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City Beat
Community invited to discuss plans for new park
Open space at Bird and Fisk avenues to receive city park status
By Kate Carter
Community leaders and city officials are hoping for a big turnout to discuss how to best turn a corner of open space in Willow Glen into an official park.
The North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association is hosting staff from the city's neighborhood parks division Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Word of Faith Church on the corner of Fuller and Delmas avenues to address plans for a park at the corner of Bird and Fisk avenues.
The neighborhood association has been working for the past 10 months on cleaning up the corner, President Alison England said, and was gratified when the city last year set aside $300,000 to upgrade the site and make it a city park. The group's open space subcommittee, led by neighbor and landscape architect Renee Erez, came up with a preliminary design for the park that includes a playground area and grass and utilizes existing pathways, England said. Erez said there aren't any nearby places for young children to play, and the space could be used for that purpose.
"What we need is to solicit reactions and ideas," England said. "The design is not set in stone."
This is the second public meeting to address the park plans. Parks department officials reviewed the group's proposal at the association's last meeting in November, said Michael LaRocca of the parks, recreation and neighborhood services department. He said staff made recommendations about some of the park's features.
"We're still in the process of seeking to understand what the community wants," LaRocca said, adding that city staff will likely meet with residents again.
LaRocca said city staff have not yet estimated the cost of the project. However, England said the current plan would cost more than the $300,000 budgeted. She said the association has applied to the city for a grant to help with costs.
The small plot of empty land was first cleaned up more than a decade ago by Fisk Avenue resident Mark Johnston, who coordinated the creation of the garden and paths that are there today, England said. But he stopped maintaining the lot about two years ago and moved away, she said. The Willow Glen Kiwanis Club Sunrisers adopted the space through the city's adopt-a-park program but had trouble keeping it maintained, she said. Once the park is part of the city's park system, however, its maintenance will be overseen by the city, which should be an improvement.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
