TO: Mayor and City Council
THROUGH: Krishna Namburi, Acting City Manager
FROM: Scott Archer, Deputy City Manager
SUBJECT:
title
Approval of the Fisher Road Park Development Plan.
Ward(s): Ward 5
Councilor(s): Councilor Brown
Neighborhood(s): Northgate
Result Area(s): Welcoming and Livable Community
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SUMMARY:
summary
The Fisher Road Park Development Plan is the culmination of a year-long neighborhood park planning process. It outlines the park's overall design, describes proposed amenities and uses, and establishes a plan for future development. The plan reflects both neighborhood input and the unique site characteristics.
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ISSUE:
Shall the City Council approve the Fisher Road Park Development Plan?
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Approve the Fisher Road Park Development Plan.
body
FACTS AND FINDINGS:
The City began a planning process for Fisher Road Park in fall of 2023. A project team from GreenWorks Landscape Architecture & Environmental Design (GreenWorks) has collaborated closely with City Parks Planning staff to gather and integrate community feedback throughout the process.
The resulting Fisher Road Park Development Plan, included as Attachment 1, outlines the following key features for the park:
• Mid-block crosswalk of Fisher Road NE at the park frontage
• Picnic areas with shelters
• Playground with a water play feature
• Small restroom facility
• Small amphitheater/educational space
• Community garden
• Habitat restoration
• Nature trail
• Sport court
• Nature play area
• Small skate spot (i.e., a small skatepark)
• Designated onsite parking spaces
The planning processed was centered around a robust community engagement process, with a deliberate focus on meaningfully engaging nearby Spanish speaking residents to ensure their voices were heard and their perspectives represented in the park design.
A community focused "involve" approach guided the public outreach for the planning process. This meant Parks Planning staff working directly with the public throughout the project to ensure their concerns and aspirations were consistently understood and incorporated into the park design. The project’s engagement opportunities included two open houses, two online surveys, a pop-up event at the 2024 ¡Viva Salem! Hispanic Heritage Festival, collaboration with “Park Ambassadors” to engage the surrounding Spanish-speaking community, and outreach to the Northgate Neighborhood Association.
Recognizing that the park is in an area with a high percentage of historically underrepresented and often hard-to-reach Spanish-speaking households, Parks Planning staff and GreenWorks included IZO Public Relations and Marketing on the project team to assist with outreach. With IZO's support, a group of Park Ambassadors was assembled, consisting of Spanish-speaking community leaders with connections to the Latino/Latina community. Each ambassador engaged their own networks throughout the planning process and reported their finding back to the project team, fostering broader participation.
IZO also supported public open houses with live Spanish-language interpretation services and translated all presentation materials and surveys into Spanish. The City also provided project updates via the CityofSalem.net website and direct email notifications to those on the project mailing list.
These engagement opportunities were intentional sequences as part of an iterative planning process, allowing the program for the Development Plan to the continuously refined based on feedback received from the public throughout the engagement process, allowing for adjustments and improvements as new information or perspectives emerge.
Policy 2.2 of the Comprehensive Park System Master Plan states: "Parks shall comply with the park classification design guidelines described in Appendix B, Park Design Guidelines." Notably, approval of the Fisher Road Park Development Plan, as proposed, constitutes an adjustment to a park design guideline related to onsite parking, which is generally not considered appropriate for neighborhood parks. However, Parks Planning staff recommends proceeding with park development that includes onsite parking, given:
• Public feedback emphasizing the need for safe and convenient parking.
• Concerns over establishing on-street parking along Fisher Road NE, where travel speeds often exceed the posted 40 MPH speed limit.
• The existing condition, which already includes an informal gravel parking area accessed from Fisher Road NE, located in the general area of the proposed off-street parking.
Inclusion of a small restroom facility in the Development Plan is a further departure from the established design guidelines for neighborhood parks, where the standard is to provide chemical toilets seasonally as needed. The public engagement process revealed a compelling case for establishing a permanent restroom, finding that this facility is necessary to meet Salem Area Comprehensive Plan goals adopted by City Council in 2022, specifically:
• Parks and Recreation Goal 3: Consider need-based equity when allocating funding for renovations and development of new parks and recreation facilities.
• Parks and Recreation Goal 4: Develop and enhance parks as safe and welcoming public spaces that celebrate cultural heritage and diversity, reflect surrounding neighborhood identity, and provide for community gatherings.
By integrating these community-driven priorities, the Development Plan ensures Fisher Road Park will better serve the needs of its users while aligning with broader city planning goals.
On January 9, 2025, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board was presented the draft Development Plan. The Board endorsed the Plan and forwarded a recommendation to Council for approval.
Implementation of the Development Plan will be phased due to the park’s scale, complexity, and cost. The timing of each phase will depend on funding availability, grant opportunities, overall project costs, Council priorities, and ongoing projects.
Through the planning process, the community identified its top priorities for the initial phase of park development, which include a perimeter path, open lawn area, playground, on-site parking, nature trail, restroom, and street frontage improvements. A preliminary planning-level cost estimate for these priority improvements shows that the cost to construct all priority improvements far exceeds the amount of capital funding likely to be available.
As a first step in designing and preparing construction documents for the initial phase, City staff will validate this estimate, explore value engineering opportunities, and refine the project scope to align with an anticipated budget of $1.2 million to $2.7 million.
BACKGROUND:
Fisher Road Park is a 6.8-acre neighborhood park located at 4350 Fisher Road NE. The site consists of three parcels and is surrounded by multi-family housing, serving a predominantly Latino/Latina community. The park’s half-mile service area has a notably higher population density than most other neighborhood parks in the City, resulting in a larger number of residents relying on this space for recreation.
According to the Comprehensive Park System Master Plan, neighborhood parks provide local access to basic recreational resources for residents within a half-mile walking distance. However, Fisher Road Park remains largely undeveloped. Existing improvements include two picnic tables, an information kiosk, a pet waste bag dispenser, a trash receptacle, and two soccer goals for informal, drop-in play.
The park is primarily accessed from Fisher Road, with two additional informal pedestrian entry points at the western terminus of Iberis Street NE and Ibex Street NE.
Raymond S. Joseph, Jr.
Senior Parks Planner
Attachments:
1. Fisher Road Park Development Plan