Bellingham’s newest neighborhood park gets a name
Bellingham’s newest park will be called Storybrook Park, after the City Council unanimously approved that name and a plan for its development in the Birchwood neighborhood.
In selecting the name Monday, Dec. 12, the council accepted the recommendation of the appointed Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, which had sought public input in selecting a name for the 7-acre park on Maplewood Avenue south of McLeod Road.
“This is quite a development for this part of the city that doesn’t have these kinds of resources available,” said Councilman Skip Williams, who chairs the Parks and Recreation Commission.
Storybrook Park was No. 8 on a list of names submitted through the Engage Bellingham website, but it was a favorite of one Parks Board member who persuaded the rest of the panel, said Jonathan Schilk, the city’s landscape architect who designed the park.
Other proposed names included The Woods, Parky McParkFace Park and an offensive nickname for the area.
It will include a playground, trails, a picnic shelter, restroom, youth activity area and a “food forest” for foraging wild fruits, nuts and berries, Schilk told the council in a pair of presentations on Monday.
“The park is going to serve a lot of low-income people living in the multi-family housing located within a half-mile of the park boundary and will give them a nice range of recreational opportunities that don’t currently exist in this part of Bellingham,” he said.
Natural materials will be used in building the playground and it will be designed to promote “imaginative play,” he said.
Much of the area will remain wooded and maintain the park’s natural features, including wetlands.
The park’s $5 million design and construction will be paid for with funds from the Greenways levy, according to a staff memo.
It’s surrounded mostly by single-family homes and is located on land the city bought in 2008 and 2010 for a total $481,000.
