Since the start of summer, Scott Pierce has noticed people standing at the Juanita Beach Park re-reading the “closed” signs every time he strolls by.

“You can tell by the look on their faces that they are not happy campers,” said Pierce, who lives in the neighborhood and has frequented the park for nearly 20 years.

In fact, when Pierce first noticed the fences go up around the park and the bulldozers move in, he was irritated.

“I’m usually pretty tolerant of such things,” he said, however, “The timing was terrible for closing the park and there was tremendous carnage with the mature tree removal.”

As part of the City of Kirkland’s renovation work that began in May, 55 trees were removed from Juanita Beach Park.

“What really got my attention was seeing these huge old trees laying horizontal, just stacked up like wood,” Pierce added. “Then that made me think, well what kind of design are they doing here and why so much carnage?”

Bringing spark back to the park

Michael Cogle, Kirkland Park Planning and Development manager, says it’s “regrettable,” that the city had to close the park this summer to make improvements.

“But after really taking a complete look at the project and what we needed to get it accomplished, we really felt like we had to do it in a manner that we are,” said Cogle, who referred to the work as the largest park project the city has undertaken since he’s been in his position for nearly 30 years.

He described Juanita Bay Park’s history with wistful affection, adding how locals, such as the Forbes family, owned private beach resorts there.

“It was a happening place,” he said, noting the two-story beach house and dance hall on the waterfront with cabins that locals rented for the weekend.

King County took over ownership of the 30-acre park in the 1950’s and after budget problems, “let the property go,” he said.

The City of Kirkland took over the park in 2002, after Kirkland voters passed a park bond and maintenance levy. The city began a master planning process in 2003 and gave the public several opportunities to weigh in on the project.

“A lot of folks really envisioned the park returning to its former glory as a destination beach resort for the area,” said Cogle.

The city adopted its final Master Plan for the park in 2005 and in May began the first phase of the plan, which includes a $3 million renovation of half of the park, on the south side of Juanita Drive.

While the park is closed over the next 10-12 months, a beach front promenade extending the length of the waterfront will be constructed to make the park more handicap accessible. Other modernizations will include a new parking lot with lighting, an open-air amphitheater for small community events, new benches and picnic tables. Environmental enhancements include the renovation of Juanita Creek, creation of new wetlands and quality marshes, and formation of re-graded lawn areas with improved drainage and irrigation systems.

“One of the big goals of our renovation project is to improve water quality in the wading area, which has for decades been a problem with the periodic beach closures over the summer,” Cogle said.

He said the project began during summer because it was more efficient and cost-effective to do renovation work during decent weather. It also gives the new lawn areas enough time to become established so that people can use them next summer.

As for the trees, a certified independent arborist surveyed about 170 trees and around 40 (mostly black cottonwoods) were identified as hazardous or in poor health. The city has removed a total of 55 trees, but will plant nearly 900 new trees of both native and ornamental species.

“We hope that in the long term this will improve the park, the habitat areas within the park and also help the city obtain its overall tree canopy goals,” said Cogle.

In the past month, Cogle has received several phone calls and e-mails from concerned residents asking about the project.

“We’ve also had quite a bit of feedback from folks who are excited about the improvements, folks that have been using the park daily for many years,” he said. “So we hope folks will feel like the wait is worth it.”

Future phases of the project, which includes the addition of a skateboard park, are contingent on grants and other funding.