MERCER ISLAND, Wash. -- In a corner of Mercerdale Park, an old recycling building stubbornly exists despite the growth of Mercer Island around it.
John Gordon Hill sees the building site, and part of the park itself, as the perfect home for a $25 million performing arts center.
"A place for kids, for families, for seniors," explained Hill, "This is a blighted part of the park. Here's an opportunity to take private money, not taxpayer money, and build this beautiful center for the arts."
The Mercer Island Center for the Arts (MICA) already has the blessing of city officials. As part of a leasing plan, subject to environmental review, MICA would pay $1 a year for the park land.
MICA's main tenant would be Youth Theatre Northwest, a 32-year-old Mercer Island staple.
The site in Mercerdale Park was approved in 2013, and since then Concerned Citizens for Mercer Island Parks has voiced opposition, not with the plan itself, but with the location and the process to select it.
"We want to save the parks," said Meg Lippert with Concerned Citizens, "The basic point is not specifically what's happening to that particular park, but this is a way to protect all of our parks."
Concerned Citizens for Mercer Island Parks recently got approval to gather signatures for its Protect Our Parks petition, with the intention of creating a November ballot measure. It would require any park land sale or development to get public approval first.
"The whole idea is that the citizens have a voice," said Lippert, "It should not be decided behind closed doors with the city council."
Hill and other city leaders said there has been plenty of public discussion through the process.
"That would be really, really bad," Hill said of the potential of a November ballot measure, "It would create a situation where MICA couldn't be built, or it would be extremely difficult for MICA to be built."
Backers of the Protect Our Parks petition have until May to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Hill hopes ground can be broken for MICA in the summer of 2017.
