Stage proposed for Lakewood’s Fort Steilacoom Park, money needed

After a months long process shaping plans to build a public stage at Fort Steilacoom Park, the Lakewood City Council now must decide how to move forward with the project, including how to pay for it.

“We need to take a look at what the cost of something like this would be,” Parks and Recreation Director Mary Dodsworth told the council last week.

The preliminary estimate is $750,000.

The city also needs to draft a business plan for the facility, Dodsworth said.

Despite uncertainty about the source of the funding and questions about who would use the facility, the city’s parks and recreation advisory board knows it wants a covered stage at the 340-acre regional park.

The stage would be approximately 40 feet by 60 feet and located near a maintenance shed not far from playground equipment and ball fields. It’s a different location than the city’s original proposal for an amphitheater on the hillside between the historic barns and Waughop Lake.

Two designs were presented last week. One is minimalistic in scale, with open sides and a roof. The other looks like a barn, has three sides and the option for locked storage.

The city’s parks advisory board supports the construction of either structure, but prefers the barn design, Dodsworth told the council.

The parks board held a series of public meetings during the spring and summer to gather input about what to build in the park. The two design options are the result of those meetings.

The public process was planned in response to backlash when an amphitheater was proposed in 2014.

Despite the city trying to be inclusive, one man who lives near Fort Steilacoom Park spoke out against the process Monday night.

David Forte told the council he felt the city was trying to placate residents with public meetings while still producing the result the city wanted.

“This was not a citizen input process, this was a directed choice process,” Forte said.

From the beginning, the city focused on where to put a stage and what it would look like, not whether it was something people supported, he said.

A business plan and information about who would use the stage should have been developed before the facility was designed, Forte said.

He cited a lack of people in the audience Monday as an indicator the public doesn’t support the idea.

The only other person to speak about the proposal was Dave Coleman, the immediate past president of the Rotary Club of Lakewood.

Last year the civic club pledged to raise $300,000 to help pay for a gathering place like a stage or “an acre for the arts” somewhere in the city. Since that pledge, the city and club have focused on Fort Steilacoom Park as the site for that venue.

Rotary originally proposed the amphitheater to host events such as local theater productions, concerts and private events, including weddings.

“We continue to stand ready to raise money and be part of the process,” Coleman said. “We are doing what we can to see that we build a facility that will last for the years to come.”

The City Council will take up discussion in October or November.

This story was originally published September 26, 2015 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Stage proposed for Lakewood’s Fort Steilacoom Park, money needed."