Roanoke Park Playground Replacement
Roanoke Park is a neighborhood park located at 70th Avenue SE and West Mercer Way.
In 2025, the City renovated the playground, including replacing the ship-themed climbing structure installed in 2004 as well as swings and a Spinami installed in 2012; improving accessibility with a new ADA parking stall, pathways, poured-in-place play area surfacing, and picnic amenities; and enhancing drainage infrastructure at the park.
The renovated play area is now open for community use! Over the next few months, City crews will put the finishing touches on the park. Follow along here on Let's Talk for updates on the final construction items.
Looking for general information about Mercer Island playground replacements? Find it here: www.mercerisland.gov/playgroundreplacements.
Construction Progress
Videos
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City staff and the consultant team from Berger Partnership review survey results, present an updated site plan concept, and collect additional feedback on swings and site amenities. (Run time: 36m)
Who's Listening
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Phone 206-275-7864 Email sarah.bluvas@mercerisland.gov
I'd love to see a water/sand play that allow kids control the water flow and allow them to dig, channel and create. These are sensory friendly features that seem to appeal to a wider age range than many playgrounds. Hobbledown had an amazing feature where kids worked to turn a large horizontal wheel to get the water to flow, and travel down a long wooden channel where multiple kids play. Ambleside playground in Vancouver has a small water/sand feature that is very popular as well. I think kids would love if swings were in the form of wooden acorns (like hobbledown), jumping pillows (like hobbledown), and open air tunnels (like hobbledown) are also great for kids with high sensory/proprioceptive needs. Let's create something that will appeal to a wide age range!
Please consider fencing all playgrounds on MI! It would make keeping kids safe much easier
I wish the survey had more options, like the surveys for Mercerdale Park. Basically, there are two designs in the survey from different views. I am assuming cost is not an issue between the two designs. Both designs look ok to me, but during the Mercerdale Playground process the citizens were asked to comment on different features rather than just two designs.
This is a playground that in my experience caters to younger children. During the Mercerdale process the outside consultant stated the most popular feature of any playground is something to climb on, as high as possible. Based on the wood chip ground cover in the photos this won't be an "accessible" playground like at Mercerdale, which cost over $800,000. Parking and access at Roanoke is not great to I don't see it as a good location for an accessible playground.
Having used this playground for many years it sits in the shade surrounded by tall trees and N. Mercer Way. If the road could be screened that would help, and covered play space is nice because it takes a long time for the equipment and ground cover to dry with so little sunlight. I spent a lot of years wiping down slides and play equipment.