April 23, 2025 FOMP Meeting Summary

April 23, 2025 Meeting Summary

Welcome and Introductions: Justin Camputaro, Marymoor Park Administrator; Warren Jimenez, King County Parks Director; Heidi Kandathil, King County Project/Program Manager; Greg Helland, FOMP President; Michael Hobbs, Marymoor Bird Survey, FOMP Secretary; Glenn Eades, Eastside Audubon Bird Loop, neighbor; Shai Hinitz, MAR/C; Online: Kevin Killeen, King County Levy Oversight Board; Angie Heyer, Seattle Event Solutions (Concerts, Clise);

King County Parks and Marymoor Park Update - Warren and Heidi:

Parks Levy:

Last week, KC Council approved the Parks Levy for the August 5th ballot. 5th Parks Levy, dating back to the General Fund crisis back in the early 2000’s. Parks began, a year ago, to do Community Outreach to get feedback on needs and desires. Two surveys were done, a broad audience one and a targeted one for user group members. They also did some focus groups for people who have not been active parks users, to see what might bring them into the parks system. This information was fed to the committee to define the parks levy contents. City partners also played a role in shaping the levy, and the KC Executive also had input. This semi-finalized levy proposal and the Executive’s proposal went to the KC County and their committee to refine it further. Finally, the KC Council in full negotiated the final details of what will be sent to the ballot. They had a May 2nd deadline to get the levy on the August ballot.

Parks Levies have traditionally been on the August ballot, as well as other county levies. They have had past success with that timing. This year, it will be the only County levy on that August ballot. A simple majority of votes is all that is required to pass this levy.

As for what was referred to the ballot, it is a 23.29 cent per thousand dollar assessed value measure, which means for a KC mean house value, it will be $16 and change per month for 6 years ($196.67/year)
This should generate about $1.45 Billion over the six years.

See https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/dnrp/about-king-county/about-dnrp/newsroom/2025-news-releases/02-11-parks-levy for fuller details, but here are some highlights.

The itemized details include: Investments in aquatic facilities, ball fields and sports fields, Grants to local governments, Regional and other public trails, Active recreation and repair.

•    Aquatic Facilities money would be $22 million for the Federal Way aquatic facilities, with additional money for Aquatic Capital Grants
•    Ball fields etc. gets a chunk for upgrades and maintenance.
•    Grant and community partnerships – continuation of the partnerships that already exist. This also goes for the zoo, the aquarium, the Pacific Science Center, Waterfront Park, and one more. Also $119 million in pass-through funding that go to cities, towns, and park districts for their parks and recreation needs.
•    Maintenance, Youth Conservation Corps, Jobs and Housing program, tribal and indigenous program.
•    Climate: Fish passage improvements, Conservation Futures matching funding, new climate resiliency program
•    Regional Trails – 182 million for East Trail (Woodinville – Kirkland – Bellevue –Renton: old railroad to Irail. Also another trail Renton to Seatac, another one, Soos Creek, etc. Also some local trails.
•    New Park Development and Improvements: A bunch for a new park Lakeland Park North down in the Auburn area. Several other smaller projects in various areas.
•    Maintenance: Paving, ADA accessibility, park rehab, playground rehabs, Marymoor Park investments. $16 million within Marymoor would include concert venue access. Marymoor will probably get additional money from Real Estate Excise Tax. Signage, utilities, velodrome rehab(?) – stuff that came out of the recent Marymoor Park plan.

There was additional discussion about Cricket (see Update J below), as well as things like cut-through traffic. We were informed that Marymoor now has traffic counters at each entrance plus at pedestrian/bicycle counts at both ends of the Marymoor Connector Trail, and where the Transit Center path enters the park. So they will have ongoing hour-by-hour counts available for evaluation.

CIP/Project/Facility Updates:

a.   Eastside Audubon Birdloop: – They are now piecemeal cutting the old hawthorns, laying cardboard and wood chips around the stumps. Parks is injecting the stumps to try to kill the roots to prevent resprouting. There is a meeting with the relevant parks people on Friday to meet with EAS. 36 people showed up for their April work party, including several Scouts.

b.   Marymoor Community Gardens: – May 1 is official start of gardening deadline and the start of the food bank plots.

c.   R/C Field (MAR/C): – Great April even Cubs and Cousins (Cubs are a kind of airplane). Good turnout, good time. New structures are complete and painted and finished. Update the Frequency Shed with roof repairs and paint. Container has been moved out of the way and hidden from view. Still need to move the dumpster, to increase the views. Training program starts Tuesday, May 5th, and many of from their youth program will be taking part.   The airfield has been granted additional height of 700 feet instead of 400 feet. MAR/C is well aware to avoid conflict with full-size float planes landing on the lake. Shai also mentioned that there was a big conflict on March 30th with many members attending but MAPS parking was happening in their parking lot. The board of directors of MAR/C has been discussing safety, and they are wondering if they should have a defibrillator on-site.   Justin mentioned that KC has defibs at (probably) both maintenance facilities. Justin also pointed out that their may be requirements that there be “enough” people who are qualified to use the machines (may not be relevant).

d.   Off-leash area (SODA): – Greg asked about the culvert.

e.   Cascade Music Collective and Seattle Event Solutions (Concert venue): – Fence and pods and all are being installed. First concert is May 27th. 23 concerts, last being September 18th. Angie says that Parks will not be using their tent at concerts, so she asked if various user groups might want to use the tent for public outreach. Ask Angie about it. Greg asked about Cirque. Angie mentioned that it was cold and rainy, and the bathrooms were outside. Very hard on the attendees.

f.    Maintenance: – All seasonal staff started a week ago. Added ~15 additional staff. Painting various places is near the top of their priority list. All of the ballfields are in full active use, so that also takes up a lot of their time.

g.   Velodrome: - : Friday Night races start May 2nd. Scope analysis of the track to determining any needs for repairs or redesign.

h.    Event Update: – Justin showed us a calendar.   23 concerts are pretty much locked in, with 17 already announced. Likely to hit the 25 mark for concerts. Scheduling of other events (movies, some cultural events, etc.) will be scheduled once the concert calendar is finalized in mid-May.

i.    Concessionaires Updates: – Two new ones starting: Dog Hair Don’t Care coffee shop will be next to their trailer. Opening target June 1. The Marymoor Snack Shack is delayed due to permitting. No timeline, but fairly soon. This is in the building that houses the restrooms in Lot K next to the tennis courts.

j.    Cricket Facility Proposal: – Parks has been focusing on the levy, and this has shelved the cricket proposal temporarily. They will now be discussing a multi-purpose venue, and evaluating the public benefits aspects of any proposal. Also, analysis of capital investment vs. ongoing operational costs.

k.    Sound Transit - Grand Opening May 10th. Big show planned. Gateway Trail will be open May 10th, but the plaza will not be complete in time, but a paved detour will be in place. Full plaza will be done by end of June. Phase 2 will include the new water main for Marymoor.

Other Business: Greg has filed the necessary reports with state and the feds.

Next meeting Wednesday, May 28rd, 2025 in Clise Mansion

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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.