On Thursday, April 8 from 7 to 9 p.m. FOLKpark will hold the third and final community meeting at Bayview Manor, located at 11 W. Aloha St., where they will present the final concept design for the redevelopment of Lower Kinnear Park by HBB Landscape Architecture based on community input from the first two meetings.
According to FOLKpark, the final concept design “coalesced around six major themes” expressed at the first two community meetings:
- Activate the park with improved trails to increase accessibility for all and expand ADA accessible areas of the park while opening sight-lines to increase sense of personal safety;
- Leverage supplemental funding through the Green Spaces Levy for an off leash dog park;
- Respect the park’s historical significance and uses by creating gathering spaces, viewpoints and restoring the tennis court;
- Restore the natural environment by removal of invasive plants and addressing issues of drainage and re-vegetation of a dying/changing forest, building a forest for the next 50-100 years;
- Enhance the entrances with a common identifying feature/planting and signage to attract visitors; and,
- Provide a connection to other trails in the Seattle Parks system and to the waterfront by expanding the trail system to the Helix Bridge and at the same time remove pedestrian and biking traffic from crowded streets.
If you’d like to sneak a peak at the final design before the meeting, take a look at the enhancement plan (.pdf). FOLKpark also encourages those interested in the redevelopment of Lower Kinnear Park to pass out meeting announcement fliers (here and here) to friends and neighbors in Queen Anne.