The Seattle Parks Department will designate three parks in downtown Ballard as an exclusion zone, meaning someone banned from one park will be banned from all three parks.

After residents at a June 4 meeting showed support for the exclusion zone, Seattle Parks Department Superintendent Tim Gallagher said Bergen Place, Ballard Commons Park and Marvin's Gardens will become the 14th exclusion zone in the city.

"Done deal," Gallagher said at the meeting. "That will happen right away."

Exclusion zones are used by the parks department because people cannot be criminally trespassed from public property, said Larry Campbell, security manager for the parks department.

Since a 1997 city ordinance, people can be issued an exclusion from any property owned by the parks department. The exclusion zone simply groups a number of parks together.

When someone is issued an exclusion, they are banned from that park or zone for seven days. If they are issued a second exclusion, they are banned for 90 days. A third exclusion bans them for one year. After that, they can be charged with criminal trespass.

People can be excluded from parks for breaking the law or violating park rules, Campbell said.

In parks in downtown Seattle, park rangers can issue exclusions. But in Ballard, the police will be in charge of exclusions due to an agreement between the parks department and the police to limit rangers to the downtown area.

Some residents at the meeting said that Ballard has too low a police presence, potentially limiting the effectiveness of the exclusion zone.

Sgt. Dianne Newsom, the supervisor of the North Precinct's Community Police Team, said the department is hoping to get more police on bicycles out into the community this summer because they are less visible to criminals.

Right now the department is trying to deploy bicycle patrols in Ballard every other Friday, alternating with Lake City, Newsom said.

Gallagher warned residents at the meeting that the exclusion zone is simply one tool to aid law enforcement. It will not solve all of Ballard's problems, he said.

"It's not going to solve the livability issue in the neighborhood," Newsom said.

It is not illegal for people to be drunk in a park, only to drink in a park, and people that have been excluded from the parks could relocate to other spaces, such as the Ballard Library.

In order to improve the neighborhood, the community needs to replace the removed negative activity in the parks with positive community activity, said Victoria Schoenburg, community parks manager for the parks department.

She suggested temporary tables and umbrellas for the public, street musicians or a concert series.

Beth Miller, executive director of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce, said she is looking for food vendors who would be willing to operate in Bergen Place and set up tables and chairs for the public.

Garry Owens, the Neighborhood Matching Fund Grant project manager for the Department of Neighborhoods, said the matching fund can help with the types of problems Ballard is experiencing.

It can help people install crime watch signs, adopt a park or create programs to aid in the coexisting of two newly mixing groups, Owens said.

Gallagher said the parks department will set up a meeting with the police and community in August to check on the progress of Ballard's parks.