Friends of Marymoor Park

February 25th, 2004 Meeting Summary

-- see also the January 2004 meeting summary

FOMP meeting, February 26, 2004:  Minutes prepared by W. Illi
Meeting was called to order by
Greg Helland, FOMP President, at 7PM.
Herb Bone and Bill Illi (members of the FOMP Board) were also present.
Every one at the meeting introduced themselves.

There were 3 members of the King County Parks Division present as well as representatives of various other groups and interests.  Sarah Koenig, a reporter for the Redmond Reporter, was also present and taking notes.

 The following is a list of the items covered as well as the comments made.

 1) Concert security.

     Norah Gaynor explained the problems that exist when people want to stay outside the concert fences in hopes to listen to the music. “For one thing, she said, there are not enough rest room facilities to handle the paying concert goers as well as to take care of those that just want to enjoy the events but do not have tickets.” “There has been a concern, however, raised by FOMP and others, that we have been closing off the childrens play area too early. An attempt will be made to see if we can hold off until one hour before the concert start time before we direct non ticket holders to leave. It may turn out that we will need a two hour cut off time prior to concert start. We will have to see.” The question still remains as to whether or not children playing in the play area and their attending parents would be asked to move at all during the concert. It may still be a problem if others in the immediate vicinity of the concert area feel they wouldn’t need to leave either.

 To the question asked, ”who provides security?” It is the promoter’s responsibility to provide it.

It was acknowledged that the situation improved last summer. Initially, the security personnel were requiring people to move from the children’s play area several hours before the concert began. As the season progressed, people were generally asked to move starting about two hours before the concert began.

Based on the discussion at the table, there was agreement that it would be reasonable to ask people to leave the play area one hour before the concert began. Also, signs needed to be posted warning people that they would be asked to leave before the actual concert started. The Parks staff indicated they would use this guidance during the upcoming negotiations with the Lakeside group.

The plan is to remove more of the fences around the concert ground after the conclusion of these years’ events. The Parks staff assured the group that planning, budgeting and timing for the fence removal would be improved this year.

 Sounds coming from the events that still affect the surrounding neighbors were discussed. More attempts will be made to better control them. The Parks division intends to retain the services of a sound specialist to evaluate the situation and provide recommendations. Options include engineered solutions, redistribution of the sound equipment and turning down the volume.

 2) Marymoor Capital Projects:    Presented by Kevin Brown, King County Parks

 Reader Board: Still in the works.  Plans are to have it turned off at park night closing once in operation; the board could be installed by late summer. There will be opportunities for public discussion.

The city of Redmond has already been shown the plans.

New Maintenance shop: At a stand still at present. The RC (Radio Controlled) air plane club people voiced concern regarding the closeness of the planned new building to the RC landing field. They were assured that it will be taken into consideration before any building takes place. Re-orienting the RC landing field, at the County’s expense, remains an option.

 3) Concert Stage: 

 The stage was initially permitted as a temporary unit. Now that the zoning has beem modified for the park, the process is underway to permit the stage as a permanent unit. There is a 5 year contract for the present concert series. 

 There needs to be a total Marymoor site plan presented so that the FOMP board and all interested parties can review it and make comments and suggestions.

4) Zoning changes:   

The Marymoor Park area was listed as R-1 Residential. The changes to the zoning ordinance that were passed in December 2003 by the council allow for certain types of things that will provide income for the park.  Part of the zoning change, based on input from FOMP, includes developing a list of criteria for reviewing potential revenue-generating activities in the park.  The Parks division has hired a planner to facilitate the creation of the criteria. The planner will attend the next FOMP meeting to begin the process. These would be carefully screened and presented for review before approval.

 5) Driving Range: 

The proposed golf driving range is on hold.  There have been some problems with the proposals that were received by the County. At this time it does not seem feasible to proceed on any plans that have been submitted.

 It should be noted that the plans for building the new rest rooms in the area near the bicycle track will be going forward. This should be a very welcome project.

6) Other business:

The pet memorial garden project is on hold for now.

 

The next meeting will be March 24, 2004.

These notes were made by the webmaster, Michael Hobbs, and they do not constitute an official record of the meeting.  They may have inaccuracies and omissions.  If anyone has any complaints about the content of these notes, they should direct them to Michael Hobbs at fomp@marymoor.org, and he will endeavor to correct them.

 

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