Portland Parks & Recreation - Spring / Summer 2015
SW Neighborhoods Parks and Community Centers Committee By Leonard Gard, Program Manager, SWNI 2014 parks replacement bond You’ve probably all heard that voters in November approved the parks replacement bond. The money mainly goes to urgent repair projects. Southwest Portland will have two projects on the first project list. At Multnomah Arts Center, the project will address ADA deficiencies at the entrances and restrooms of the cottages, and make structural and seismic repairs to the main building. At Rieke field, workers will renovate the existing synthetic playing field by removing the turf, addressing geotechnical issues, improving drainage systems, and installing a new synthetic field, curbing, walkway and furnishings. The bond provides $68 million for projects, and $35 to $49 million is allocated to projects on that first project list. In mid-2015, Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) will refine the costs for those projects. At Couch Park, a Portland loo will replace a built restroom, and the playground removed for structural safety reasons last year will be replaced as well. Other projects in Northwest Portland include replacement of the Maple Trail bridge in Forest Park, repair of two bridges in Macleay Park, significant upgrades to the playground in the North Park Blocks and major ADA improvements in the Washington Park Rose Garden. In late 2015, PP&R will release a draft list for new projects based on criteria that will allocate the remaining money not earmarked for the first project list. The Parks Bureau’s Budget Advisory Committee will review the list in mid-2016 and will make a recommendation to Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who will make the final decision.
SWNI PARKS COMMITTEE WORK
All of the SW Neighborhoods committees have been closely following the process by which the city is writing a new comprehensive plan. Oregon law requires all cities and counties to have comprehensive plans to address growth and development. The new plan will include goals and policies; a project list; a map that designates places for growth, development, and conservation; and a transportation system plan. Chapter 8 of the plan lists parks & recreation goals and policies. Other parks-related issues like city greenways and urban habitat corridors are in other chapters.
The committee is very engaged in possible recommendations to this planning effort. One committee member called for establishing standards for infrastructure that all parks should have, making sure that that all people have good access to parks, setting directions on how to expand the park system as the population grows, and taking annual measurements to track progress. Committee members also brought up these other ideas for further discussion: • Creating a list of uses incompatible in parks.
• Establishing rules and policies on surplus property, and considering all surplus property for re-zoning as open space.
• Avoiding contact of treated wood with water. • Tax incentives for trail building. • Development of emergency routes. • Maintaining a GIS map and ground-truthing it. • Limiting user fees in parks. • Prohibiting memorial benches that include personal messages. The committee has not fully discussed these ideas or made recommendations yet. They also discussed whether there should be policies on issues like safety, friends groups, and limits on the height of buildings adjacent to parks—to allow more sunlight into parks. The committee will be discussing these and other issues, to make their final recommendations to the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, which are due in March of 2015.
4 Westside Parks
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