By Dorli Mason and Amanda Clark

Island Forum

Friends of Luther Burbank Park (FOLBP) will host a “Candidates Forum” from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the Mercer Island Library. Former mayor and Mercer Island Citizen of the Year, Aubrey Davis, will moderate.

Three positions on the City Council are being contested: two positions are held by incumbents, and one is open. We hope that all six candidates will attend to answer park-related questions from citizens.

Several important issues confront the candidates this fall, and their ideas and the positions they propose to take on these issues need to be articulated and clearly understood.

The future of Luther Burbank Park is one of the most important issues facing the city. FOLBP plans to discuss with the candidates their views on preserving and maintaining the parks and open spaces on the Island. FOLBP, as an advocacy group, feels strongly that the candidates must present their views to the residents of Mercer Island who, in turn, must give their input to the candidates.

When FOLBP began in 1988, the emphasis was on maintaining a natural park, where everyone — families with children, birders, walkers and dog owners — could coexist. We planned the north marsh and wetlands and urged attention to erosion problems along the shorelines. At that time the park belonged to King County.

Today, Luther Burbank Park belongs to the citizens of Mercer Island. When the city was given the park, citizens supported it by approving a levy to maintain the park at its current level through 2009. When the city held “visioning” meetings in 2004-2005 to determine citizens’ ideas for the park, the majority in attendance wanted the park to remain the passive urban oasis it is today. However, the resulting guidelines seem to have been distilled through the filter of the paid consulting group rather than being the undiluted desires of the community. We voiced these concerns in letters to the City Council on March 16, on April 18 and again on July 5, 2005.

At the City Council meeting of Aug. 1, Parks Director Pete Mayer assured the council that the master planning would include citizen involvement, although how that would be implemented wasn’t revealed. And as he stated, “there might be some new elements suggested from the community, and that’s fine, as long as they fit in with the design guidelines.” He also stated that these guidelines were set through the community visioning process. FOLBP does not agree with that statement.

We are concerned that another round of workshops will lead to further managed and filtered “guidelines” for the City Council to make changes to the infrastructure of the park that do not reflect the wishes of the majority of citizens and which may lead to expensive, out-of-scale “improvements” that would destroy the character of the unspoiled natural oasis we now enjoy.

Now, in planning for the future, we see pressures to develop and commercialize Luther Burbank Park. Although assurances have been given that a marina and a restaurant will not be part of future plans, questions remain: Do we want a dawn-to-dusk park? Do we want to have lights and organized sports activities? Would emergency and service vehicles need access to the shoreline if the dock is “improved” as built-out, pay-for-play parks are a growing trend. Do we want to support such actions?

FOLBP supports keeping a dawn-to-dusk park, but we also support improvements to the park, especially environmental restoration, erosion control of the shoreline and wetland improvement efforts. We support a park that, as much as possible, can provide a natural haven on Mercer Island for current and future generations.

The Parks Department will present its scope of work for the Master Plan on Sept. 6 at the City Council meeting. Concerned citizens should attend and, if they feel that the character of the park will be drastically changed, they should voice their objections.

Please mark your calendar to attend the FOLBP Candidates Forum on Sept. 28 and hear what those running for office have in mind. If you have any questions, you can contact us at amandac5@comcast.net or dorlicm@oz.net.

Amanda Clark and Dorli Mason are residents of Mercer Island and members of Friends of Luther Burbank Park.