Residents bounce ideas for Jackie Renninger Park
- Ellie Ruel
- 40 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 6 minutes ago
Parks and Recreation asks residents to consider what elements they consider phase one priorities at the five-acre site as city copes with revenue loss
By Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
Thoughts and opinions about the proposed Jackie Renninger Park improvement plan were shared – sometimes loudly – at a 35% design public meeting in the Mendenhall Valley Public Library on Wednesday night.
This was the sixth public comment meeting held on the plan, which is now in its “revision” phase before going in front of the Assembly for approval. The city is accepting comments on the proposed design through Feb. 15.
While residents talked up their sometimes conflicting desires for things like pickleball courts and an ice rink, a city leader presiding over the meeting prefaced the Q&A with a reality check.
“From the city's perspective we think this is a really important project because, as you can see in this part of town, we really don't have a lot of parks,” said Juneau Parks and Recreation director Marc Wheeler. “The city has had some serious budget challenges after the election last fall. So it's going to be challenging to move this forward, but with all of your support, we're hoping that we can make this project reality at some point, but it's probably not going to be really soon.”
Wheeler said the project is likely to cost about $14 million overall, not including the city’s overhead.
“It's going to be up to the voters and the Assembly to decide how to make this happen. We're looking at phasing the project, maybe slimming things down,” he said.
The current preferred park plan includes an ages 5-12 and tot playground area, a covered playground, eight pickleball courts, a multi-court, a small dog park, day-use shelters, a climbing boulder, and a quarter-mile loop trail with exercise stations and a disc golf course.
Pipeline Skate Park is set to be rebuilt on the other side of the five-acre property due to a currently failing roof and then expanded to include a skate plaza. The new design incorporates a more open structure to discourage some of the vandalism and “behavior issues” the current skate park has, according to Corvus Design engineer Christopher Mertl.
What should be included in the top priorities was a vocal debate among about 30 attendees. While pickleball courts were second only to a playground on a public list of priorities, with 37.1% of respondents prioritizing it, the proposed eight courts drew the ire of Wednesday’s participants.
A few residents of the surrounding neighborhoods were concerned about a possible noise issue from the courts. About 50 feet of trees would pad the area from the edge of the pickleball courts to the nearest street. One person was frustrated by the deforestation, and others asked Parks and Rec to develop rules to keep the noise levels down.
Another debate was the possible seasonal conversion of half the pickleball courts to an ice rink. Mertl said that while it isn’t in the current master plan, there’s been a groundswell of support from the community for the facility. He also suggested private entities apply for grants that the city cannot in order to fund the rink project.
“We need champions in the communities that want to become partners. Because the city can't do all this on their own. We know what the current budget constraints are,” Mertl said.
During the meeting, local hockey players said the addition would be heavily used by the community in winter. The group also suggested it could be a permanent fixture for summer training or rollerskating, since the pickleball courts would likely not see year-round use.
But Mertl said the eight pickleball courts are a priority, earlier citing pickleball as the “fastest growing sport not only in Juneau but in the U.S. and North America.” Juneau currently has pickleball courts at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park, Cope Park, the University of Alaska Southeast Recreation Center, and The Alaska Club. The city also hosts pickup pickleball games at the Floyd Dryden Gym three days a week.
Oliver Scheufelt is a hockey player with the Juneau Adult Hockey Association and came to the meeting in support of the ice sheet proposal. Scheufelt said practice space at Treadwell Arena is currently a competition between a large number of different user groups, so a second local sheet of ice would make a big difference.
“The limit on our registration and on our recruitment to play hockey in Juneau is mostly ice time. We hit the cap on our ice time every season,” Scheufelt said. “It does limit our program. We're able to provide beginner instruction, but we don't have any time for intermediate skill sessions, or player development outside of just playing games.”
The second half of the two-hour meeting was dedicated to a worksession for the skate park itself. Skaters weighed in on design elements like pyramids and curves, the inclusion of a stair set, and how well different types of concrete would drain in wet conditions. A couple of small tweaks were considered to the design by New Line Skateparks, including angles and rail placement.
• Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
