Title
Approving Request from City Planning Division to Conduct Southeast Area Plan Placemaking Activity in Hiestand Park
Body
The Planning Division would like to experiment with a “Social Practice Art Project” at the Hiestand Park Basketball Court. Social Practice Art is grounded in the process of artmaking as a social and community building exercise and the process is as important as the end art product.
Project title: Urban Wildlife Stencils - Community Asphalt Painting Project
Project Location: Hiestand Park Basketball Court Surface
Project Install Date: Summer 2025 - To be determined if approval is granted, will work with Parks on timing/reservations
See attachment for more details.
The Planning Division’s Southeast Area Plan (SEAP) Process would like to engage the traditionally underrepresented residents from the Hiestand Neighborhood in a community building art project. The Hiestand Neighborhood is an eligible census block group as determined by the census and is eligible for Community Development Block Grant Funding (CDBG).
The Planning Division is currently working on the Southeast Area Plan, which includes this census tract. As a part of outreach, and development of plan recommendations, the Planning Division is holding additional community building engagement events. This project would use asphalt friendly paint, with added grit texture, to paint a variety of urban wildlife animal stencils on the existing basketball court at Hiestand Park. The circular stencils would be limited to the area in between the 3-point lines, in ana approximate pattern as suggested in the attachment.
Planning Staff would help Community members paint circles in a variety of bright pastel colors, and then overlay the circles with white stencil silhouettes.
There would be no need for continued maintenance, as the paint would likely wear off over time. The neighborhood may wish to refresh the paint from time to time, but that is not guaranteed. The art could be removed at any time if the Parks Division wishes to repave the court. Additionally, If the basketball court is considered by the neighborhood as an important asset, CDBG funding could potentially help resurface the court, make art more permanent.