Maple Leaf Commuity Council seeks immediate feedback on park

The Maple Leaf Community Council sent an urgent email this morning about the Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.

Dear Neighbor —

We have been communicating with the Parks Department about the design process for portions of the Family Terrace – that section of the new Maple Leaf Park intended for kids. We need feedback from you and, unfortunately, we need it this weekend. Please feel free to forward this email to other parents you know who are interested in the park.

When the overall design for the new park at the Maple Leaf reservoir was created, there were multiple public meetings. The meetings held by the Parks Department were in the evenings, starting at 6 p.m. or later. There were two meetings to collect input prior to the first draft designs and two meetings for comments on the designs.

For the Family Terrace, Parks is planning a single pre-design meeting to happen between 4-6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18. Parks came up with this time of day to coincide with the hours of operation of the Kid’s Club after-school program at Olympic View Elementary. According to the Parks Department, parents of children in the Kid’s Club arrive around 5 p.m. to pick them up. Parks has stated they are excited about being able to get input from kids on the Family Terrace play area since it is intended for kid use. Anyone can attend the meeting from 4-6p.m..

This is the only meeting Parks is intending to hold prior to draft designs being generated.

We wholeheartedly agree with the idea of getting input from kids, but we are worried the planned time (4-6 p.m.) will make it difficult for some community members to attend. More importantly, we can’t be certain ideas for the Family Terrace proposed at prior meetings will be carried forward by the Parks Department.

We need your input on the meeting time. If you could, can you specifically answer these two questions in your reply:

1. Can you attend the Wednesday, May 18 meeting at 4-6 p.m. at Olympic View Elementary?

2. If you can’t, when would be the best day of the week and time of day for you (and your kids, if you have them) to attend a single meeting to provide input prior to draft designs?

Please send us your reply by 7 p.m. this Sunday (April 24). Email to: MLCC (at) MapleLeafCommunity.org