PORT ANGELES — Nearly 100 people gathered at a meeting this week to take suggestions for Lincoln Park on a park redesign master plan — whether the trees stay or go.

The point of the meeting Wednesday night was to gather suggestions, not take public comment on whether or not the trees should come down, said Juliet Vong, president of HBB Landscape Architecture of Seattle, which the Port of Port Angeles hired to create the master plan.

“We’re not here to debate,” Vong said.

She made it clear that the plan is a “what if” situation, a look at many alternatives for the park, and that no decisions have been made on the fate of hundreds of Douglas fir trees in the park.

The audience was asked to submit written suggestions as to what they would like to see added to the park owned by the city of Port Angeles — including changes that could be made without cutting the trees, Vong said.

Suggestions included improving the interface with the fairgrounds, more public bathrooms, building an amphitheater for free concerts in the park, building a soccer field complex similar to the existing baseball complex, a dog park and creating more handicapped-accessible paths through the park.

Cutting trees for runway

The port is proposing that most of the trees in the park, which is owned by the city of Port Angeles, be removed in 2013 or 2014 to maintain a safe landing approach for a runway at the port’s adjacent William R. Fairchild International Airport.

Doug Sandau, the port’s airport manager, gave a slide presentation Wednesday at the Vern Burton Community Center and said the airport’s runway 26, which runs east and west, has lost 1,354 feet of usable approach runway because of the tall trees in Lincoln Park.

If trees keep growing, then the usable approach will shorten more, he warned.

In August, the Port of Port Angeles was awarded a $150,000 grant to create a master plan for the redevelopment of Lincoln Park, if the existing trees are removed.

The final plan must be approved by the Port Angeles City Council.

The Federal Aviation Administration has said some trees that have grown into the flight path must come down to maintain the current landing approach for runway 26.

The port, which has cut overly tall trees several times in the past 20 years, has asked for permission to cut them all and replace them with shorter tree species and a new park design.

Future use

After the presentations, about 50 people stayed to discuss their ideas for the park and write them on individual comment forms or on giant note pads scattered throughout the room.

Stephen Zenovic, the civil engineer hired for the engineering portions of the project, said the meeting generated many good suggestions.

Those suggestions will be examined, and many could be incorporated into several possible plans.

Many of the park’s current features will be grandfathered into the park plan, Vong said.

Park neighbor Lily Thompson said she didn’t mind changes and that some of the ideas looked pretty good.

Concerned about cutting trees

However, Thompson said she was concerned that if trees were cut, then economic realities would stop redevelopment efforts and neighbors of the park would be left with an ugly piece of clearcut land.

“How are we going to ensure that the money is going to be available through the end of the project?” Thompson asked city employees at the event.

Thompson also said trees provide a windbreak and hoped some could be retained.

Greg Home, who owns Lincoln Park Grocery, 1500 W. Lauridsen Blvd., across from the park, said his initial reaction was, “No, not the trees!”

On Wednesday, he said he wanted more information.

He said he did not specifically oppose tree-cutting but that the park must remain a popular attraction for the success of his business.

Whatever will bring more people to the park is what Home would prefer, whether it is saving as many trees as possible or cutting them and redeveloping the park, he said.

The meeting was not what Lincoln Park “save the trees” activists were expecting.

Expected public hearing

William Hunt and Devon Graywolf, who have been campaigning to keep the trees in Lincoln Park, said they believed the meeting was meant to be a public hearing, where they and about 20 other tree supporters who attended would get their chance to speak.

When the group realized there was going to be no public comment session, they began to shout from their seats.

At one point, Hunt interrupted Vong’s presentation, carrying a copy of a petition to save the trees to the front of the room.

“Fifteen hundred people want to save the trees,” he shouted.

Graywolf sang a song about the trees on the microphone until an unidentified person in the audience pulled the plug.

She and several others continued to sing without the microphone.

After the meeting, city employees fielded complaints from the activists.

“How they got the impression that this was an open hearing, I don’t know,” said City Manager Kent Myers.

“We’ve always promoted this as an open house.”

There will be public hearings and other chances for them to speak in the future, he said.

He didn’t specify dates for hearings.

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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.