Consultants presented a citywide analysis on July 22 that identified areas of Kenmore with limited walkable access to parks and concentrations of social vulnerability, and they urged the city to target pocket parks and connectivity improvements.

Tom Beckwith, the consultant, displayed maps showing five- and ten-minute walk sheds around public parks and said several neighborhoods lack nearby playgrounds or small parks. He noted the analysis will later include parks outside city limits and school grounds to present a fuller picture of residents' actual walking access to recreation. "When we did this walkability map at first, we only mapped your parks, but we also know that you have some parks that are right on the city limits ... and so when we redo this map, we'll include those parks," Beckwith said.

The consultant layered social-equity indicators from the American Community Survey and identified a northwest area with high housing cost burden (percent paying more than 30 percent of income for housing), a corridor north of the highway with higher percentages of people of color and limited-English households, and pockets with higher rates of physical disability. Beckwith said the data will be used to compare park distribution with community need and to identify gaps where pocket parks or improved pedestrian connections could serve residents.

Staff and commissioners discussed partnering with North Shore School District and other jurisdictions to expand accessible places to recreate, but Beckwith and Debbie Bennett, the city’s community development director, cautioned that school access is uneven. The meeting noted two school-design models: older open-campus schools that historically allowed public access and newer, closed-campus designs with perimeter fencing. Beckwith said, "Now there's another issue in that design too, and that's can a police officer drive by and survey the campus? ... One of the disadvantages of the closed school model is where they're behind the buildings. It's not that very not that easy to drive by and see what's going on."

Residents at the meeting urged mapping which vacant or underused parcels could support neighborhood or pocket parks and requested overlays showing which parcels remain developable versus fully built out. Commissioners and residents also raised park accessibility within parks — for example, steep slopes at Wallace Park entrances — and asked staff to examine grade and ADA access as part of the park-by-park reviews.

No formal commitments or funding decisions were made; staff said site-by-site analyses and further public workshops will follow the draft plan materials. The consultant said the later phase will identify specific facilities (playgrounds, trails, courts, pocket parks) and proposed financing strategies.