New Bike Skills Area at Deane's Children's Park

I just saw the east BSA access -- to/from Island Crest. I didn't know that an east access was actually going to be implemented. It's fantastic! It's got that dipsy-do just before exiting that will slow riders down, and the exit dumps riders directly into a nasty briar patch --- instead of Island Crest itself. Brilliant use of existing features to force caution. Kudos to the designers, this seems to address all of my concerns back in January.

Super excited to see this plan come to fruition. This is a fantastic to breath some life back into the park by encouraging multiple users. So glad my kids will have more options for riding on the island. This is such a great community for kids, and giving them a healthy option is super important, especially with the otherwise lack of infostructure for kids to be able to explore their town.

On the park itself I would really like to see all the fencing and gates removed. This seems like creating artificial boundaries in a natural area. I would want to see folks be able to discover this great feature from any direction. It would also be fantastic to get better access to the park off 84th. Currently it seems rather underutilized and would be nice to see more activity on that side also.

Further I think having all of our green spaces connected with trails for users of all kids would be so awesome. Would allow folks to be able to connect to parts of the community without needing to get in the car. I for one would love to be able to ride from north to south in our lovely ribbon of green.

I was snooping around on the Mercer Island mountain bike team website, and I came across this interesting blurb:
"We practice on the island during the week exploring Pioneer Park, Island Park, and Upper Luther Burbank park." [URL: https://mercerislandmtb.org/home/rides/]
Has anybody seen anything resembling an organized group ride in the parks? (group size might be 2? or more?) I've heard anecdotally of riders in the SE quad of Pioneer Park, but the comment was too general to pin to any MI MTB team activity. I haven't seen anything like this in ICP.

I love the idea of a bike park in Deane's Children's Park and appreciate the community's efforts to give more outdoor options to our families and children. However, access to the bike park should be limited to the parking lot next to Deane's Children's Park, the baseball field, and Island Crest Way. Access to the bike park should not be advertised, promoted or authorized from other entry points west of Deane's Children's Park, as those trails are heavily used by walkers, runners, and pets alike. I have never walked those trails without running into multiple people and animals (all on foot) walking, jogging, and enjoying the outdoors. It would be absolutely unsafe to mix these heavily used foot trails with bikes. Recently an adult biker attempted to pass me and our dog on the trail west of Deane's Children's Park. While he was a mature rider, he, still almost hit me and my dog putting us both at risk. I can only imagine what will happen and the danger presented by mixing children, who are new or unsupervised riders, with walkers or joggers on foot of varying ages. Neighbors of all ages (babies to 80+) use these walking trails, and you are putting both them and the bike riders at risk by promoting use of the trails west of Deane's Children's Park as access to the bike park. Please don't put me, my children, my elderly mother and neighbors at risk by suggesting or authorizing access to the bike park from any trails west of Deane's Children's Park. There are other, safer options for bike riders to access the bike park that preserve the safety and peace of those using the trail by foot. Thank you.

2023.01.24 I don't see what was revised in the plan. Nevertheless, there was an idea floated to bring the "west side entrance" in along the east side of the tennis courts. We walked that, and felt that that approach was impractical. The "snaky" west side trail in the map seems reasonable, given: 1) the trail has some kind of speed-limiting gate where it connects to the existing trail, and 2) the trail is bounded on either side by some kind of fence to prevent off-trail riding. The surrounding area has terrain that will be alluring to off-trail banditos.
Also, I still advocate for an east side entrance.

My primary concern about this project is the impact it will have on the adjacent residential neighborhoods. Primary access to the bike skills area needs to be from existing parking lots within Island Crest Park. Users should not be encouraged to park on the west side of Island Crest Park as a point of entry.

I just realized I have an additional comment from the ones I mailed in last week.
The 90 and 180 degree flat turns are problematic. Flat turns are actually a bit technical, so I commend the designers for including these. However, the pictures suggest a wood, perhaps TREX-like surface. That might be great for SoCal, but the environment under the trees is cool and shady, and damp about half the year. All sorts of biological schmutz will grow on surfaces, so I would worry that some surfaces will be really slick a lot. Tires will slip out, and cause maybe a broken arm or two. One suggestion is to bank the turns, but there are already a bunch of banked turns, and a flat turn involves a different (and important) skill. Another suggestion would be to simply pave the turn with asphalt. In the mountains, turns are dirt, but that would become a mud pit here (as happens in the wild.)
I would also note that the two flat turns are to the right (if I read the map correctly) so I would definitely encourage finding a way to have at least one turn to either side.

Parking and access points to the bike skills area should not be located in residential neighborhoods adjacent to Island Crest Park. Existing parking lots next to the baseball fields and Island Park Elementary should be used.