City sees path forward on Cliff Clemens Park

The City of Sisters is starting to get a picture of how Cliff Clemens Park will look as it is fully developed, with improvements provided by the Sisters Kiwanis Club.

It appears that the Sisters Community Garden won't be part of that picture.

In late 2007 the Sisters Community Garden Committee approached the City Council about relocating the community garden to Cliff Clemens Park, located on Larch Street at the north end of town. The garden's present site, leased to the committee on a season-by-season basis by Sisters Habitat for Humanity, is located on two lots on Adams Avenue between Larch and Spruce Streets.

The committee had to find a new location for the garden, as the lease expires after the 2008 growing season. Cliff Clemens Park seemed to be the perfect solution.

The City Council advised the committee to get neighbor input and feedback on their proposal before anything could move forward. The committee took the neighbors' temperature on the idea in January of this year. This fueled a debate which has continued into May.

"This was probably our mistake," said Mayor Brad Boyd. "We asked the Community Garden folks to canvas or check in with the neighborhood. They had a public meeting at which hardly anyone showed up, then an article appeared in The Nugget and people started calling (City Hall), and a petition was signed by 38 people in the area all saying, 'We don't want this garden.'"

The matter came up again in January, but Mayor Boyd felt the council was not going through the appropriate process for the application, citing a need for a public hearing.

"One of the goals of the council was: 'Let's just step back and have a community input meeting with people in the neighborhood to address several issues.' One, some of the newer people who moved into the neighborhood around 2006 have never seen the earlier plans that were created way back to 2000. Two, it's a city park so it needs to meet the needs of the city at large. And three, it's a neighborhood park so we want to be sure we're not cramming anything down the neighbors' throats," said Mayor Boyd.

Five months later, the community workshop was held on Tuesday, May 13. Approximately 35 to 40 neighbors, community members and city staff attended.

"The purpose of the workshop was to first describe the history of the park, review Kiwanis' improvement proposals, give the Community Garden group a chance to explain their proposal, and to gauge what type of improvements the community wants to see in the park," said Eric Porter, Sisters Director of Planning & Community Development.

Jeremy Ast felt the meeting began on the right track.

"The city was up-front in the beginning of the meeting by saying 'We've not been doing this right in the past and now we want to be sure we're involving the community with information and input up-front about this park,'" said Ast.

However, Ast noted, "there were those from the neighborhood who were focused on not wanting the community garden - period," Ast said.

Emotions ran high.

"The meeting turned into an anti-community garden meeting and I had to ask a number of people to please stop arguing," said Boyd.

Marlys Underwood, co-President of the Sisters Community Garden Committee, said, "The meeting was a little more volatile than I was expecting."

Sensing the Community Garden was opposed by many neighbors Mayor Boyd made an executive decision: "In order to move the meeting along I made the decision to take the Community Garden (relocating to Cliff Clemens Park) off the table for discussion," said the Mayor.

This decision did not sit well with some Community Garden advocates in attendance; several left the meeting abruptly.

"Some people walked out of the meeting because they didn't see any reason to stay once the decision was made. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding of what the purpose of the meeting was but we did spend a lot of time preparing for the meeting and I'm not sure we were entirely heard," said Underwood.

The Kiwanis Club stayed neutral throughout the discussion.

"I respect the executive decision the mayor made to remove the Community Garden (from Cliff Clemens Park). We're really apolitical in that regard, we just want to get going on the improvements," said Tay Robertson.

"My goal for the meeting was not to kill the Community Garden in any way, shape, or form. It was to try to move forward at Cliff Clemens Park and not just have it be a patch of grass but to turn it into an asset that the whole city will use," said Mayor Boyd.

Once the meeting was back on track the city's goals for the meeting seem to have been realized.

The neighbors agreed to the following improvements for the park: restrooms, tree and shrub landscaping, a children's play structure, an entryway arch commemorating Cliff Clemens and a small amount of picnic area. The neighbors agreed not to include a perimeter fence, paved or gravel paths, or a permanent pavilion or gazebo.

But the meeting left the Community Gardens people with an uneasy feeling about a plot of land for the 2009 growing season.

"We have some options to explore but they aren't necessarily ideal. We'd like to be in the city limits so people can walk or bike to the garden. Brad Boyd did allude to many other civic-owned vacant land parcels that we can have discussions about, he gave us some hope that we can partner with the city to make this happen," said Marlys Underwood.

The next step in the planning process lies with city staff, specifically Eric Porter's team of planners.

"We're now being asked by the council to prepare a site plan that includes elements discussed at the community workshop. We've also been directed to work with the neighborhood and with Kiwanis to develop a plan that is acceptable to everyone and generally consistent with the city's Park Master Plan," said Eric Porter.

Mayor Boyd added "The neighborhood also appointed a representative who will sit with city staff and Kiwanis to work out a plan, then it will go to the planning commission where there will be another opportunity for public input."

Kiwanis is ready to get working on the final improvements.

"This final site plan is now the city's responsibility to come up with based on all the input. We're ready to get going!" said Kiwanis President Tay Robertson.