Camas moves on Crown Park improvements

A lot has happened since Camas officials approved a master plan for the city's historic Crown Park in November 2018. In the three years since the master plan's unveiling, the city has weathered not only a two-year global pandemic but also public outcry over the 2019 demolition of the historic Crown Park swimming pool; a 90-10 vote against the city's community-aquatics center bond proposal; the election - and then unexpected resignation - of a write-in mayoral candidate; the retirement of longtime parks manager Jerry Acheson in December 2020; and the hiring of the city's current Parks and Recreation director, Trang Lam, in early 2021. Lam hit the ground running January 2021, jumping straight into the initial phases of a six-year Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS) Comprehensive Plan update, which will help guide the development and maintenance of Camas' parks, green spaces and recreation areas through 2028. Now, Lam is ready to tackle the Crown Park Master Plan. In mid-November, Lam updated the Camas City Council on the master plan and said some of the initial cost estimates have changed since consultants worked on the plan in 2017 and 2018. "The estimate in 2018 for all of the features was $5.6 million, now it's closer to $6.2 million," Lam said. Even a paired-down "option 2," which would include most of the master plan's major features - including an interactive splash pad, new playground equipment, ADA-accessible paths, a sports court, improvements to the park's existing pavillion and a new, permanent restroom - would cost at least $3.1 million instead of the 2018 estimate of $2.6 million, Lam said. If the city were to move ahead with just one permanent restroom at the park, Lam said, the cost would be around $831,000, due to the accompanying costs associated with bringing utilities to the restroom and creating ADA-accessible paths around the bathroom. "Over the last several years, particularly through COVID and even before that, we've seen large fluctuations in pricing and, more recently, in the costs for getting materials," Lam told city council members in November. "If we stabilize, the costs may be lower. But these are cautionary numbers we've put in there ... and there are things that are unforeseen that we need to budget for." Lam asked city councilors if they would approve moving forward with the design and engineering work on either option 1 - the full master plan with all of the facilities included in the 2018 plan - or option 2, which includes major features from the 2018 plan, but leaves out things like a picnic shelter, amphitheater, improvements to Scout Hall, landscaping and lighting. Councilwoman Shannon Roberts said she would support the city moving forward with the full master plan. "Since we're finally going to be able to do these upgrades, should we do it right and go ahead and do Option 1?" Roberts asked during the Council's Nov. 15 workshop. "This is everything we will probably do in five to 10 years. If you go ahead and plan for this, you'll find the money somewhere." Lam said she would be happy to move forward with the more extensive "Option 1" improvements. "I would champion that," Lam told Roberts. "If you can find me the money, I would love to build the entire park." Councilwoman Bonnie Carter said she also would "like to go bold," but worried moving forward with the costlier Crown Park improvements might impede the city's efforts to build and connect trails throughout Camas. "I would like to see what the trade-off is if I go all-in on Option 1," Carter said. Other council members agreed. "Option 1 would be ideal, but I'm not sure it's within our scope financially, and I want to do it right instead of halfway," Councilman Greg Anderson said. Earlier in the Nov. 15 workshop, city officials heard from several members of the public about the proposed Crown Park improvements, including Dave Lattanzi, a Camas resident who sat on the Parks Advisory Committee during the 2017-18 creation of the Crown Park Master Plan. Lattanzi said he would like to see city leaders go back out to the public to gauge interest in the water feature included in the master plan. "I think it would be a huge mistake if we don't reopen and ask the community," Lattanzi said. "That master plan fell short and there should have been a pool there, and not the water feature ... that was sold short because of the community center." City officials did gauge public opinion on the "pool versus water feature" long before the November 2018 unveiling of the Crown Park Master Plan. In July 2017, Camas staff set up a survey during the annual Camas Days celebration in downtown Camas to gauge the public's thoughts on replacing the aging Crown Park swimming pool with another pool or with an interactive water feature. That survey received nearly 1,400 responses. Councilman Don Chaney asked Lam about the potential of the master plan being influenced by the city's desire to have a community-aquatics center. "I wasn't here, so I can't speak to it," Lam said, "but I will be happy to talk to the Parks and Recreation Commission about that." The parks director added that the master plan for Crown Park started in 2016 and was completed in 2018 -- months before city leaders in Camas first brought up the idea of placing a bond measure to build a community-aquatics center on the November 2019 ballot -- and that the master plan had gone through several committees, including a technical advisory committee, and had public outreach. "I do want to acknowledge that updating a master plan does take time, effort and money," Lam added. "It just drags out the process. This master plan started in 2016, was completed in 2018, and now we're in 2021." Lam said master plans don't typically move fast when it comes to implementation. "We're not unique in that," she told city councilors in November. "They do have a long life ... and we come to council and you either move forward or you decide you need a new plan. I do think this master plan does provide a lot of amenities we as a community do not have at the moment." Lam said there are opportunities for city staff to move forward with things related to the Crown Park Master Plan before the city council adopts the full PROS Plan in March 2022, and that the public will have ample opportunities to weigh in on the types of improvements planned for Crown Park. "The master plan is conceptual," Lam later told the Camas Parks and Recreation Commission at the Commission's Dec. 8 meeting. "When we go through the full design and engineering, there will be more public engagement to pick out the water features we want and the theme of the playground ... that's where we start to engage the community to find those exact elements we want." Lam also told the Commission the "Option 2" major features in the Crown Park Master Plan would likely take about two years to complete. "We'll get it designed, engineered and refined and then do another cost-estimate once it's refined," Lam told the Parks and Recreation Commission. "And then we go out for bid ... generally, a full project -- design to construction -- is over two years. Looking at the major features (I'd estimate it will take just under) two years to get all of that done." Lam told The Post-Record on Dec. 10, that city staff will keep the Crown Park Master Plan designing and engineering "flexible enough to incorporate any new guidance from the PROS Plan" and would be on the lookout for additional funding that might allow the city to implement the full master plan features listed in "Option 1." "Next steps include the staff and consultant team preparing a scope of work for a design and engineering contract," Lam said. The parks director said she expects to present that contract to the city council in early 2022 for the council's approval.

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