I’m writing in regards to the upcoming Redmond Bike Park Appeal to the City Council on May 8.

My husband and I have lived in the Education Hill neighborhood of Redmond for more than 12 years. We were drawn to this area largely because of the true Northwest look and feel of the neighborhood – lots of open spaces, mature evergreen trees, and trails right in our own backyard.

For the most part, the City of Redmond Parks Department has done a wonderful job developing and preserving our city parks. But recently, plans for developing a HUGE bike park on the perimeter of Hartman Park has gone askew. Homeowners in the adjacent neighborhood were told numerous times by parks staff that the existing illegal bike park would just be “improved” to make it more safe and accessible to novice riders, but that the footprint of the jumps would remain the same. This sounded fine, so a lot of neighbors didn’t really take any notice.

However, revised plans for the bike park were submitted by the Parks Department to the City Council in June 2011 that expanded the park five to six times larger than the existing park today and included the removal of hundreds of trees from the area. Now the neighborhood has sat up and taken notice. Not only are the plans completely different than what had previously been communicated to the neighborhood residences, but the size and scale of the project as it stands today is completely inappropriate for a residential neighborhood.

The last chance to appeal to the City Council is coming up on May 8 at 7:30 at City Hall. I urge all Education Hill neighbors to come to the meeting and help us preserve the true Northwest look and feel of our wonderful Education Hill neighborhood.

Jean Chenevert, Redmond