Please watch and then take the short survey here: https://gjpr.org/WhitmanParkSurvey

0:04
 Hello, I'm Ken Cherbineau.

 0:06
 I'm the Parks and Recreation Director for the City of Grand Junction.

 0:09
 I want to thank you for taking the time to check out where we're at with the Whitman Park project.

 0:15
 So the city did our Parks and Recreation Open Space Master Plan adopted by City Council in 2021.

 0:24
 And that's really been guiding the improvement in the expansion and the renovation of the entire Parks and Recreation system.

 0:33
 We've been very fortunate to make a lot of progress in a lot of the projects listed in the PROS plan for short or Parks and Rec and Open Space Master plan for for long including Community Recreation Center that's been funded which by the way will have a public meeting on April 30th at 5:00 at the barn for to unveil the final design.

 0:53
 We've made progress with the tennis and Pickleball expansion project that is very, very near completion.

 0:59
 We've made progress on the Emerson Skate Park that's currently under construction.

 1:03
 Another project in priority that came out of the PROS plan was the renovation of Whitman Park, and the City made the decision last September to go ahead and transition the park to be only available for special events.

 1:20
 And since then we've had a lot of discussion.

 1:22
 We've heard a lot from the community.

 1:25
 We've heard a lot from our partners that serve the unhoused community since certainly Whitman has historically been a place for Gathering of the Unhoused about how we really needed to improve services to the unhoused.

 1:38
 And I think that that decision has really been a catalyst for a lot of positive change that's been happening.

 1:46
 So we have a few slides to kind of talk about the holistic approach that the city is taking to what is a very complex situation.

 1:54
 So if we jump to the next slide please.

 1:58
 So just in the past two years we we have this housing division that's under Community Planning and development department and we have our housing manager Ashley Chambers, who her and her small but mighty team have been making a lot of progress working with unhoused service providers and our nonprofit partners to improve service to the on house community.

 2:20
 As you can see there's been over $19,000,000 in direct funding allocated from the city to addressing the housing spectrum with an emphasis on those most vulnerable, the and the unhoused segment of the community.

 2:34
 And a lot of that effort has leveraged a lot of investment that has led to improved service to the unhoused community.

 2:43
 And as you'll see from the next slide, at the center of that has been the, the Resource Center.

 2:49
 And so we've been very thankful to partner with Homeward Bound and United Way to stand up the Resource Center.

 2:58
 That has now been a place that has not only replaced what Whitman provided to the unhoused community, but has actually improved service given the fact that that facility is able to provide hot showers and consistent meal delivery and flushing toilets and be a place for unhoused members of our community to connect with service providers to get the service that they need.

 3:24
 There have also been other projects like the the Catholic outreach Mother Teresa place that's currently under construction right now that the city has supported financially.

 3:34
 That is planned to be done by the end of 2024.

 3:37
 So certainly my a lot of my focus is Parks and Recreation, how to activate our parks and how to best serve the community through Parks and Recreation services.

 3:46
 But please know that the city has taken a very holistic approach to the presence of the unhoused in in the parks.

 3:54
 So I want to provide this just as a backdrop for this discussion that we're going to have for the bulk of this call where we talk about what the future of Whitman Park will look like since certainly the beginning few moments of this presentation has been talked about the past.

 4:09
 So as you'll see on the next slide, I want to introduce in a moment our consultants with DTJ design.

 4:18
 DTJ is the lead consultant that is facilitating this planning process.

 4:24
 We selected DTJ through a competitive selection.

 4:27
 I think we've got 7 proposals and we've got some really strong ones that saw the potential of Whitman Park and wanted to be a part of it.

 4:35
 And we selected DTJ for several reasons.

 4:38
 One they have expertise in place making our City Council has strategic outcomes and their strategic plan that they provide to staff and one of the the core ones and one of the core ones that relates most directly to Parks and Recreation is place making.

 4:52
 DTJ are experts in placemaking and we're very excited to have them facilitate this design so they they can learn from the community what the community would like to see in the future of Woodland Park.

 5:05
 So with that, I want to pass the baton over to James Palmer.

 5:10
 He's the project Manager with DTDTJ Design as well as Greg White, who is the lead designer.

 5:18
 And they're going to walk us through the the discussion and I'll come back at the very end to to thank everybody for participating.

 5:27
 So gentlemen, if you can turn your camera on for us, please and go ahead and take it from here.

 5:36
 Thank you, Ken.

 5:37
 My name is James Palmer.

 5:39
 I'm a Senior Landscape architect with DTJ Design and I'll be serving as the project manager for the Whitman Park project.

 5:47
 Also with me here today is Greg White, who'll be our lead design for the project.

 5:52
 So briefly here we'll go through the overall agenda.

 5:55
 We'll talk about the overall Park project team, the DTJ team, some of the influencing background documentation that's going to be fundamental to the development of the Whitman Park, the engagement design process, timelines that we are working toward, city outreach and events that are planned, the project goals.

 6:16
 We already spoke on some of the housing components from Ken.

 6:19
 Thank you for that.

 6:20
 Some of the design principles, programming design elements and then we'll share for the folks who are who are in attendance this evening in the public engagement, there'll be a poll, a live poll and then there will also discuss on the interactive stations that we'll be providing for the live public engagement session.

 6:45
 And I'll turn it over to Greg White, our lead design.

 6:48
 Hello, thanks for checking in on the Whitman Park project.

 6:52
 We appreciate everyone's participation, participation in this.

 6:55
 So quickly just to talk about DTJ and its team we've put together.

 7:00
 We have a a great team with a great local presence here.

 7:03
 Obviously this park is important to the community.

 7:06
 We've reached out and partnered with River City, HCL, Bighorn, Heinz, LSC and FCI, covering the gamut of consultants and and the majority of them are local Grand Junction consultants, which is obviously an important thing to have on a project like this and have a local perspective.

 7:26
 So a little bit about DTJ design, we have three office locations.

 7:33
 We're headquartered in Boulder, Co and we also have offices in both Atlanta and Austin.

 7:42
 We have approximately 85 employees, employees and we've been around for more than 55 years and we've done lots of projects.

 7:49
 One of the special attributes that DTJ has is that we are integrated design firm.

 7:55
 We have both planning landscape architecture and architecture that gives us the ability to have a multi faceted and multi discipline teams on projects.

 8:04
 So we're not just approaching this project from a park standpoint, but from a community standpoint, we're involved in projects in, in many places around the country and even around the world.

 8:14
 So we get to see and participate in in lots of different project types that really gives us a a deep background of experience that we can bring to this project as well.

 8:26
 And our our our kind of philosophy and working with communities is to be a trusted guide.

 8:33
 So we're here to hear from the community, hear from the city and really bring what the community wants to this project.

 8:42
 As I mentioned, we are a community design based firm.

 8:45
 We're in the process of designing over a dozen parks currently.

 8:49
 And as I mentioned, we really thrive and and lean on our experience that we are fortunate to have in so many different locations and so many different project types.

 8:59
 You know the the context of this project is very important not just within the region and within Grand Junction, but obviously its relationship to downtown is something that's very important and we will continue to talk about that.

 9:13
 We like to take projects from concept to reality, really paying attention to detail and then we execute the vision.

 9:20
 So we're around to see things get built and get built correctly.

 9:27
 Again, we have lots of Colorado experience.

 9:30
 We try to build long term relationships with our clients and we plan to do that here as well and and be around and really prioritize the the clients and the community's goals.

 9:43
 So this is Whitman Park right in the middle of our plan here just to make sure that we're all talking about the same park.

 9:50
 There are multiple parks and things are happening in all of them right now in the city which is great.

 9:55
 This is one kind of piece of the puzzle as Ken mentioned in terms of looking at the entire community wide system of parks.

 10:02
 So knowing pit picking and 4th and 5th and and so relationship to Colorado and Main Street, that's all pretty apparent in this diagram here, James.

 10:16
 Thank you, Greg.

 10:18
 One of the one of the fundamental components before we begin design at all is 1 to get out to meet with the community in the engagement.

 10:26
 Another piece is to look into the background studies and and efforts that have been that have taken place already that have relationship to Women Park.

 10:36
 Some of those go back to 2015 with the initial conceptual plans that were performed.

 10:42
 Since that time quite a bit of study and development has taken place in the surrounding area.

 10:47
 You have the 2020 Comprehensive plan followed by the 2021 PROS plan that Ken had mentioned earlier.

 10:53
 Additionally, there's 4th and 5th St.

 10:55
 Feasibility study, A Pedestrian Bicycle Plan, as well as the work that's currently undertaken by CDOT on the I-70, B improvements.

 11:04
 There are additional studies in the background relating to housing, parking demands and needs.

 11:09
 All of these pieces we extract the information that's in relationship to Whitman Park.

 11:14
 We use this as a foundation to begin the park design.

 11:19
 And so these are critical documents.

 11:20
 There's been tremendous input and effort on these.

 11:24
 Complementary to that is also recognizing what are the other things that are already taking place in downtown.

 11:30
 Some of the other improvements and had mentioned on the Emerson Park development that's currently in construction.

 11:36
 There's also the Resource Center, which has been an incredibly innovative technique and way to try to help provide additional services to those in the on house community and with those needs.

 11:48
 So that's a really critical resource.

 11:50
 It's just a little bit to the West of where Women Park is currently.

 11:54
 Additionally, we we spoke a little bit about the pedestrian and the cycling access improvement opportunities.

 12:00
 Another critical piece to understand here is the terminal and the junction projects which look to bring more of a residential base into the downtown core.

 12:10
 This will in turn result in additional demands and needs for green space and open space within the downtown corridor.

 12:19
 And and I'd be remiss not to mention the Mother Teresa Place project that's taking place on the North East or pardon me, Northwestern corner of where Whitman is over on 4th and Ute.

 12:31
 An incredible project with 40 new beds if I if I recall correctly.

 12:35
 There are plenty of other projects happening here, but the real key piece in this is understanding Whitman Park somewhat sits in the the hole of the doughnut right now.

 12:45
 The doughnut's being improved all around it.

 12:47
 There's a distinct opportunity right now to build on this momentum that's taking place in the surrounding areas of the park.

 12:56
 Greg, if you'd like to jump in on the importance of women, well, it's obvious that Whitman Park is a a special place and an important place both now and in the past for the city of Grand Junction.

 13:11
 And and really what what we're trying to be a part of the team is to help move it into the future and have a vision for what it could be.

 13:20
 It is kind of the the primary open space in downtown Grand Junction.

 13:25
 So making sure that we capitalize and take advantage of this to maximize the community function is very important.

 13:32
 It's proximity to downtown just makes it a really such a strong connection to downtown.

 13:39
 It can be reciprocal and in terms of bringing energy to downtown and downtown, bringing energy to the park, both of those things working together is very important.

 13:48
 As James mentioned, it's it's surrounded by multiple planned or projects that are under construction right now, whether that's in the public or private realm.

 13:58
 They're all working to start to build momentum towards redevelopment of this, you know important area of the city.

 14:04
 And so really taking care to think about the future and all of the needs for for many user groups and for many types of events to happen in the park is is critical to its future success.

 14:23
 So currently we're under, we're undertaking the engagement and design process.

 14:28
 We do not begin concept design until we have performed the initial engagement and start hearing from the community.

 14:36
 So there are a number of techniques that have already been undertaking.

 14:41
 There are banners up at the park site right now that you can scan AQR code.

 14:45
 That's the image in the lower left hand, left hand side of your screen so you can scan the QR code.

 14:50
 You can go over to the Engage GJ website.

 14:54
 There's wonderful information over there on a number of projects, Whitman being one of them.

 14:59
 There's a community survey that's currently live and available for you if you would like to participate in that.

 15:05
 There's a lot of good feedback that can be extracted from that.

 15:07
 We also currently have direct communication out on Main Street right now.

 15:11
 As I mentioned, the project page for engaged GJ is live as well as the community survey speaking to the survey.

 15:17
 Our aim, we will be coming back around for additional engagement session in May May 13th, 14th time frame.

 15:26
 We are aiming to try to have as much of those survey results available at that time for that meeting so that we can help share that information as it's coming along.

 15:36
 Additionally, it should be noted the the first public engagement session is scheduled for Tuesday, April 2nd at 5:00 PM at the barn.

 15:48
 Alright man, jump to side and then the overall project process.

 15:52
 We're currently in the second tile here that we see the April one and two.

 15:56
 We've met with City Council members for a preliminary overview of the project.

 16:00
 We've talked with stakeholders of focus groups, with Prab and now we're getting ready to meet with the community and hear additional feedbacks there.

 16:07
 From there, we will move into the initial concept design phase.

 16:11
 Once we wrap up our concepts, we'll be coming back to meet with everyone again on the 4th tile that you see here, the council stakeholder Prab community meetings in the purple, That'll be May 13th, 14th again.

 16:23
 We'll be bringing those survey results.

 16:25
 With that, we'll be introducing the initial conceptual design ideas.

 16:30
 We'll be receiving and obtaining feedback determining what preferences we're hearing back from the community.

 16:36
 Once we receive that information from the May 13th, 14th sessions, we then go back to the design board.

 16:42
 We knockout the final concept package based upon the findings and the information that we receive in that second engagement session.

 16:51
 We then advance that final concept over to the city, receive feedback from there.

 16:56
 Then we advance over to the full schematic design package where we advance the overall design, start to build it toward a constructible set of documents.

 17:05
 There will also be a cost estimating exercise that occurs within that schematic design phase and that's projected to to be wrapped up in mid to late July.

 17:17
 And then really critical here is the overall engagement process.

 17:20
 As I mentioned, nothing begins for us in the design side until we have engaged with the community.

 17:26
 This is a critical opportunity to receive the feedback and understand what it is you all need and what your perceptions are and what you would like to see for the future of Women Park.

 17:38
 So as I mentioned earlier, we have two different engagement sessions.

 17:41
 Those are shown in the small tiles in blue at the bottom there, April first, second and May 13th, 14th and then again going forward toward the overall findings report in May and through July.

 17:53
 Critical in this engagement process is understanding there's a community survey that is readily available right now.

 17:59
 It's already being heavily utilized.

 18:01
 It's on the Engaged GJ website.

 18:03
 There are many options in that survey for you to provide feedback.

 18:08
 This is where we need to hear from you, the good and the bad on what you do want or what you may not want to occur in the park.

 18:21
 There we go.

 18:22
 And also we should touch on briefly some of the city outreach and events that are currently planned for Women Park.

 18:28
 Back in October of 2023, the city had provided a Get to Know Your City event out at Woodman Park.

 18:34
 This was well attended.

 18:35
 That's shown in the lower left hand slide.

 18:37
 Additional plan.

 18:38
 These are tentative events.

 18:40
 Right now.

 18:40
 Nothing is absolutely set with the dates, but they're planned for May 3rd for a bike night and Food Truck event, July 11th and 25th for a farmers Market extension at Woodman Park, and August 2nd for a movie night, art walk and food trucks at Woodman Park.

 18:55
 So a lot of wonderful opportunities planned in the near term schedule to re engage with Whitman Park as the site and start having some fun activities out there again.

 19:12
 And Greg you want to jump into the project goals and vision now.

 19:15
 Sure.

 19:16
 We've kind of brought forth some really high level goals and kind of vision categories.

 19:24
 These are fairly typical for urban parks, but really for us to focus on bringing back a sense of vibrancy to the park, obviously safety and security is extremely important and creating a a space for community gathering.

 19:39
 We want to encourage all types of active uses to happen and then a really key factor will be designing in flexibility so that we can have the park do different things at different times, whether it's hoarding small events, large events, anything in between.

 19:57
 It has the ability to do that.

 19:59
 And obviously we have to think about kind of long term projections for the park and is it maintainable, is it sustainable, those types of things.

 20:07
 You know, we keep asking the question, what would make a great park for you and the community, A couple of basic principles that we think apply to this particular park design.

 20:18
 Is, you know the urban park design principles and thinking about what we're trying to bring to the park.

 20:25
 So one of the base level lines would be using an environmental approach to make sure that we're thinking about sustainability, protection of the trees, things like that.

 20:35
 We want to focus on bringing something iconic and memorable to the the city, whether that's a focal point or whatever the theming may be for the the park that that's something that is not rooted in the context, The community programming and activation will be extremely important coming from both the the public sector and and the private sector.

 20:59
 How do we have events and how do we program this space so that there's lots of activation and energy and that's something that's kind of a little bit separate from the physical design, but but probably equally as important and in this case repurposing an underutilized space.

 21:16
 That's the key to success in this project.

 21:19
 You know from our design teams eyes it feels like this park has kind of been stagnant for a while and it and it's time for a facelift and to get a whole new life.

 21:27
 We want to celebrate the inherent qualities of the context and the site, bring in different layers and uses so that diverse groups can can use the park and enjoy it.

 21:37
 And then obviously as I mentioned flexibility for all types of uses and thinking about universal design to create opportunities, multi generational activity as well as access for all different types of users.

 21:52
 Here's just a real basic programming.

 21:54
 That we use as a guide to think about how we categorize the the uses and the programming from everyday experiences down to special events.

 22:04
 And we need to be able to allow for all of these things to happen.

 22:07
 So there's a lot of layers that happen within each one of these pyramid layers and lots of information within that.

 22:13
 But this is really a a strong guide for us to just make sure that we're allowing for the flexibility for all kinds of events.

 22:25
 So James, you want to run into some of the survey sure information.

 22:29
 Thank you, Craig.

 22:30
 So the the following list that we're showing is a collection of different design elements that we're putting out for consideration right now for the community to weigh in on.

 22:41
 There's a collection of slides that will show that correlate to each of these elements that that we're showing here in the list and we'll go through those briefly.

 22:51
 But do know that all of these items are available as a selectable option as well as an other option within the community survey that is currently available on the Engaged GJ website.

 23:03
 And I want to be absolutely clear in this that in in this listing at the bottom there is an other category.

 23:11
 We are not suggesting that this list is the full, encompassing everything there could be for elements in consideration.

 23:19
 If community members have certain thoughts or opinions, they can utilize that other box at the end of this listing and type in a comment in there, and that's where they need to do so.

 23:30
 We need to hear from everyone's perspective whether you think it should have an urban dog park or whether we should not touch it.

 23:37
 We need to understand the the full gamut of perspective and opinion from as many of the community members as we possibly can.

 23:47
 We will be no good at our job in any way, shape or form if we do not receive valid and meaningful feedback from the largest collection of resident base that we can.

 23:56
 And so briefly here we will roll through some of these imagery slides so that everyone at home has an opportunity.

 24:03
 So we have collections for seating.

 24:04
 01 of my slides is busted here.

 24:07
 We have collections for seating both fixed and and flexible style.

 24:12
 There are lighting suggestion or opportunities here but decorative and more engaged or interactive as you see at the bottom.

 24:19
 Lighting for security and safety will be included in the park.

 24:24
 That is an absolute given that that will be there shade canopies, multi use event stage.

 24:31
 As Greg had mentioned events were a historic component here in the park many years ago.

 24:38
 There there's certainly the opportunity for additional events building off of the vitality and energy up in main Main St.

 24:47
 recreational space opportunities, pollinator gardens and interpretive gardens, iconic elements, climbing and bouldering food trucks, always fun.

 24:59
 These would be more of a temporary type of set up.

 25:02
 However, they're very well could be a a organized corral so that it's orderly and clean.

 25:08
 A more permanent style food or coffee stand could be an option that folks might like a seasonal ice rink.

 25:14
 If we were to do something of that nature, it would probably be, it would likely be a synthetic in nature, but we would need to see if there's a demand for that urban dog park.

 25:24
 As I mentioned, there is the projection for an enhanced downtown residential base.

 25:29
 We know in Colorado folks love our furry friends.

 25:32
 So considering that public art you guys haven't unbelievable art scene already in downtown, we would love to see some component in the park building on on this picnic facilities as we had mentioned the prior gathering spaces, Wi-Fi connectivity.

 25:50
 We recognize there is a distinct workforce downtown and so Wi-Fi could be a a a convenience and additional element that could hope help to bring folks down to the Whitman Park.

 26:04
 Additionally, bike scooter parking, we recognize our multiple modes of transportation to get over to the park and the parking can be a challenge in certain conditions.

 26:14
 So looking at a multitude of opportunities for mobility.

 26:19
 We also are are recognizing of the the strength that you all have with the holiday lighting, the parade.

 26:26
 Roughly 30,000 people come out for attendance, which is just incredible and fantastic.

 26:31
 We'd love to see an opportunity with the tree canopy that we currently have in women to do some additional holiday lighting if that's desired.

 26:38
 Additionally, there can be some unique elements, outdoor fire pit, something of that nature, some swings and again there's the other category within the survey.

 26:49
 Please fill in any additional components that you would like to to have in consideration.

 26:56
 Following up on this, this is unfortunately not live right now, but we did want to share these questions in the physical meeting space.

 27:03
 We will have a live poll taking place for these three questions.

 27:08
 Do you live or work in downtown?

 27:11
 Pretty straightforward.

 27:12
 A yes or no question.

 27:13
 Two What is one word or a phrase that represents the culture or identity of Grand Junction that could be featured or highlighted in the park design?

 27:20
 We'd love to hear any perspective you all may have on this.

 27:23
 And then third, I could see myself walking or biking to Women Park if it was a desirable destination.

 27:30
 This is a yes or no or potentially a yes if something else were to bring you down as well.

 27:37
 And then finally, just so that everyone at home can understand the slides that we just showed with those imagery boards, Those are all interactive slides for the public engagement presentation on Tuesday the 2nd at 5:00 PM at the barn.

 27:51
 We'll be delving into these individual topics that are shown describe your vision for the future of women.

 27:57
 What experiences would you most like to participate in as an attraction piece for women, which would be your inspiration?

 28:04
 Station 3 is where all of those imagery survey slides are associated to station three.

 28:11
 There we also have a take the survey slide, AQR code encouraging folks to go over to the community survey and then an open station for questions.

 28:20
 And with that, Ken, I believe I can turn it back over to you.

 28:26
 Yeah, thanks so much, James and Greg, for running through the process that is unfolding as we speak.

 28:32
 I just put one last plug in to take that survey because really the more we hear from the community, the better we are to be able to understand what the community needs and its Parks and Recreation system.

 28:44
 So we're really relying on you and your family and your neighbors and friends to be able to inform and tell us what you'd like to see in the future of Whitman.

 28:53
 Lastly, just want to encourage you to come out to join us on May 14th.

 28:57
 James had mentioned May 13th and 14th is the next phase in the public process.

 29:02
 So May 14th is actually the community meeting at 5:00 PM.

 29:05
 We'll be holding that Tuesday, May 14th at the barn and that will be the presentation of the concepts that are going to grow out of this stage in the public process.

 29:16
 So again, thank you so much for caring about your Parks and Recreation system and helping us make it the best it can be.

 29:22
 Appreciate your time.

 29:23
 Take care.