Kenning Part RFP Meeting November 9th

Kenning part continues to be a focus in the parks and rec department, with many ideas for this park the discussion is ongoing and meetings are occurring now in the city of Birmingham. TCA board president was in attendance at the November 9th, 2009 meeting and noted the following.

1. Nowhere is the any reference to Kenning Park as a “neighborhood park”. There is reference to it as a “community Park” only. Kenning Park is the only parkland that is available within reasonable walking distance of the residential district bordered by 14mile, Adams, Maple and the railroad tracks. This is a substantial residential population. The RFP and the City need to recognize Kenning as a “neighborhood park”. The “community park” classification of the 2006-2011 Recreation master plan should not overpower and outweigh the neighborhood park program. The City Commissioners need to address this issue in order to give the consultant clear direction for the proper program requirements of this area.
2. There has been no indication that the neighborhood association in the area, Torry Community Association, is willing to buy into having the Brother Rice High School home field as part of the master plan at Kenning. Some of the concerns include a substantial change in the character due to the increase in size of the new fields, the impact on the park’s trees, passive park space reduction, parking and traffic. The TCA conducted a general meeting to discuss the proposal, on Oct 20, 2009, and there were many comments in opposition.
3. In order to ensure any proposed baseball layout dimensions fit adequately, a certified survey must be done (if it has not already been done, note Nowak & Fraus have already done a portion of survey work with phase 1 of the Kenning Park/ Ice Arena Parking lot drawings, job no.D669, in 2006) of the park boundaries and the existing building footprints, etc.
4. Page one of RFP in the second paragraph of the description of Kenning, should the parking lot be noted?
5. Page one of RFP third paragraph, is Northwest corner meant to be Northeast corner?
   
6. Points to be summarized
   
7. Why is there no mention of preserving existing trees and a buffer zone to the abutting residents and to minimize traffic impact to the residential district?
8. Under objectives, can there be a statement to provide adequate neighborhood park amenities such as a picnic area, etc. within the main park confines that has good visibility to recreational spaces.
9. Item g. under scope of work, same question as 6 above. This has not yet been vetted and may not be part of the program requirements.
10. Item h under scope of work, should possibly indicate rough estimate of amount of meetings (but not limited to) for cost purposes.
    
11. Page three under the adopted plans/policies and ordinances that the Transit Center District is under study and should be taken into account for potential adjacent developments and transportation routes. In addition the certified survey could be incorporated here.
    

In conclusion, this study is different from others done in the past because there has not been significant time spent investigating this park as a whole. The 2006 master plan entailed all the Birmingham parks and it would not be fair to say that a thorough review of Kenning was done. Kenning is a very complex problem with all of it’s current users and adjacencies. The RFP calls for a large space allocation for Little League and Brother Rice yet the present Little League site plan was never officially adopted by the City Commission.

The charrette process is greatly diminished when there are significant program requirements (as Indicated above) built in prior to it’s start. Presently, only minor opportunities such as signage, trails, etc, are left for the community and public’s vision and ideas for the park. The RFP should allow for out of the box thinking or alternative schemes to make comparisons.

There are many other options for the Park such as reducing the fields to three with shared users, or using the site plan proposal of the Little Leagues back in 2006. I hope that this RFP provides enough freedom to investigate a series of options as far as baseball needs before a decision on direction is reached. As stated in the RFP’s introduction, Kenning Park is one of seven community Parks yet how many of the seven have four baseball diamonds, one of which is regulation size? The RFP will be paid out of taxpayer money that could amount to $30,000 or more, let us be sure this outcome is what the community needs.