Entrada Park - people, meetings,
current status, etc.
The cast of principal characters includes: Anna Richards, Laura Wilson,
Hope Reed, Steve Counsell, Karl Kregor and Hubert van Hecke, all from
the Don Diego
neighborhood. We have much support, encouragement and advice from
the planning staff at city hall, in particular from Carrie Lacrosse and
Cyrus Samii. You can contact us
by clicking here.
- August 98: plan is first proposed
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- (I need to reconstruct the history here...)
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- Feb-Mar 99: Made the model,
engineering drawings etc.
- 10 Mar 99: Meeting with Carrie, Cyrus and Carlos Martinez of
Planning. We reviewed the plans, and decided to put the park on the
list of candidates for Capital Improvement Projects (CIP).
For this we
drafted a 1-page proposal.
The submission is due on 17 Mar 99.
- 11 April 99: The Don Diego Neighborhood Association had its
quarterly meeting on this day, at 14:30 in the Unitarian Church as
usual. We had a presentation of the model and all of our
drawings during the hour preceeding the meeting.
- May 99: We were asked to place the model in the council chamber at
city hall, so I made a plexiglass cover for it. It should be there
now for your viewing pleasure, up on the second floor in the
planning division.
- September 99: After a scuffle over CIP funds, in which all of the
next 2 years' worth of CIP funds were almost hijacked to build only
a few streets in the Southwest corner, reason prevailed (to some
extent), and the Entrada Park funds were restored to the CIP list
of projects. We got $50k for this fiscal year, and $50k for next.
- November 99: The winning design for the bus stop was chosen, and
we met with the engineer in charge of the project to start planning
phasing. We mostly worried about drainage.
- January 9 2000: at our quarterly neighborhood meeting (14:30 in the
Unitarian Church), we'll show what we hav so far, and the engineer
and the bus stop artists will be there.
- The bus stop shelter has run into trouble.
- February 28 2000: The perimeter comes before the Public Safety
Committee. (3 PM Sweeney room 3). Passed without the clarification
of the Old Don Diego
entrance. Safety also directs us not to have a bus stop
there, citing the trouble that a stopped bus just beyond a green
light on Cerillos would cause. Good.
- March 6 2000, 5:15 in the City Council Chambers. Proposal goes
before the Finance Committee. We now have $100k!
- 2000... the ball is dropped somewhere at City Hall.
- February 2001: the ball is found and we approve the blueprints
for the curb-and-gutter work. We also made a big 'future Entrada
Park' sign, which we put up on the lot.
- December 2001: The matter of who owns the dirt between the sidewalk and Old Don
Diego was researched again by Legal, and 1984 documents show the City does not own
all of it, plus there there was an easement for 5 more parking places on the park
land itself. A compromise was drawn up. Keep fingers crossed.
- 4 Jan 2002. Laura disagrees with the opinion of Legal, see
this page
- 12 March 2002 (and Feb 26): Met with Robert Romero, and after moving the parking
around to
various places, it is now basically back where it was. The only difference is
that the places are now part of Grine's easement, and in principle not 'public'.
- 17 June 2002: the perimeter is now fixed. Now we're haggling over the placement
of paths and patios on the interior. One problem is that the whole site drops by
8' south-to-north, which is a 150' distance. This is approximately 6% grade. However,
ADA requires paths to be at 5% grade or less. This means curved paths in strategic places.
- Over the summer of 2002 we (Laura, Anna and Hubert) have had several meetings with
Robert Romero about various details of curb-and-gutter, stonework, materials
and the like. Very fruitful. We signed off - literally - on a final curb-and-gutter plan
in August.
- Friday October 18: Groundbreaking ceremony! The mayor, city hall staff, and many more will be
there. Refreshments and all!
OK, the mayor wasn't there, but here are some pictures.
- Fall 2004: after a hiatus, work has resumed. In November, rock was delivered and
we built some of the dry streambeds.
- Spring 2005: Planting plan,
and current planting activities
If you'd like to see what we have, ask questions, join in to help,
contact us!
Last update 18 April 2005 - HvH
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