Many in Normandy Park are speaking out in opposition after the City Council’s decision to demolish the community’s public recreation center. 

Located at City Hall off of SW 174th Street, the City of Normandy Park Recreation Center has been in use for over 30 years. Today it’s home to a privately-owned Taekwondo academy, dance school, and public preschool. 

But on February 9, the City Council voted to move forward with a plan presented by City Manager Mark Hoppen to demolish the building, citing safety concerns. 

The city claims that the building, constructed in the 1950s, is susceptible to collapse in event of an earthquake and is too expensive to repair. Under its plan, the rec center is set to be demolished and the site irrigated and seeded with grass until construction can begin on new facilities.

Some community members, however, believe there are very different motives behind the city’s plan: Melissa Petrini, chair of the “Don’t Wreck the Rec” initiative, says that the city is placing finance above community. 

“The city manager claims that the building is a liability and that the city is ‘wasting over $60,000 a year’ in keeping it up,” she said. “From what we gather from past city employees, the city manager does not value the recreational programs, its people and, for that matter, the families that use and patronize the programs that use the rec center.”

Don’t Wreck the Rec argues that the safety concerns cited by the city are being used as an excuse to justify increased spending on its proposed new “Civic Center.” 

“The city spent $170,000 for a concept design for a new ‘Civic Center,’ but they claim their current city hall is not in danger of falling down, though built at the same time as the rec center was,” Petrini said. 

Petrini and her initiative have called this move by the city an “Inexcusable disregard for Normandy Park citizens’ wishes.” 

“We believe that they think that if there is any money borrowed or taxed from the people to be spent on a rec center, they want to make sure to double that bill and include their own wish-lists of a new city hall,” Petrini said. “This is distressing and dishonest.”  

Don’t Wreck the Rec presented its concerns to the City Council on March 9. Petrini said more than 200 comments from Normandy Park community members were read. 

“Many parents spoke up and are desperate to have their children begin using the center after being locked down and isolated for over a year,” she said. 

But despite their efforts, Petrini said those comments fell on deaf ears.

“The city manager privately called the initiative a ‘hit job’ by upset program owners who use the space,” she said. “He is sorely mistaken. As a parent myself and patron of those programs for my kids, we find this highly dismissive of the families who live here.” 

The city, however, continues to insist that it is acting in the community’s interest. Mark Hoppen, Normandy Park’s city manager, said that the city’s decision was based on what its residents say that they want. 

“This whole planning process is no short-term exploration, but is carefully researched, properly planned, and incremental,” Hoppen said. 

He said that the city gauged public opinion in 2018 as part of a survey of every household in its limits, and that survey advised the city’s plan for the rec center. 

“The survey indicated the Normandy Park household preference is for outdoor recreation, with some sentiment that indoor recreation is secondarily desirable,” Hoppen said. 

The new Civic Center, he said, will enable a transition to a safe, cost-effective outdoor recreation facility that better fits the wishes and needs of the community. 

As for the indoor programs that currently operate out of the recreation center, Hoppen said there is potential for the city to help out going forward. 

Transitional support is already being offered to the center’s preschool, a city program, but for the private programs to be legally eligible to receive the same, they would have to officially convert to nonprofit business models.

“The dance and Taekwondo programs are private businesses and will have to convert to 501(c)(3) organizations if the City Council provides any support,” Hoppen said. “Whether the City Council would endorse such support at this point is hard to say.”