Access to wheelchair garden beds

[Philip Small]

Hello Friends of Polly Judd Park:

On Wednesday 5/24, neighborhood representatives Phil Small (FOPJP), Patricia Hansen, and Judy Gardner met with city representatives George Dahl (Neighborhood Services), Nick Hamad and Garrett Jones (Parks) to discuss accessibility to community gardens. The Cliff/Cannon Neighborhood Council voted earlier in May to steer the neighborhood’s discretionary 2017 community development (CD) funding to provide ADA compliant access to wheelchair garden beds. This funding addresses multiple neighborhood council intentions relating to equal access, neighborhood cohesion, resiliency, aesthetics, and the need for the garden to be successful in engaging community participation. 

At the 5/24 meeting with City representatives, Phil provided a scaled overlay to show the location of wheelchair accessible beds. Guided by that overlay, Nick Hamad agreed to prepare Parks’ application for CD funding to Neighborhood Services, and submit by the June 30th deadline. Garrett will press Legal to prepare the community garden MOU between the City and FOPJP’s Fiduciary Agent, the Lands Council so that the path construction project meets Neighborhood Services requirements to release the CD funds. Path construction would occur in 2019. Phil will work up wheelchair wicking bed design, material list, and cost for  a separate fundraising effort to pay for these beds.

George Dahl, Neighborhood Services, stressed several points: 1) Friends of Polly Judd Park  (FOPJP) must develop the wheelchair accessible bed area prior to pathway construction. Bed installation for example. 2) The beds accessible by the ADA path system cannot be isolated from public access by gates and fencing 3) No fees can be charged for the use of the accessible beds.

On item 2, fencing, Phil responded that currently we don’t have a deer problem, and that foraging by deer can be managed to some degree by planting garden boundary areas and entry points with forage plants. This works best if we know which direction deer tend to approach form. Currently we have no identified security or predation need for a fence. Good design principles mean we need an identifiable entrance, and an identifiable perimeter to contain garden activities. We can achieve a perimeter and entry points without formal fencing. 

Warm regards, 

Phil