Protect Mercer Island Parks

 Appearance Statement July 7, 2020 Mercer Island City Council Meeting

[delivered to City Council on July 14, 2020 due to technical challenges on July 7, 2020]

Meg Lippert

Mercer Island

• I am speaking as an individual citizen.

• I am not speaking as a representative or a member of any organization or group.

• The views I will express are my own.

• You voted at your last meeting to allocate $50,000 to design a Recycling Center remodel that would not extend beyond the current roofline.

  I am concerned about the protection and preservation of public parkland, specifically Mercerdale Park, including the Native Garden.

  Please respond to the following questions, that are focused on the protection of public parkland for the public good:

  1. What guarantees have you put into place to prevent further encroachment into Mercerdale Park once the Recycling Center porch area is enclosed?

  2. How will you ensure that staging for the construction will not encroach on Mercerdale Park or the Native Garden?

  3. How will you ensure that the Native Plant Garden will be protected from damage during construction?

• 4. At this point, one trailer is on site to receive goods that will be resold in bulk but that are not accepted for sale at the Thrift Store. Will the proposed remodel eliminate the need for this trailer, which is an eyesore in our park, or will this and additional trailers and/or storage containers be added to the site, which will not only be an eyesore but will attract vermin?

  5. Have you thought about how goods will be transported from the Recycling Center to the Thrift Shop? If staff will be trundling

• goods in wagons and/or shopping carts and/or wheeled pallets between the venues on pedestrian paths used by park patrons, what would prevent the City Council voting to widen the paths, thus decreasing green space?

• My BIGGEST concern is that our City Council should be PROTECTING our Parks. I think that BEFORE this project is approved, the City Council should enact legislation to assure citizens that NO ADDITIONAL PROJECTS will be built in the park, and that enclosing the porch area of the Recycling Center will NOT lead to its further expansion into the park. Citizens need to be assured that this is NOT just the first step to build other projects in the park.

• Finally, citizens need assurance that current public street parking on the south side of 32nd Street currently used by Mercerdale Park visitors will not be coopted for Thrift Shop drop-offs and reconfiguredat a loss to our community for users of Mercerdale Park.

  Inconceivable as this seems, remember that in the past the spaces bordering the northern edge of Mercerdale Park were planned for use by MICA as handicapped parking slots for their patrons.