What amenities would islanders like to see? An advisory group will find out.
With Winslow as their backdrop, two geese volleyed courteous honks into the Thursday morning sunshine.
Leaves rustled. A stroller, en route to the beach, crunched along a gravel path.
If one didn’t know any better, said Bainbridge Park District Senior Planner Perry Barrett as he surveyed the scene, one might think it was business as usual at Pritchard Park.
“There’s a lot going on here,” Barrett said, “even if you didn’t understand that there’s a cleanup happening at one end and a memorial being built at the other.”
The park, on the south-shore of Eagle Harbor, is 50 acres of varied history and terrain. At its western edge is the Japanese Internment Memorial, taking shape near the spot where 227 islanders of Japanese descent were sent into exile during World War II. To the east, behind razor wire and a fence, sits a mysterious looking collection of tanks and machinery used to clean up pollution from a creosote plant that once occupied the site. In between lie stretches of beach and a thickly wooded hillside filled with informal trails and upland views of the water.
“Now we need to integrate all these pieces into a whole,” Barrett said of the land, purchased in phases and jointly owned by the city and park district.
Though the specifics of that whole aren’t yet decided, they will gain clarity in the months ahead now that graduate students and doctoral candidates at the University of Washington have begun a cross-departmental effort to map a vision for the park’s future.
This is the second time a team from the UW has undertaken the task. A landscaping team in 2002 brainstormed possible uses for the park, which at that time had been recommended for purchase but still wasn’t park land. Since then, Barrett said, the purchase has been completed and the scope of restoration efforts at the eight-acre creosote plant – designated as a Superfund site by the federal government – has become clearer.
The new plans will include architecture, urban design and landscape elements and won’t be based on the earlier work. The team will present some rough ideas in May, and a preferred alternative in the fall following a series of public meetings.
Once a plan is agreed on, fundraising efforts would begin. Construction could begin almost immediately in some areas of the park, Barrett said, as long as certain rules are followed.
Along with considering the environment, history and physical landscape, the team must also take into account the park’s several stakeholders.
They must heed the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Ecology as they continue cleanup work at the creosote plant and restoration efforts along the adjacent shoreline. Grant requirements, both state and federal, also must be adhered to. The Memorial Committee will have its say, as will the city.
Additional input will come via a new advisory committee, for which the park district is now seeking applicants. Chosen volunteers will work with standing committee representatives, the public and elected officials to provide guidance to the consultant. Barrett said the committee will likely consist of 10 people and will meet for the first time later this month, with work running through October.
Options at the property are aplenty. As the memorial attests, the land is steeped in history. That includes the mostly forgotten town of Creosote, once situated on the hill nearby, which could be recognized in the project.
For recreation there could be new trails and canoe or kayak access. A great deal of the land remains unmolested, including portions across Eagle Harbor Drive.
“You walk off the beach and it’s a very different environment from where you were just a few hundred feet before,” Barrett said, standing atop the ridge and studying the feud between a cedar tree and some “old growth” ivy. “These are some great views.”
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Plan a park
The park district is seeking volunteers to serve on the advisory committee for planning efforts at Pritchard Park. Interested applicants should send a letter outlining his or her skills and perspectives on the project. Work will begin this month and will run into October, and will include some Friday sessions, evenings and weekends. Send letters to perry@biparks.org or standard mail to P.O. Box 10010.
