Glendale seeks contractors to build shade structures at Maple and Maryland parks
A group of men play backgammon at Maple Park in Glendale. The park is slated to have four shade structures installed by the end of the year.
Things could be getting cooler at two south Glendale parks as the City Council is looking to add shade structures at the sites by the end of the year.
Maple Park is slated for four of them, while the smaller Maryland Park could be getting two as the council voted 4-0 to open the bidding process to solicit a contractor to build the amenities.
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Councilman Vartan Gharpetian said he’s been pushing for the shade structures since his campaign days.
“This is something the community has been asking for for a long time,” he said.
Maple Park and Maryland Park, which opened two years ago, were identified by city staffers as popular open spaces. While Maple Park has plenty of trees, they don’t provide enough shade, staffers said in a report.
Three areas of Maple Park, including this spot, will have shade structures built to give shade to those visiting the Glendale park.
At Maryland Park, the recently planted trees aren’t mature enough yet to provide any shade, according to the staff report.
Maryland Park would receive synthetic fabric shades that would cover the playgrounds. They would be mounted on polls, with one covering 3,000 square feet and the other suspended over 1,200 square feet, according to Roubik Golanian, the city’s public works director.
The four shade structures at Maple Park would be placed over picnic tables and have metal roofs to provide better shade when people are sitting, Golanian said.
Councilman Zareh Sinanyan asked if the Maple Park structures could be made to look a bit more creative, like the ones at Maryland Park and not so “old school.”
Gharpetian said the ones at Maryland Park don’t provide as much shade.
“[The Maryland Park ones] are more appealing because they’re colorful, but the [Maple Park] ones are more practical,” he said.
City Manager Scott Ochoa said that including some decorations with the Maple Park shade structures could be done to make them more suitable for a park setting.
The structures are expected to cost about $318,000 and be installed by the end of the year, Golanian said.
These would be the first projects to be completed with money from the city’s development-impact-fee fund, which contains money paid by developers of mixed-use projects in downtown Glendale.
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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com
Twitter: @ArinMikailian
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