City Council - Parks and Recreation Committee

okay I'll bring us um back out of recess and back into order here our next committee meeting is Parks and Recreation and as chaired by council member skip Williams well good afternoon everyone we're here for the Parks and Recreation committee meeting and I'm joined by council members Huffman and cotton we have three items on our agenda today the first of which is an ordinance accepting the donation of real prod property to the city of Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department from David and Carol Robinson and first I'd like to acknowledge the Robinsons are sitting here in the room with us and I'd like to offer our thanks for your contribution uh David and Carol have uh generously offered to donate two properties totaling 7 and A2 acres to the city of Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department one of the properties is in Happy Valley on 32nd Street adjacent to uh the conic uh sorry to the uh Conelly Creek Nature area and the second is on California Street adjacent to a Royal Park pursuing a due diligence review of the properties um they were approved by the Greenways advisory committee and the Parks and Recreation advisory committee the uh process and um the city council concurring and approving those due diligence procedures on February 27th 2023 as a result of the title review and the phas one environmental site assessment uh no concerns were raised so the Robinson how however as a part of their donation have requested a permanent deed restriction stipulating that the

proper that the properties be used solely for parks and open space purposes there was no pre uh previous action by the council regarding this accept the pursuit of the due diligence review and the fiscal impact of their contribution is valued at $680,000 and on that note I'll turn the uh presentation over to Nicole Oliver our Parks and Recreation director thank you skip um good afternoon Council Nicole Oliver from parks of recreation uh council member Williams covered it pretty succinctly this is a um a really gener a very generous donation that will add to existing contiguous open space Parcels a a very beautiful forested mature parcel along the ridgel line of Royal Park and then this 32nd Street parcel which is a um fairly encumbered by Wetlands but part of the Connelly Creek it would become part part of the Connelly Creek Nature area it's just North there's only um a couple Parcels between it and the Fen hoit Garden um so we're very um we're very thankful for these donations um and we're very appreciative of of these two um this couple the Robinsons who are here um they're big supporters of parks and wanted to urge that um as we move forward on the waterfront that we include more trees and places for people to gather and not just focus on Redevelopment they wanted me to pass that along to you um and that's all I have okay thank you very much um is there any discussion from the committee members council member Huffman just want to say a huge thank you to the Robinsons it's

an incredibly generous offer um and with that I move approval okay uh it's been moved to approve the generous donation by the Robinsons is there any further discussion council member Anderson thank you for not I thank you for recognizing me I'm not on the committee um and again thank you I think um allive Council was pretty thrilled with this generous donation I I did have a question as far as um on the The Parks plan side of things is the plan pretty much to just leave the property in the Natural State or do you foresee some trail connections um coming off a 302 to connect to Connelly or um over BYO Park just curious of the long-term uh Park interfacing for Community Access or if we're leaving it as a natural area we will be um doing an assessment of potential connectivity there is a creek the creek in there to to cross to get to the trail on the other side of the creek um but there is some potential um for some sort of nature uh we will be doing some cleanup and maintenance of the area and taking it on it does need to be some some work does need to be done but as to whether or not we can get across either the creek to the South or the creek to the West is would be yet to be decided we haven't fully figured that out hope so maybe either now or maybe in the future thank you okay is there any further discussion from members members of the council seeing none I'll call for the vote all in favor say I I all opposed motion has carried thank you very much and uh I will report that

to the meeting this evening the second item on our agenda uh the the final two items on the agenda have something to do with the development of little squala Park the first item which is agenda Bill 242 uh I'm sorry 24220 uh is going to address the naming of the pier at little Squalicum Park in accordance with City policy p01 .01 the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is recommending that the city council adopt an official name of the peer at little Squalicum Park the pier was included in the little Squalicum Park master plan adopted in 2010 as well as a shoreline master program in the Parks and Recreation open space plan a public process was launched on social media and through the city's engaged Bellingham website and sent to the local media interested parties neighborhood associations and Boards commissions and others and names were solicited through July 12th 2024 over 1,000 individuals participated in this project visited the the project web page and over 900 idea submissions were received some of the submissions after reading all 900 of them were quite clever the one uh that got a good amount of votes was Peri mcpier face uh another one that was quite creative was peer into the future and the bridge to nowhere the ones that really jumped out at me because I'm a musician was the Octopus's Garden and the squawk way to heaven and then of course there was a movie reference from peer to Eternity so and the final one that really jumped out at me was a peer of

subdued excitement anyway um the names were all reviewed by The Parks and Recreation staff presented naming and and they presented the naming options to the Bellingham Parks and Recreation advisory board at their August 14th 2024 meeting after extensive discussion discussion which I was there for the committee's final recommendation was to name the peer little squal and Pier wh which makes the naming cons consistent with the name of the park so [Applause] uh as a final note the renovation work on the perer is is anticipated to start in the permitting work window from August of uh 2024 through February 2025 and it is expected to be open in the spring of 2025 so I will turn it back over to Nicole Oliver and uh thank you again council member Williams it was an enjoyable report to read um the the names our community is very creative um I have Gina Austin here the project manager for um little squal comper I think she has a few words do you have some words sure again I'm Gina Austin I'm your Park project engineer for the city of Bellingham and yes there were a lot of creative name suggestions but this naming time is actually timely for us because we are going to be under construction and we need to call it something and if you've been here in Bellingham for all my time working at the city almost 22 years we've been trying to acquire the pier redevelop and get it open to the public and now we're ready to have a name people have called it Olympic cement Pier Tilbury Lehi heidleberg

just the pier Squalicum Pier little Squalicum pier and so we're ready to give it a name and have it be a geographic landmark in the city of Bellingham for everybody to enjoy um and then our next uh as uh director Oliver mentioned we also are here for a bit aart so that'll be the next item but that's all I have to offer at this point so we're ready to hear your uh approval I always love these naming uh activities our community is really creative um I and I I can understand why sometimes the most practical uh decision for naming um isn't necessarily the most creative or inspired but it does make the most sense um certainly know uh I can see Canada from Pier see Briana and uh or hold my Pier um are yeah Community is pretty pretty fun but um with that the Practical uh name I will move approval okay it's uh we have a motion to to approve the recommendation naming the pier little squal and Pier any further discussion council member cotton council member Anderson anything anyone else okay all in favor please say I I I okay I'll oppos none the motion has carried and that will be reported at our evening meeting this evening the last item on our agenda also has to do with the little Squalicum Park pier and it is uh discussing the contract award to boss construction for the little Squalicum Pier improvements that need to be made which is Bid number 46b 2024 the project in includes a Redevelopment of the pier structure at little Squalicum part for for public use the city acquired a

portion of the paer through a donation from the Lee High Hansen and heidleberg Cement Group and this project is located adjacent to little Squalicum Park in North Bellingham the city owns portions of the park and manages other adjoining properties in the park through a lease from watom County the work includes uh new pedestrian and W and wood guard rails new grading over the existing decking to make the pier accessible for everyone and a new pedestrian lighting that is powered entirely by solar and wind this process uh I mean I'm sorry this uh project is included in the city's comprehensive plan the shoreline master plan and the city council approved little Squalicum master plan the city p publicly opened 10 bids on August 14th 2024 boss construction is the responsible bidder who who submitted the lowest responsive bid of 1, $2.90 including applicable sales and use tax the engineers estimate is 2, uh I'm sorry 2 milon $ 37,2 42 and the $1,612 certainly comes in below that so I will turn it over one more time to Nicole Oliver for further explanation great yeah we were we were very pleased with this bid um there were 10 uh biders we had quite a few quite a bit of Interest we had some questions that were really great questions it's a difficult construction project um the uh specifications are um the permit requirements rather are over a thousand pages to build this project and to and to conduct the work on top of the water on a crot industrial historic structure is very

complicated so we were very pleased with the interest um with the contractors and uh this um we're we're happy to have a uh a below what we were anticipating spending um it's kind of a surprise in this day and age so um I don't know this is a Greenways funded project this has been a high priority of the Greenways for many many years and um so we've set aside green waste fund uh for this project to construct it and I also have Gina here to ask answer any specific questions about the project um we will uh once this contract is awarded we'll be uh having more information on exactly when the construction will start and have a better idea of of when we can expect to have it open to the public but that will depend a little bit on those negotiations okay thank you very much is there any discussion from the committee members seeing none I'll take a motion oh I'm sorry council member Anderson thank you again I'm not on this committee but um just checking in and since it's over a million dollars this will be uh eligible for apprenticeship hours okay yes uh again this is Gina Austin your Park project engineer our specifications include apprenticeship requirements there's a a bit of a significant amount of electrical work that needs to be done it's probably going to be appropriate for apprenticeship and we'll get that plan from the contractor and monitor that throughout construction thank you that was going to be my clarifying question whether or not it was going to fall under electrical

CU I figured that was the higher part of the bid so thank you is there any further discussion from other council members seeing none Council need a motion so I'll go ahead and move approval okay it's been moved to accept the bid for the Reconstruction of the peer at little Squalicum Park any further discussion all in favor please say I I I all opposed motion has carried and that will be reported to our evening meeting as well seeing no further items on our agenda I will uh declare the meeting adjourned