Head of CPC puts new athletic complex in backyard.

Speak out against removing ballfields
On Thursday, March 27, the Recreation and Conservation Office Board (RCOB) met in Olympia to discuss the elimination of the Lynnwood Athletic Fields across from Alderwood mall. This was a public hearing and it is scheduled to continue in June.

I testified for our citizens group, Save Our Fields, in opposition to the removal of the athletic fields. From some of the board's comments, I felt that our concerns were being heard.

We feel it is important for the users of the fields and the Lynnwood residents to be brought into the process. The city of Lynnwood has expended hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to make the Alderwood-Lynnwood Fields into one of the premier facilities in the state.

Our group encourages the community to stand up to those who would level the fields in favor of more commercial development.

Please contact your Lynnwood elected officials and let them know how you feel about the loss of recreation and open space in our community!

Mark Laurence
Chair for Save Our Fields
Bothell

Fields will be moved to new site
I was concerned when I read a letter from Mark Laurence, April 4, 2008. ("Speak out against removing ballfields," Enterprise) He stated that the Lynnwood High School athletic fields would be lost to commercial development. I have been the 2006-2007 CPC (Citizens Planning Committee) Chairman for the Edmonds School District. Our job was to discuss and plan the development for the school district for the next 10 years. The "commercial development" is how we can afford to move the Lynnwood High School site to the North Road location. We have been in contact with the Lynnwood Parks Department as a team to move the current fields to the new North Road site. (Under construction right now.) Never were the intentions to dissolve the fields and have no space to play. The school district needs and wants those fields as much as anyone. We as the Citizens Planning Committee never wanted to lose those fields. If you have to fight about this, I wish you would understand that the [C]ity of Lynnwood needs to incorporate the North Road area to be able to spend money over here. That's the fight. The fields will go up for the Edmonds School District and be usable September 2009. There will be no lose [loss?] of recreation and open space. It will just be moved.

Carrie McAfee
Bothell

Planning "for the next ten years" shouldn't involve a 99 year lease. In fact, the District's own planning horizons are six and twenty years in length. Did you even read the Capital Facilities Plan? Is this hodge-podge collection of parents called the "Citizens Planning Committee" suggesting that they have some way of knowing the procreative habits of our future taxpayers - even those that have yet to relocate to the Edmonds School District. Do you have any clue at all as to what student enrollment will look like in 20 years, let alone 50 and 75?

So the District is trying to compel the City of Lynnwood, and its taxpayers to incorporate an area they may have already evaluated, considered and rejected. How does a school district that fails to adequately plan for their own future incur time and energy planning the future needs of the City of Lynnwood? Who at the City of Lynnwood asked the District for help?

A playfield in Bothell is not the same as a playfield in the middle of Lynnwood. This isn't like a cookie in the kitchen is the same as a cookie in the dining room. There are a lot of Lynnwood residents that have incorporated the Lynnwood Athletic Complex into their daily exercise routine. Afterall, the Mall doesn't want people walking around the inside of their building without spending money.

Ms. McAfee is from Bothell and refers to the new high school property as "over here". It sounds like a conflict of interest to have the head of the Citizens Planning Committee involved in moving an athletic complex closer to her own home. It is no surprise that Ms. McAfee would want the District to incur an ungodly expense improving her own neighborhood. I bet she doesn't live right on North Road and won't be negatively impacted by all of the resulting traffic. I would also bet that she lives at least ten blocks away from the New Lynnwood High School. Close enough to make it easily accessible but far enough away to avoid traffic congestion.

And another thing, master planner, how is it that a school district is building a replacement for Lynnwood High School when the field issue hasn't even been resolved yet? What happens if the Federal government decides to prevent the transplantation of a resource they have supported for decades?

I suspect that part of the problem, with the direction the District is now heading, has a lot to do with the calibre of parental oversight. If committees are not competent enough to hold public officials accountable, why would we expect an outcome favorable to the public?

Editorial: Okay, I cheated. Carrie McAfee does live ten blocks north of the New Lynnwood High School just off North Road.