It’s official: Evergreen Playfield No. 1 will be getting a facelift.

The Mountlake Terrace City Council during its Tuesday, Feb. 18 work session approved a $1.4 million contract to install FieldTurf and new lighting at the playfield, which is currently a dirt field and underutilized.

Located at 22205 56th Ave. W., it is the northernmost field within the Evergreen Playfields complex.

The contract is being issued to the King County Directors Association (KCDA), a purchasing cooperative with which the city has an interlocal agreement. The FieldTurf company, which will provide synthetic turf for the project, is one of the KCDA’s approved vendors.

The project will include grading of the current dirt field, demolition and removal of the two diamond backstops and playfield fencing. It also will involve removal of up to 10 trees, construction of new light standards, installation of new lights, construction of new ADA sidewalks and installation of new backstops and dugout concrete slabs, fencing and synthetic turf.

The cost of the project will be covered by a $1 million grant from the Verdant Health Commission, a $350,000 grant from the Washington State Recreation Conservation Office — both received by the city in 2018 — and $55,000 in donations collected from local athletic user groups. The rest of the funds will come from park impact fees and potentially other park revenues as well, Recreation and Parks Director Jeff Betz said.

The project also at this point includes “cushion fall infill material,” which is a coated crumb rubber product, Betz said. Crumb rubber is used on 98 percent of artificial turf projects worldwide, but Betz said the city will look at a range of options for infill — including organic materials — once the vendor is on board and officials can look at stormwater and other regulatory requirements for the project.

“We’re not really sure of the exact kind of infill at this point, but we wanted to be able to allocate enough money to not to come back to you if we needed to go with something different,” he said.

The turf comes with an eight-year warranty and FieldTurf will perform annual maintenance inspections and fix issues as they arise, Betz said. The field is estimated to last up to 10 years and the city will be responsible for replacing it. The city could reserve a portion of field user fees to pay for replacement, Betz added.

FieldTurf was chosen to be installed on the Mountlake Terrace High School baseball field in the summer of 2015. It is also used at many major stadiums around the country including Husky Stadium and CenturyLink Field in Seattle.

The lighting portion of the contract has already been awarded to Musco Lighting, and new lighting at the playfield is expected to be installed in March.

According to Betz, the city is currently doing survey work on the project. In the next couple of weeks it will perform geotechnical investigations, which will assist in determining what stormwater requirements the project will have. The city has already held one stakeholder meetings with field users and hopes to do one more this spring to gather more information on what users would like to see in the project.

“After that process staff would like to bring back the nearly-completed designs to council and review the public input with you and then that way we could gather final approval for construction — hopefully summer, fall of this year,” Betz said. The plan is to have the field ready for use by sometime in the fall.

Betz said that soccer and baseball will be the two primary uses for the field, but other sports could also be accommodated. However, the city is limiting the number of lines on the field so there are fewer seams, which will increase the life of the artificial surface, he said.

In other matters, the council:

– received a briefing from associate planner Kevin Johnson on a proposal from PNT Townhomes to redevelop three single-family home lots located in the Town Center boundaries — at 22902, 22904 and 22906 56th Ave. W. just north of 230th Street Southwest. The project proposed by Tukwila-based Summit Townhomes calls for demolishing all existing structures and subdividing the .56-acre parcel into 16 lots. The new development would include three buildings with five to six units in each building, Johnson said. It will provide for 29 parking spaces — six more than city code requires. The Mountlake Terrace Planning Commission reviewed the proposal and recommended council approval; a public hearing is set for the March 2 city council meeting.

– accepted a check from Snohomish County for $50,000 to fund purchase of new play equipment at Matt Hirvela/Bicentennial Park. Presenting the check was former Snohomish County Councilmember Terry Ryan, who recently resigned after six years on the council to become the county’s aerospace economic development director. The money, allocated from the county’s real estate excise tax fund for partnership projects, will be used for a new playground to the west by the new gazebo. City Manager Scott Hugill noted that Ryan “has been a champion of the city’s parks programs, having the county invest a lot of money into our programs and our land purchase, being a real advocate for the community.” During remarks prior to the check presentation, Ryan noted that while he loved his county council job, taking the newly-created aerospace position will allow him to focus on his true passion — economic development — in this case as it relates to Paine Field airport.

– recognized Eagle Scout candidate Steven Mudaliar for his work to replace the wood boards in all picnic tables and benches at the Ballinger Park Boat Launch. Parks and Facilities Superintendent Ken Courtmanch noted that as part of his Eagle Scout project, Mudaliar obtained donations for all project-related materials. Mudaliar was unable to attend the meeting but will receive a certificate later from the city.

— By Teresa Wippel