Community Government Health & Wellness
Public weighs in on Peninsula Gardens park concepts
A new PenMet park at the former Peninsula Gardens nursery will likely feature pickleball courts, nature trails, playgrounds, picnic shelters and restrooms.
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Combining amenities into concepts
Those were the most popular amenities to emerge from a June 12 public workshop and monthlong online survey. Consultant AHBL of Tacoma incorporated these “need-to-haves” into three design concepts presented during a second meeting July 25 at PenMet headquarters.
A consultant oversees a poster board measuring how large amenities should be. Most participants went big. Photo by Ed Friedrich
A second tier of “nice-to-haves” favored by the 40 June meeting attendees and 360 survey participants — a multipurpose field, community garden, ADA walking paths and volleyball — appear in some designs. Three “could-haves” — performance space, dog park and art/sculptures — are sprinkled around.
Three themes
The site concepts each carry a different theme — re-use, re-imagine and restore.
Reuse employs some of what’s already there — the two driveways and 44-stall parking lot, concrete store foundation for six pickleball courts and metal trusses for a partly covered gathering space. It also features a great lawn/multipurpose field circled by four picnic shelters; separate traditional playgrounds for big and little kids; medium-size community garden; two tennis courts, walking trails and no dog park.
The reimagine design highlights a traditional park arrangement with amenities surrounding a central 60-stall parking lot, including six pickleball courts; two tennis courts; a sand volleyball court; six scattered picnic shelters; a great lawn/multipurpose field; a large traditional playground; an agility-course dog park; a small community garden and trails.
The restore concept emphasizes retaining the area’s rural character, with an orchard and meadows of tall grasses buffering amenities, and an expanded area of forest trails. It includes a 60-stall parking lot; large community garden and orchard; off-leash forest dog park; great lawn/multipurpose field/performance space; and a smaller open lawn ringing a nature playground, four picnic shelters, four pickleball courts and two sand volleyball courts.
“Think of these as tools and not the final document,” said AHBL Senior Landscape Project Manager Sarah Singleton Schroedel. “Ask questions and tell us what works.”
Bigger is better
Attendees ranked their wishes by placing colored dots, stars and sticky notes on poster boards. Much related to scale. Would they like to see a 5,000- or 15,000-square-foot playground? Two to four pickleball courts or six fenced and screened courts? A small or larger performance space?
A large majority chose to go big for most amenities. They asked questions and shared what they liked and disliked about each concept.
Beginning of long process
PenMet expects design and permitting to occur in 2025-26, followed by construction in 2026-27. The park district’s 6-year capital improvement plan for 2025 and 2026 includes $3.7 million to design and build the first phase.
PenMet purchased Peninsula Gardens’ three parcels, totaling 10.6 acres, for $1 million in 2011. The land is within a “V” formed by the intersection of arterials Wollochet Drive and Fillmore Drive, a mile west of Gig Harbor city limits.
Consultant Sarah Singleton Schroedel addresses the crowd of about 70. Photo by Ed Friedrich
The grounds house a 24,100-square-foot retail/greenhouse structure and 3,800-square-foot warehouse built in 2000, according to Pierce County. They will be removed. The property also includes the parking lot, stormwater facilities and a forested area.
Pickleball players organized a large and vocal showing at the first public meeting, elevating their desire for designated courts to the “need-to-have” category. The Gig Harbor area has no pickleball-only courts, though PenMet is building six at its indoor recreation center and the city another half dozen at its sports complex. Several tennis courts have been dual-lined to accommodate pickleball.
Sailors would lose space
Gig Harbor Junior Sailing took a cue from pickleballers and lobbied en masse at last week’s meeting. What interest did they have in the landlocked Peninsula Gardens site? It turns out that the parks district for a decade has allowed them to store and maintain boats in the old greenhouse, slated for demolition.
“Nowhere on the chart is kids sailing,” Program Director Joan Storkman said during a question-and-answer period.
Members also silently attended the first meeting.
“We were here,” Storkman said. “We’re usually quiet but realized that wasn’t going to do it. The people who spoke out were noticed. Maybe we should speak out.”
Participants place dots on the concept features they most prefer. Photo by Ed Friedrich
More than 700 kids participated in the program on Gig Harbor and Wollochet bays last summer, including many using $34,000 in scholarships, she said.
“I don’t have an answer, but I’m glad you’re here,” AHBL’s Singleton Schroedel responded to the sailing contingent. “How can the community come around and support this? How could we incorporate it? Where could it go?”
Makerspace suggested
Also not among the amenities is a makerspace, pointed out Barbara Henderson, who teaches mosaic classes for PenMet and at Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN). Makerspaces are collaborative workshops that supply equipment and technology for creative projects.
BARN is a 25,000-square-foot facility with 10 studios each focusing on a different discipline such as metal or wood. Something similar could be established here, Henderson said.
“I don’t know if PenMet is the right vehicle for it, but we have to start somewhere,” she said. “It could be part of (Peninsula Gardens) for sure.
“There is a demand for this. I do have students from Gig Harbor come take classes up there (at BARN). They say this is amazing. We should do this down there (in Gig Harbor).”