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MEMORANDUM <br /> October 30, 1997 <br /> TO: Christine Andersen, Public Works Director <br /> FROM: John Etter, Parks Planning, PW Maintenance <br /> SUBJECT: Past Hendricks Park planning activities <br /> Given evident confusion in the community about previous planning efforts at Hendricks Park and <br /> whether any plans have been adopted, I have gone through the historical files of the <br /> Rhododendron Garden Resource Committee (RGRC) and the file of the former Joint Parks <br /> Committee (JPC). Files containing the RGRC notes, JPC minutes, and miscellaneous Hendricks <br /> Park issues contain nothing to indicate that any plan for Hendricks Park was ever adopted by an <br /> oversight committee or the City Council. <br /> Files do contain a number of notes, internal working documents and letters indicative of staff and <br /> special interest group discussions which were ongoing for several years in the late 1980's which <br /> were never brought to closure. <br /> The following items, which will be provided separately as attachments to this memo, may be <br /> educational on the issue at hand: <br /> 1. Recommendations of the Rhododendron Garden Resource Committee, an undated two <br /> page text produced about June 1985, listed the purpose of the rhododendron garden and <br /> contained a number of suggestions specific to roads, parking, picnic and play areas, the <br /> shelter and picnic areas, and the landscape architecture and design objectives of the <br /> rhododendron garden. Two letters from members of the RGRC from April and June <br /> 1985, attached to the recommendations, reveal the thinking behind the recommendations. <br /> 2. Rhododendron Garden Tree Management Plan, a draft dated 2/16/88, began as a plan to <br /> serve the Rhododendron Garden but is broadly written to reach beyond the garden. <br /> 3. Hendricks Park Management Manual -- 1988, dated 7/23/88. This is a document for <br /> internal use and appears to have grown out of the draft plan from 2/16/88. <br /> 4. Minutes of the JPC show that a proposal for improving the Rhododendron Garden was <br /> presented on 7/17/85, that a tour of the garden for JPC members was scheduled on 8/7/85. At the <br /> JPC on 9/18/85 minutes show the following, attributed to presenter Gordon Wylie: "He stressed <br /> that it (the RGRC) was not seeking approval on the individual details of the plan are [sic] (as) <br /> correct, but whether the Department wants to `get behind' it." The Action statement at the end of <br /> the presentation reads: "Drapela (dept. head) said that staff were fully supportive of the <br />