the school would be for 450 students with the school building itself being 70,000 square ft and another 50,000 ft of outdoor play spaces and Gardens the school needs certain security measures including a fence perimeter and a single entry and exit surrounding the school space for bus and non-bus traffic to queue and accessible parking spaces are also required sustainable design elements are also important and should

be included in the school design the mutual benefits that could arise include broader access to recreational amenities cost efficiencies for taxpayers and new publicly accessible assets like playgrounds Turf and an indoor gym that could be used when school is not in session similarly a community recreation center could occupy a significant portion of the site while we've just begun the work to define the parameters for the recreation center there's really quite an exciting range in terms of funding and operation plans Partnerships and the types of amenities that could be provided one of the exciting opportunities that this process will explore is whether the recreation center could be integrated with other community assets like a pool or ice rink in looking at potential Redevelopment sites we are examining the pros and cons of each site and what synergies are possible to enhance the whole complex initially our internal team had considered seven broad areas where the high-intensity developments might go at Civic which you can see on this map they are the lower Jerry fields on Frasier Street Jerry 4 on Puget Street the central area north of the stadium and the Sports plex the forest on the wet west side of the site the parking lot the downer fields around Arie Hannah and the existing Carl koser site after studying the composition of the forest canopy and finding many protected Landmark trees the city has removed the site marked as Forest from consideration for high-intensity

development that leaves six sites currently under consideration which present us with both constraints and opportunities some of the sites for example would need to minimize or compensate for environmental impacts other sites would require us require us to negotiate in terms of the terms and restrictions of the funding we received or replace recreational facilities in other locations somewhere else in the city on the other hand there are opport ities to develop recreational facilities for broad complimentary Community benefits to collocate Shared facilities or infrastructure like storm water facilities or parking and find financing efficiencies to conserve limited taxpayer funds weighing these opportunities and constraints will be one of the key trade-offs that this process will assess and that is what we welcome your feedback on you'll have the chance to weigh in two at a public meeting on November 6th where we'll begin to see some options about what emerging Future Vision for the Civic Athletic Complex might look like we hope you'll join us there to give your input you can also go to the Project's engage Bellingham page to learn more ask questions or give your input virtually thank you do that from now on I'm just going to record pre-record my presentations and just play them for you it's a great way to do it um so thanks for indulging me that um wanted to uh also talk about the uh the engagement that we've done we've targeted our Consortium we've created a Consortium of

our all of our users within the complex there's we've invited them to come to a meeting they came on October 1st we had 33 people and we sent out this presentation we showed this presentation and then sent this presentation with all of these different representatives of all the different user groups and then they are sharing this presentation so everyone is starting at the same place of in information and then they are completing a survey to give us feedback we're going to have another meeting on October 29th and then we're going to go out for a public meeting at bodell Donovan community building on November 6th where we're going to show three different development scenarios that have that pick two of those high-intensity spots and how uh recommendations for how it would work um with instead of all four to only two of them and three different scenarios so that's what's coming um and then we're going to be engaged with the public the broad public in some sort of a survey methodology to help get feedback and narrow us narrow us down we're also um continuing to work in collaboration with the school district um with regular meetings and sharing information uh especially things like the actual um composition of those wetlands in the lower jerries what what that would mean to try and redevelop down there even to redevelop a turf field for instance so there's a lot of work a lot of um teamwork we've got Melissa minin from the mayor's office helping us with Communications which has

been really really helpful um and then we've got an uh internal City Center City Athletic Complex internal team that did a bunch of the analysis to kind of narrow things down and help and then we have a team of Consultants as well so just wanted to bring you up to speed and see if you had any questions then can rest between now and okay thank you very much um does anyone from the committee have any questions or comments anyone else uh Michael so a couple months back uh we reached a kind of a memorandum of understanding of cooperation with the school district um because they were hoping to maybe build on a site and then decommission the current Carl coer um but I think that required land which may now be taken off the table I'm not sure is that still a live possibility yes the relocating Carl koser is definitely part of this whole plan and so they're participating the families at Carl koser are participating and what the intention is is to we can come up with a site that they can are able to build a that fits their needs as well um then they would build the school on that location and use the existing Carl koser as the swing school that they were going to be building up on Cougar road so then the students from the other two schools Roosevelt and Colombia would then rotate through the old Carl koser while their schools were being remodeled and then at the end of all of that that parcel that Carl koser sits on would be would um then transferred to the city that's the theory he

any other comments anyone oh council member Anderson you got to raise your hand higher um I think from previous meetings and you know hypothetical possibilities I thought kind of the forested area might be the area looking for Carl koser so now with significant trees put you know Wetlands is the location still a little bit fluid that it hasn't been decided where they might move that's the beauty is we don't know the answer yet and we're engaging with everyone and we've narrowed it down to where it could the four spots that it could go but now we're we're going to provide a couple of different scenarios of how it could work and then we're engaging with the community we don't know we don't have a pre-ordained answer the um school district has given their uh the needs they've we've made those clear but we're involving all of the users and and making sure that we're coming we're building a community consensus about whether or not we can we could make this work okay well this item was for information and uh discussion and if there's no further discussion uh I'm going to adjourn our committee meeting and all of this will be reported at the evening meeting this uh at uh 7:00