Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan 2014 Update

With a plan to fix parks in the works, residents of Alabama Hill wish to see improvements made to overgrown vegetation at parks, trail signage, and trail safety.

The 2014 draft of the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan for the City of Bellingham is currently being reviewed by the Planning Commission after nine months of preparation, Leslie Bryson, City of Bellingham’s Parks and Recreation Department’s Design and Development Planner, said.

Funding for this project overall is expected to cost around $93 million in 2013 money if all of the recommended changes were implemented, according to city data.

One of the recent issues that residents of Alabama Hill wish to see addressed is the vegetation in the parking area of Highland Heights Park, according to Diane Bates.

After the playground remodel of the park in 2010, the vegetation by the parking lot began to grow out of control and has now made it unsafe to drop children off at the park, according to Bates.

The vegetation is out to the curb, so now people have to park at the beginning or the end of the street in order to safely drop off their children since the passenger door is blocked by the vegetation, Bates said.

As to why this problem is still continuing, Dean Haskins, Chairman of the Alabama Hill Neighborhood Association, says “I don’t think it’s maintenance; it’s a design flaw.”

The growing vegetation also plays an unsafe role since parents can’t see through it when approaching the park through the parking area, according to Haskins.

Attempts have been made to fix the vegetation issue in order to make the parking area safe, but the city has only trimmed the vegetation slightly, according to Bates.

“You can trim them down, but they’re still there,” Bates said.

Another issue that residents of Alabama Hill would like to see improvements made on is on the Railroad trails, according to Richard Maneval, Volunteer Assistant Coordinator National Night Out at Bloedel Donovan Park.

While the trails are plentiful in Alabama Hill, residents would like to see an improvement of signage on the trails, Maneval, who is involved with the actions in Parks and Rec, said.

“I walk on the trails and I’m seeing people get lost,” Maneval said. “I met a mayor from a French city. He and his wife got lost but they were enjoying themselves.”

Forty-five percent of Bellingham residents regularly use the trails around the city, according to city data.

One of the goals of improving the trails is to ensure the safety of the residents who use them, according to city data.

Another issue residents would like to see fixed on the trails would be the drainage that saturates the dirt trails and the invasive species growing on the trails, according to Maneval.

The vegetation has been growing a lot recently, and a lot of invasive species, such as Himalayan Blackberries, are growing more prominent, Maneval said.

While no specific plan has been made by the neighborhood on how to address this issue, Maneval and other Alabama Hill residents would like to see them removed.

Another issue that residents would like addressed about the trails would be the trash that is becoming more prominent as of recently, according to Jeff Braimes, a resident of Alabama Hill.

People who walk their dogs scoop up the fecal matter and put it into dog bags. However, instead of throwing them away, the owners leave them on the ground thinking that they’ll pick it up on their way back, Maneval said.

Currently, the majority of the maintenance being performed is the clean up being done by Bellingham residents who are regular users of the trails, according to Maneval.

One of the ideas being explored in the parks plan is to have designated trails for dogs to be off of their leashes, according to city data.

Forty-eight percent of Bellingham residents are strongly for initiating this plan on the trails, according to city data.

The general safety of the trails is also questionable at times when it gets dark out and people are walking on the trails by themselves, according to Maneval.

While some feel that the trails can be dangerous to walk alone at times, others feel differently about the issue of safety.

“The trails used to be a lot more primitive so it’s kind of a luxury to have them as they are now,” Haskins said, adding later that he would like to see the money spent on other improvement projects.

If the city would even fund to have a few more strategically placed trash cans on the trails, then that would make a difference in the amount of trash being left behind, Braimes said.

The first official draft of the parks plan with the official mission statement of, “Support a healthy community by promoting high quality parks and recreation services,” was completed and submitted to the official City of Bellingham website on Oct. 25 2013, according to city data.

Once the Planning Commission wraps up their review of the draft, their comments will be passed onto City Council, who will then begin viewing the draft in January of 2014, according to Bryson.

Neighborhood parks within the city limits are a target on the parks plan, and the City’s goal for these parks is to create equal access for all residents to be able to use it, according to city data.

One option currently being explored in the draft is supplying a sufficient amount of trash cans to the trails, according to city data.

Neighborhood parks would account for $10 million being spent while open space and trail construction and improvement would total $58 million, according to city data.

The funding for the parks plan comes from many different pots, such as the general fund (which consists of taxes, fees, permits, etc.), special revenues, and debt service funds, according to city data.

The city is also drawing from its ability to receive $1 million annually for five years in grants from Washington Recreation and Conservation Office grant programs, federal Transport and Enhancement grants, and Department of Ecology grants, according to city data.

While the plan may have many recommendations on how to improve parks, trails, and open space, not all of the changes being listed will neither be made nor funded, according to city data.

“Approval of the plan is not approval for funding of any projects. Council approves a capital improvement plan each year as part of the budget and only those project included in the budget have authority to proceed,” Bryson said.

The parks plan was last updated in 2008, according to city data.

The 2014 parks plan draft began in February 2013 and is updated every six years in order to allow the City to keep receiving funding from Wildlife and Recreation Program, according to city data.