Statement In Support of Dragon Park Plan
A Group of Islanders asks Council to approve the Deane's Children's Park Site Plan
Dear Members of the City Council,
Thank you and City staff for the thoughtful, community-centered process that shaped the Deane's Children's Park Site Plan. We support the City Council's approval of the site plan.
Statement of Shared Consensus
We, the undersigned community members, come together in support of the Dragon Park site plan with a shared commitment tocollaboration, accessibility, inclusivity, and the long-term aspirational vision for this special park. We share a consensus of values that reflect our community's spirit and the need for a truly inclusive park within this magical forested setting.
Dragon Park is more than a physical space, it is a place of imagination and connection in the forest. Its magic lies not only in its design but also in the diverse people who gather there. In that same spirit, we believe the process of shaping its future should reflect our community’s foundational values of belonging and inclusivity. As such, Dragon Park needs to be a space where all kids and adults can experience a beautiful, tree-filled, peaceful park that they can access regardless of their physical abilities.
The consensus statements listed below represent our collective support for the Vision of Dragon Park described in the site plan. We recognize that meaningful community spaces are built not through uniformity, but through collaboration. We believe the Dragon Park site plan reflects exhaustive community outreach over nearly 2-years. This included expert analysis, mobility & accessibility experts, playground professionals, arborists, thousands of hours of staff time, hundreds of surveys collected from Mercer Island residents and, most importantly, over 1200 Mercer Island school children who told us precisely what they wanted! The site plan before you today encompasses extensive work and outreach and brings to life the aspirational vision for what Dragon Park can be. These years of work and community outreach are ready to move forward into the next phase of this long-range project!
Together, we support the long-term vision for Dragon Park that honors its spirit, prioritizes accessibility and inclusivity, respects its history and wooded nature and fosters a sense of shared ownership for generations to come.
With this in mind, we have agreed upon the following consensus values that the undersigned share in hopes that our elected officials will represent the majority of Islanders' feedback and the nearly 2-year plan and community outreach campaign. Please consider these shared value statements as you review the Dragon Park site plan:
1. We encourage the City Council to approve the Site Plan for Deane's Children's Park.
2. We request that the City Council encourage staff to move all or part of the accessible pathway from Island Park to the play area into the first phase.
3. Given the city's budget constraints, we understand the project scope will be built over time, aligning with available funding such as grants.
4. We support the priorities the community identified, which remain: accessibility and inclusion (top priority), retaining the park's woodland nature, access to a bathroom, and a picnic shelter. This was made very clear in the thousands of responses that the city received to their survey and outreach with MISD students. The community also clearly vocalized a need for separate play zones for toddlers and older children in addition to the central shared play space.
5. We urge the City Council to prioritize retaining healthy trees and to mitigate tree removal when possible. We also encourage future plantings to create a more robust tree canopy and more shrubs, if possible.
6. We support accessibility and inclusion, including the infrastructure required for successful implementation such as impermeable surfaces.
7. We believe accessibility and inclusion can be thoughtfully integrated within a natural setting and do not view this as a tradeoff between environmental preservation and accessibility.
8. We believe that accessibility and inclusion should be foundational standards across all parks on Mercer Island.
Thank you for your leadership and for approving a site plan that reflects deep community input, shared values, and careful stewardship of this special place.
With appreciation,
Learn More:
Read more about the proposed improvement plan for Dragon Park here.