Open Space Conservancy Trust Update 5/18

At the Thursday, May 17th meeting of the Open Space Conservancy Trust, the board accepted the City's recommendation to take no action on CCMIP's request to place all our parks into the conservancy trust.

CCMIP’s request stemmed from numerous attempts by the Council to sell or develop our parks (among them: permitting a commercial marina in Luther Burbank Park, developing upper Luther Burbank Park for staff housing, placing the fire station in Mercerdale Park, placing city hall in Mercerdale Park, placing MICA in Mercerdale Park and paving Kite Hill for a surface lot for off-Island commuters).

Approximately 20 citizens attended the meeting and about 10 spoke-all in support of the request. The Board members were extraordinarily polite and sympathetic to the purpose of CCMIP's request, but just felt overseeing all the active parks was not possible. They felt creating some kind of trust or deed restriction to prevent the sale or development of our parks is an issue for the City Council.

CCMIP is reviewing options on how to pursue the idea of affording all parks greater protections.

Listen to the songs:  "Save Mercerdale Park" and "Preserven El Parque Mercerdale"

Watch a brief history of the Mercer Island Recycling Center: tinyurl.com/protectMIparks