Alaska News

Public must have a say in parks planning

Last winter, major changes to Town Square were slated to go forward as part of a street improvement project, without recommendations from the city's Parks and Recreation Commission. Only after the commission intervened did a public process and public hearing specific to Town Square take place, resulting in significant changes to the final plan.

Also last winter, the proposal for clearing over 20 acres of trees at Russian Jack Springs Park to expand the golf course came to the parks commission as an "information item" only. It was not scheduled for commission action -- and the public hearing this entails -- until after significant public outcry over the project.

Where parks are concerned, the parks commission plays a vital role in the democratic process. It provides a forum for airing different views and concerns, facilitating appropriate change, and fostering community consensus and support. Marginalizing this role comes at a high cost to public trust and causes the unnecessary expense of time and resources by all concerned.

In the future, we need to do more as a community to ensure that decisions affecting parks and recreation facilities are made according to standards that are articulated and a process that is open, consistent and clear. Most notably, we need to ensure that proposals affecting parks are reviewed by the parks commission after full opportunity for public input. The parks commission is the main forum through which hundreds of citizens testify and comment on parks projects each year, and their voices need to count.

The Anchorage Assembly will have an excellent opportunity to bring more clarity, consistency and openness to park decision-making tonight when it considers AO 2008-15(S). This proposed ordinance will reassign responsibility for public facility site plan reviews. Assembly members Sheila Selkregg and Harriet Drummond are co-sponsoring amendments to the ordinance that would clarify and confirm that the Parks and Recreation Commission must review all public facility site plans and master plans affecting parklands and recreation facilities.

Strengthening the role of the parks commission is an important first step toward ensuring better stewardship of our parks. Then we can move on to the next step: comprehensive park codes and regulations that recognize the value of our park and recreation resources and treat them with the respect and care they deserve.

Barbara Hood is vice chair of the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Commission. The views expressed here are her own.

By BARBARA HOOD

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