Council backs park design direction, asks for Murphy Park details and to keep gazebo optional
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Summary
Design team presented three Murphy Park concepts tied to the downtown civic campus; council favored a plan with expanded green space and asked staff to preserve historical elements, consider removing some street parking, and return with detailed cost/schedule.
Design staff presented three concept layers for Murphy Park on June 24 as part of the downtown campus reinvestment project and asked the Glendale City Council for a design consensus to move into detailed design.
Don Bessler, director of engineering, introduced the project team and reminded the council that the park and the new civic campus elements are interdependent. Designer Michael Jacobs and landscape architect Nathaniel Kirby walked the council through the site analysis, public outreach in 2023 and 2024, and three options staff labeled Baseline (A), Baseline Plus (B) and Baseline Plus Plus (C).
Key issues identified in the site analysis included non‑ADA compliant brick paving with trip hazards, multiple mismatched light fixtures, a mix of benches (some historic or community-painted), donor plaques embedded in hardscape, and a mix of trees with some in poor condition. Kirby said the design intent across concepts is to increase shade trees and create flexible lawn rooms for events; Baseline Plus adds a reconfigured hardscape loop that better knits the library, amphitheater and city hall into a single campus and flushes lawn to paving for event use. Baseline Plus Plus is the same as Plus but adds a gazebo and a smaller event plaza adjacent to it; staff said the gazebo location was not final.
Council discussion focused on preserving donor plaques and historic elements, the look of lighting fixtures, the number and species of trees, and whether to remove the on‑street diagonal parking along Glendale Avenue. Several councilmembers urged that donor plaques be carefully removed and reinstalled in a single mapped location so families can find memorials; staff said the plaques and other historic artifacts would be salvaged, preserved and re‑installed in the park in a manner directed by council. On lighting, staff proposed perimeter historic fixtures to match downtown streetscape while using modern directional poles inside the park to reduce pole clutter and improve path lighting.
Councilmembers debated parking: some urged maintaining the south parking area (diagonal stalls) but suggested switching to parallel parking; others supported removing the street parking to enlarge the park and improve sight lines. Staff said removal would add cost and would be evaluated in the detailed design and budget.
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission recommended Baseline Plus (Concept B) with an emphasis on increased green landscaping. In the June 9 public meeting staff reported that the majority of participants favored Baseline Plus or Baseline Plus Plus.
Council members asked for further detail and expressed general support for Baseline Plus with the option to add a gazebo later if a suitable site is identified and utility needs can be met. Several members requested that staff return with detailed cost estimates, tree selection and warranty plans (staff said trees would be hand‑selected nursery stock with establishment care and typical warranty coverage), a plan to salvage and remap donor plaques, and options for eliminating or reconfiguring the Glendale Avenue parking strip. Staff also recommended hand‑picked shade trees and consolidation of turf to create programmable lawn rooms.
No formal appropriation was made at the workshop. Staff said the next steps were to refine the design direction, produce detailed drawings and cost estimates, and return to council in a narrower voting meeting that could authorize a guaranteed maximum price and construction schedule.
