August 22, 2024 Meeting Summary
-- see also the June 26, 2024 meeting summary
- Welcome and Introductions:
Greg Helland, FOMP President; Chris Jordan, Marymoor Park Administration, King County Parks; Laura Hall, Marymoor Community Gardens, FOMP Board; Shai Hinitz, MAR/C; Glenn Eades, Eastside Audubon Bird Loop, neighbor; Michael Hobbs, Marymoor Bird Survey, FOMP Secretary; Soma Somasegar, Seattle Orcas cricket; Sanjay Parthasarathy, Seattle Orcas cricket; Lynsey Burgess, Seattle Orcas cricket; Warren Jimenez, KC DNRP Director; Lindsey Miller, DNRP CIP; Kevin Killeen, King County Levy Oversight Board; Andy Baker, Marymoor Velodrome Association; Marian Kee, neighbor
Online: Angie Heyer, Seattle Event Solutions (Concerts, Clise); David Thompson, park user, Brian Kelley, MAR/C; and Sophia, park user
- Cricket Facility Proposal Discussion:
Warren: Project first proposed in 2022. KC Council passed an ordinance conceptually supporting professional cricket field. KC and City of Bellevue share ownership of the desired location inside Marymoor Park, which is a challenge. Parks has independently wanted to acquire the Bellevue ballfield space. Acquisition has not been accomplished, but talks could restart at some point.
Seattle Orcas would like to place a professional cricket field within Marymoor. Sites other than the Bellevue ballfields are being considered.
Cricket recreational demand is great.
Sanjay: He is local in the community since 1990. Cricket has a really long history in the US, going back to the Revolution. Many years later, professional cricket is now started with 5 teams (3 east coast, 2 west coast). They want to have 5 home games per team. The professional league season is currently a 3 week long season. Games are 3-3.5 hours. Played in Texas and Morisville last season.
There have been King County teams for decades. Over 40% of Redmond and over 25% of Bellevue have heritage from countries where cricket is the most popular sport. Lots of interest locally. Over 300 teams and 5000 active players. Seattle youth teams dominate US national cricket. Both boys and girls.
The interest level here justifies a professional team. FLICK – Fans, love, inclusive, compete, keep-it-fun
Cricket Community Park: Conceptional images show an ovoid stadium with grassy berms on the outside, but with indeterminate height.
Greg: FOMP first question: How much of the cricket park is available to regular park users? Answer: The cricket season is short, so up to 10 months a year, the cricket park would be available for other uses. For example, quite a few youth soccer fields could be overlaid on the grounds.
Laura: How large is the cricket park? Answer: The grass area is an oval, perhaps 50x70 meters. This comes out to maybe 4-5 acres. So it should be about the size of the Event Pad. It should fit onto the Bellevue ballfields area.
So why should a professional cricket ground be within Marymoor Park, as opposed to them developing a stadium on private property like the Kracken, the Seahawks, the Mariners, the Sounders, and the probable return of the Sonics?
Warren: Besides supporting the Seattle-area cricket community, the facility could be a revenue-generating upgrade to the facilities at Marymoor. With Light Rail coming, Parks is looking to have a park that can host a wider variety of uses, and this facility could host a wider variety of events than Marymoor can currently host.
Orcas are proposing to develop this facility that could become an asset to KC Parks.
Why Marymoor? Location and access top the list.
Brian Kelley: What about parking? What about traffic? Brian brought up that the Festival of Color a couple of years ago completely shut down the park. Cricket, unlike concerts and movies, would be a day-time event, so “ordinary” park users could be shut out of the park if these issues can’t be managed.
Answer: Warren noted that all of this will have to be evaluated, with full due diligence, before anything could be approved. Sound Transit could be key to avoiding gridlock.
Angie: Notes that the “cricket season” and the concert season significantly overlap. So how would coordination with Clise concerts work? Answer: Soma responded that the cricket season will be June-July, probably not extending into August, and the cricket schedule would be locked in during the previous autumn.
Sonya: Worried that as popularity grows, usage could grow at Marymoor, or be constrained by other uses at Marymoor. She questioned whether Marymoor was the best location to allow for growth.
Marianne: Complained about the existing concert impact, and raised a concerned about more concerts and more events. She worries about the quality of life for neighbors.
Shai: Where are we in the process? We get news articles that make it seem like shovels are about to be digging, but Parks has been putting us off, saying nothing is actually happening? Answer: Warren: Hoped For, and Reality, are quite far apart here. There are still significant questions of feasibility. The target is for preliminary assessment to continue through 2024, with more details coming by 2024. Concepts are being thrown around.
Greg: How does a professional cricket field provide public benefit? Shai: I.e. how much pre-season and post-season care is needed for the field? Does it preclude public use for effectively the entire summer?
Brian: Despite the uncertainty regarding all of issues that could arise, are the Orcas considering other locations in the county?
FOMP generally expressed a significant concern that this facility may well not benefit general park users. The park is already over-used. Facilities here have a tendency to become restricted use, closed to general use. Also, these significant events also already cause too much traffic and result in too much of the park being used for parking.
Answers to these latter questions were very vague. In fact, all of the answers to questions were very vague for a project that has supposedly been in the works for two years. The drawings they showed were all very conceptual with no dimensions.
- CIP/Project/Facility Updates:
a. Eastside Audubon Birdloop: – No work session in July; August they may begin working on the hawthorns in the meadow.
b. Marymoor Community Gardens: – Going like gangbusters. Laura did not have numbers regarding the amount of food delivered to the Food Bank
c. R/C Field (MAR/C): Transitioned to a new website (same URL). Summer training program ongoing, with about 50 students a week. Adding an event in August: King of Throwdown – fantastic maneuvers. Late August. Construction project is wrapping up, with ribbon cutting in August???
d. Off-leash area (SODA): – Very busy, removing foxtail. Still running into people people feeding wildlife in the park. Michael expressed concern about riparian areas being covered in hogs fuel, and about the use of gravel in scattered locations including off of trails, as both of these suppress regrowth of the plants. More generally, he raised concerns that SODA works hard and with very good intent, but with very little in the way of guidelines or rules, despite working in wetlands and wetland buffers.
e. Cascade Music Collective and Seattle Event Solutions (Concert venue):
- Angie conceded they had too many concerts packed too tightly together in July. They are trying to remember not to schedule a July like that again. August is a little more spread out; the concert season is already half-over in terms of number of concerts. Their contract is for 15-25 concerts, but many other venues are coming on-line was postponed (by the band) to July.
- They now have a general store with items like sunscreen and popcorn etc.
- They are planning to have shuttle service once Light Rail comes to Marymoor
f. Velodrome: Biggest event (Grand Prix) last week, involved cyclists from many states and several country. August 1-4th, hosting the youth 7-18 national championships! Quite probably some of the kids for those championships might be in the 2028 Olympics
g. Maintenance: Light replacement for Fields 1-4 soon. Gravel work on Lots D, G, pea patch lot, maybe RC lot. Pea Patch did ask for leaves once leaf season begins.
h. Event Update: Movies going great. Barbie and Shrek should be very big. August 17 – Chomp.
i. Sound Transit Light Rail: Gateway project looking like 1st quarter 2025. Tree replanting (for those that already died) will occur in Fall. Storm water rain garden probably in 2025.
j. Capital Site Planning: Will be the main topic at the August FOMP meeting.
Next meeting MONDAY, August 28th, 2024
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These notes 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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