Good late afternoonslash evening.

Welcome to the Parks and Built Environment Council Committee meeting today is May 13th, 2026.

It is 5 p.m.

and we are here in the Everett City Council Chambers.

Today we have one agenda item, a very important and exciting event or agenda item uh parks capital improvement update.

So we have been visiting, revisiting this yearly uh to uh keep a good pulse on what uh parks uh improvements we've been seeing over the year and then what's coming down the pike so the neighbors and neighborhoods are aware of uh if their local parks on the list and if so, when uh they can expect changes and whatnot.

So we have Kimberly from our parks department uh to take walk us through uh all the hard work they've been up to lately and uh projects and accomplishments that they've had recently and um what we can expect for uh the next year or so.

Yeah, absolutely.

So if you don't mind uh giving your full title and everything for the record, that'd be great.

Yeah.

Kimberly Moore, Parks and Facilities Director.

Thanks for having me here tonight.

I appreciate it.

Uh I've got a list of items here uh that I've provided uh for council uh to look through.

Uh I'll run through this list, and of course, I'm happy to answer any questions and uh if there's any agenda topics that we want to discuss at the end, uh feel free to bring that up.

Uh we've been doing some playground replacements uh per usual, just as a reminder for council, we try to replace playgrounds every 15 years.

Uh we've been doing really good about catching up uh because we've been replacing playgrounds that are like 22, 20 years old.

Uh, but our plan is to hopefully continue to replace those uh on a 15 year cycle.

Uh we just finished Lowell Park Playground, uh, which is open to the public now, and we're have a grand opening planned for uh May 26th at 4 p.m.

Uh, so we're pretty excited about that.

Uh these are just in alphabetical order from here on out.

Uh so that's that's the way the order is set up.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the Clark Park gazebo.

Uh council will see a few agenda items on tonight.

And I know Jennifer has some updates uh that she plans to give the entire council.

Uh, but I wanted to talk specifically about our future plans for the gazebo versus what is going to be on your council agenda item tonight.

Um just so you know, we we have been making some progress uh in discussions for how to honor the Clark Park gazebo uh that was removed from Clark Park uh in 2025.

Uh after taking the gazebo apart, uh we've stored it out at Legion.

Uh the pieces that were taken apart are in very bad shape.

Uh a lot of the poles uh are have wrought in the bottom of them.

Uh meant the railing is metal.

It definitely was not original to the design.

Uh and so uh based on kind of the condition of all of the items and the fact that we don't believe they're historical uh except for potentially the ceiling section, which was underneath and protected a little bit more.

That's the only thing that tested positive for lead-based paints, and so we believe it might be original to the structure.

So we're in talks about uh how we might honor that either by using it uh in the new gazebo or making some sort of interpretive uh item out of that later after it's been abated.

Uh, but we believe that the next best step and the most cost cost effective step would be to replicate the gazebo, do a faithful uh reconstruction of what that gazebo looked like when it was built in the 1920s.

Please keep in mind that the uh codes have changed.

So, like the railing, we would have to, we want it to look similar, but it has to be certain distance apart now.

Uh uh, but we think we can make a really faithful replica.

And we are proposing to put that out at Harborview Park.

Uh, so we met with the uh Harborview Seahurst Glenhaven neighborhood uh in March.

And there were about 12 to 15 people at that meeting, and they were all very positive about having a gazebo at Harborview Park.

They recognized that it would likely be uh something that we would use for weddings.

It could be a really nice venue.

Uh, they thought it would add to the view, not take away from.

Uh, so then we also presented that information at Park Board.

Uh, Councilmember Burbana was there as well.

Uh we we re receive mixed reviews from the park board, if I'm being honest.

Uh, some were concerned that we would potentially uh create the same problems that we had at Clark Park at Harborview by bringing this gazebo there.

Parks does not believe that actually will be the case.

We have gazebos at Drew Nielsen Park and at the Arboretum that we don't have any problems with.

So uh we do think that we would not have a lot of uh negative activity necessarily in this gazebo.

Uh, the other uh concerns that I've heard from park board members is that they don't believe that this is a priority for parks capital improvement spending.

Uh they think we have other more important things that we need to take care of in our parks.

So I just wanted to pass that feedback along.

Um I've also been in touch with Andrea Tucker and the Historic Everett uh group to just let them know where we're at and how we're progressing.

Uh and then our next step is to go to the Historical Commission, which is also on May 26th uh in the evening.

So we will present this concept uh and get their feedback.

Uh and then if we receive positive feedback from the historical commission, then our next plan is to uh potentially take it back to maybe the Boulevard Bluffs neighborhood, which is close to Harborview Park, as well as the people who live directly across the street from Harborview, because none of them were in attendance at that meeting that we attended.

So we think some direct outreach just to make sure everybody's on board with this.