EVERETT — If the city decides to remove the 103-year-old gazebo in Clark Park, it will be without the support of the Everett Historical Commission — for now.
The commission voted unanimously Tuesday to “indefinitely suspend” its decision whether to grant the city a certificate to remove the gazebo. The commission wants to explore ways to keep the gazebo in place, alongside the off-leash dog park the city has planned for the area.
Ultimately, the call could come down to City Council members, who would need to approve funding to preserve or remove the gazebo.
Last month, the city asked the historical commission for a certificate of appropriateness before removing the gazebo.
“‘Certificate of appropriateness’ means the commission has reviewed the proposed changes to a register property and certified the changes as not adversely affecting the historic characteristics of the property which contribute to its designation,” city code reads.
The commission, however, doesn’t think this is the proper move and “has decided to indefinitely postpone the City’s request for a certificate of appropriateness to demolish the Clark Park gazebo and build a dog park.”
“The commission strongly feels that a certificate of appropriateness is not the appropriate mechanism for this request,” commission Chair Patrick Hall wrote in a letter Tuesday to the City Council. “We believe that a waiver of a certificate of appropriateness would have been the correct path.”
City code says a waiver is required to allow “whole or partial demolition of a designated Everett register property.” The city argued the park itself is what was placed on the city’s register of historic places in 1993, while the gazebo wasn’t formally included.
Mayor Cassie Franklin announced in January the city intended to “remove” the gazebo, citing safety issues. City staff said a covered structure in the park is an “attractive nuisance” and is associated with more crime. City parks staff asked the historical commission for permission to disassemble the gazebo and store it.
The architecture was one of the key reasons for the park’s nomination to the historic register.
“The gazebo is now the only remaining structure within Clark Park that offers any sense of architectural significance,” Hall wrote. “Its demolition would rob the park of a major reason why it was put on the register in the first place. Without it, its historical status would be a mere technicality, and it would lose any visible sense of its identity.”
City documents say granting a certificate of appropriateness is up to the city planning director.
When asked if the city can remove the gazebo without the commission’s approval, city spokesperson Simone Tarver wrote in an email: “The City is not seeking the commission’s approval on removing the gazebo.”
“The request of the commission is to ‘recommend a Certificate of Appropriateness for the Clark Park Dog Area and Park Renovation Project with appropriate conditions to meet the project goals while preserving Everett’s heritage and retaining a sense of the past as the city grows and changes,’” she continued. “This would be their input/ideas on how the gazebo could be memorialized within the dog park design or otherwise within the park.”
A certificate would allow the city to move forward with removal, assuming the City Council approves a dog park and funding to remove the gazebo. A waiver would allow the council to weigh in on whether the gazebo should be removed at all, commissioner Jean Satti-Hewat said at the meeting Tuesday.
The city’s next steps are unclear.
“It’s disappointing that we weren’t able to get the commission’s input on how the gazebo’s look and style could be incorporated into the new dog park design; but looking ahead, we will be working on next steps, keeping our goal of reactivating this obviously beloved park as our focus,” Tarver said in an email Wednesday.
The park is a common place for homeless people to gather, as parks are exempt from the mayor’s no-sit, no-lie zones established in 2021.
For decades, the Bayside Neighborhood Association spearheaded efforts to “activate” Clark Park. Neighbors are scared to go to the park, association Chair Henry Cotter told the commission in March.
Last month, the city proposed removing and storing the gazebo in a city-owned facility. In its place would be “interpretive signage” to memorialize the gazebo, along with the gazebo’s design elements incorporated in the dog park’s fencing.
The commission instead wants to explore applying for grants to remodel the gazebo or see how the dog park works to reactivate the park — before removing it.
In 2022, the city parks department along with the Historical Commission mulled over ways to redesign the gazebo so it could shut when not in use. Adding shutters and new lighting would cost around $400,000, and moving it to another spot could cost around $200,000, Tarver said in an email. Demolishing the gazebo would cost about $20,000. Disassembling and storing the structure would cost a little more than that, but Tarver didn’t have an exact figure on-hand this month.
City Council member Paula Rhyne suggested the city “designate the gazebo as surplus property” and put it up for auction for residents to bid on. She proposed including removal costs and the responsibility of removing the gazebo into the purchase costs, relieving the city of preservation costs.
“Though I’ve put forward this sensible solution a few different times, I have yet to hear if it has been seriously taken into consideration,” Rhyne said in an email earlier this month.
In recent months, residents and historic advocates have rallied to preserve the gazebo. Historic Everett, a local nonprofit, organized an event at the gazebo in February where residents gathered in support of saving the structure.
The group also launched a campaign this month, putting out ads calling on residents to ask the mayor and city staff to allow the gazebo to remain.
Ashley Nash: 425-339-3037; ashley.nash@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @ash_nash00.
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