Hello neighbors,
We had a great meeting on Tuesday with Jacob Bilbo, the city Parks Bond Project Manager. Here is my summary of what we learned about the Hamlin/Briarcrest Park project: if you have questions, please write to me at skbriarcrest – at – gmail.com.
Timeline: fences should go up at the park site, ballfield 6, on March 24, actual construction to follow as soon as permits are finalized. They want to avoid starting the season with the ballfield in use and then yanking it. Construction is scheduled to take through spring 2026, although some of their other park projects have finished early.
Some of the features include:
Rebuild of the ramp access from the south end of the parking lot, along with stairs
Play structures with features for older, younger kids
Concrete slide
Zip line
Splash pad in two parts: one more passive, with less spray, and the other more active.
Restroom renovations
Osprey nest: they are paying a lot of attention to mitigate disturbance to the osprey nest.
They will conduct construction activities as far from the nest as possible
Demolition will be mostly done by hand
Construction materials won’t be staged near the nest
No disturbance to existing pole, will put up new nest pole – possibly with camera? New pole will be close by, with the hope that the ospreys will relocate to it by choice.
A total of 13 trees will have to come down, mostly to make way for the new ramp and stair access. Several of those are in bad shape now (pretty believable if you go look there). More trees will be planted of course. For replacement trees and landscaping they will lean towards natives/drought tolerant although it won’t be 100% native.
Lighting: some of the existing ballpark lighting will come down, but Jacob wasn’t sure exactly which ones. There will be some solar powered lighting along the access ramp/stairs, possibly on a schedule but also TBD.
The ballfield further from the street (ballfield 5) will stay open during construction.
Improving the south end of the parking for better ADA parking and/or a turnaround area was considered, but didn’t make it into this phase of the project due to cost.
The final name of the park is TBD. Possibilities include Briarcrest Park, Upper Hamlin, and Hamlin East.
The current plan is available at https://www.shorelinewa.gov/government/projects-initiatives/2022-park-bond-projects.
