Kenmore’s Northshore Summit Park receives grant for redevelopment

Published 11:33 am Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The city of Kenmore is moving forward with plans to redevelop Northshore Summit Park and finished accepting bids on Thursday for the construction work.

But the plan also got a boost from a familiar organization, as nonprofit KaBOOM!, along with Dr Pepper Snapple Group have awarded the city $20,000 through a Let’s Play City Construction Grant. City officials said the money will go towards building the new playground at the Northshore Summit Park site.

“We are thrilled to make Kenmore an even better place to live and play by using this grant to help fund the development of our first neighborhood park since we incorporated as a city,” said Kenmore Mayor David Baker. “The city is dedicated to providing opportunities for play and is proud to be recognized as a Playful City USA community four years in a row.”

The city council unanimously voted in July to increase the budget for the project from $190,000 to $659,000. Northshore Summit Park is a 3.6 acre undeveloped park in the northeast corner of Kenmore.

“It is a more realistic cost for the project,” said city of Kenmore Parks Project Manager Marc Connelly. “We heard concerns from the community that they wanted the entire park done, not just the play area.”

Community meetings and workshops held during the past six years resulted in a reconfigured master plan.

The project hit some snags, though, when some of the park was deemed a wetland. The work on the park will include drainage and storm drainage relocation, along with clearing, grubbing and grading, site preparation, pathways, trails, fencing, landscaping, woodland restoration and the new playground.

Landscaping includes wetland and wetland buffer plantings, improvements to the open lawn areas for informal play and plantings to improve the landscape buffer on the western park boundary. The plan also includes park entry improvements, site furniture and signage.

Some neighbors have voiced concerns about where the play area would be located.

“It’s about one-third of the way into the park,” said Connelly. “Once the wetland was identified it precluded the playground be placed [at the main, south entrance to the park].”

The majority of the park is a downward sloping hill going north. Another reason for the placement of the play area is to preserve the flat space for other types of recreation.

“It just shifted it a little further down into the park,” said Connelly. “The height of the playground was also a concern for some residents. There were some who didn’t want to see the greenbelt changed and some who didn’t want to see the playground equipment.”

The playground area will be approximately 1,900 square feet containing both “natural-looking” and traditional play equipment. Children ages 2-12 years of age will be able to use the playground.

The city has given any construction company awarded the project 45 days, depending on weather, to complete the work and hopes the park will open later this winter or next spring.

The city council could give the go-ahead to the city manager to select the bidder during the council meeting on Monday as long as the bid is within the budget.

The grant for the playground equipment will help in financing the project and Connelly said that the money will essentially “reimburse that portion of the money that was allocated” for the playground equipment.

Kenmore applied for 2012 Playful City USA recognition and also submitted a Let’s Play grant application and was selected to receive a Let’s Play City Construction Grant among the 217 communities that earned Playful City USA status in 2013.

The grant is part of Let’s Play, a community partnership led by Dr Pepper Snapple Group to get kids and families active nationwide. In 2011, as part of Let’s Play, Dr  Pepper Snapple Group made a $15 million, three-year commitment to KaBOOM!, the national nonprofit saving play by ensuring there is a great place to play within walking distance of every child. Together through Let’s Play, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and KaBOOM! will build or fix up 2,000 playgrounds by the end of 2013, benefiting an estimated five million children across North America.

This is an artist’s rendering of what the play area at Northshore Summit Park could look like when completed.

This map shows the layout of a redeveloped Northshore Summit Park.