Mayor Sherman and Commissioners,
I am strongly concerned with the wording to move forward any motion from City Council for the Parks & Recreation Board - Kenning Park Redesign Plan, to be open for the RFP Charrette process,based on this new design as presented.
The basic nature of this plan has significant flaws which cannot be simply delegated to design Charrette process, where community involvement in the location and function of minor park amenities may be the only thing left to be determined. Unless a ‘non-partisan” plan can be equally evaluated, requesting public opinion on this special interest plan must have some option of a “no” decision on the plan itself.
This plan has been moving forward at a very rapid pace, despite loud and vigorous opposition from the local neighborhood. This is not by any means stating the local neighbors, are not interested in improving the park (as proven by our past involvement in design plans for Kenning Park), but myself and the majority of the local park neighbors are apposed to substantial change in the use and
open space of this park without further review and discussion of the impact this plan will have property values, and the potential changes in the current mixed use focus will have on the character of this valued and substantial Birmingham park.
Before making any decisions to go forward with a motion, please review through the documentation I have attached and the points I have outlined below on previous and current efforts at local community involvement in this park plan. There are many impacts we see if this plan is allowed to go forward without significant changes in field quantities and locations.
- As early as 2000, the Kenning Park neighborhood was aware of changes being requested from Little League, due to growing baseball use and the performance of the current fields.
From 2002 though 2006, many meetings were held individually and in groups discussing the Little League field redesign plans with local residents, members of the Torry Community Association and jointly with Little League and Parks and Rec. The changes were dramatic, from the initial plan requesting a design increasing from the current four up to six fields and occupying the majority of the remaining open space, the plan changed back to a final compromise design with four fields including with improved locations, access improvement, reduced park open space impact and planed pathway mprovements.
- This 2006 plan allowed all of the needed features of the Little League and Men’s Adult
Softball league at the time, and also focused on the desire of the neighbors to reduce the large field (Sr. Men’s softball field) fence line impact to the park. In the agreement to move and rebuild the fields included not building the seven foot outfield fence for this large 275 foot field when moved to the new planned location on the far eastern side of the park. One of the clear reasons for removing this fence was to improve the park line of sight openness and improved flexible use of the park for these additional unfenced spaces. The current arc of the seven foot outfield Sr. Men’s softball fence comes within 13 feet of the property line
the first house at the west end of Cheltenham. That 13 foot property gap, which appears impassable at a distance, actually gives less than 5 feet of passageway, due to utility pole and bush obstructions. This pinch point effectively splits the south side of the park in half. The new design continues that divided park process, but adds 16 feet to this gap at a new location on the outfield fence line. 
- This concession plan was reviewed and accepted at the Parks and Recreation meeting in
Early 2006, and actually was incorporated into the 2006-2011 Parks and Recreation Master plan that same year. Page 6 of Master Plan Appendix A shows the exact drawing as agreed upon and presented back to the Parks and Recreation Department, the attached PDF File Park Buffer 2006 Final Agreement v1.00, shows where the desired open space plan was achieved.. No further action (no City Council approval) was taken on this plan, as Little League’s private donation sources, the primary funding sources for these improvements, dried up. Dave Palmeri, from Little League reported this at the scheduled City Council Meeting review of the plan, and all action was dropped until further private funding sources could be identified, as there were not city funds that could be allocated to these field improvements and access/walkway improvements.
- Current 2009 plans for the four fields, followed the footprint location of the proposed fields as much as possible, but due to the increase in size of two of these fields, there is a significant open space impact to the buffer zone near the ten houses that back up to the park on the north side of Cheltenham, as shown in the Red areas on attached PDF file Park Buffer 2009 Proposal v1.00.PDF for field 2 and to the open space and trees to the west central portion of the park for field 4.
- The enlarged footprint of field 2 which is currently 275’ is proposed to expand to 320’,significantly moving this new High Scholl use outfield fence line to within 30’ of some Cheltenham properties and requiring the removal of five 5 large trees. The impact is dramatic, both to visibility into the park, as show by PDF file Field View SE Park – to East.pdf showing proposed fence line markups as seen from 1527 Cheltenham, and from the reduced open space (Yellow Areas) as shown in attached PDF file Park Buffer 2009 Proposal v1.00.PDF . This shows the further reduction and segmentation of the remaining open space of this park on the southeast side. Seven of the ten houses on the north of Cheltenham would now be significantly closer to a large seven foot fence and several homes would be now be restricted to looking at a small triangle of open space of land between two field fence lines.
- Brother Rice has through their Architect, Kevin Hart, indicated that reduction in the size of this High School sized field and removal of the outfield fence on field 2 are not options that will be acceptable. This is in direct contrast from the intent of the previous plan for the Sr. Softball field from 2006 and the current field used by Brother Rice at St. James Park, as both do not have an outfield fence.
- Changes to field 4, from a 180’ little league field to a 200’ field in the new plan required asignificant field relocation (See attached PDF file Park Buffer 2009 Proposal v1.00.PDF for field 4). This change impacts 9 trees that must be removed, and moves the fence line to apoint where clear line of site of the play area is obstructed from all houses on Cheltenham, through the north Cheltenham entrance to the park. This also has significant open space reductions to the central part of the park, as the space increased closed to the east tennis
bubble nearest the west side of the Skating Rink, which is small isolated, and less valued as open space.
There are many reasons to continue to discuss this without moving forward with specific public opinion only for this one design. I am not aware of any forced reasons Brother Rice must move this year from their current St. James field location. Until further consideration has been given to a balanced plan, time and city funds should not be wasted on a Charrette for public opinion and consensus for a plan that has no field flexibility. I believe this delay is the only the fair answer. Private donations to support this design change and lobbying efforts to accept this current plan should not sway the council to act quickly before proper review and alternative proposals can be presented. Unfortunately, I believe not all parties will win in the final outcome. A balanced proposal may have fewer Little League fields if this large High School field is required, or may even conclude this large H.S. sized field is not a fit for this park. I would like to see the dialog and options continue before taking the next step. I am hoping we can be given the chance to do what is right for Birmingham and all of our residents.
TCA Resident
View Slide Show of Brother Rice/Little League proposal:
Slide Show
