A citizens' advisory committee is hurriedly gathering public input on a possible new $140 million parks and open spaces levy that could be on the ballot this fall.

City Council member Tom Rasmussen, chair of the committee that established the volunteer citizen's group, attended one of three community meetings last week.

"Our goal is to hear from the community ... it's important that we have this turnout," he told a crowd of about 70 community members who gathered at the Northgate Community Center last Wednesday evening.

"We're all ears," he said.

The 28-member Parks and Green Spaces Levy Citizen's Advisory Committee was appointed by the City Council in April to develop a plan by the end of June for extending the current Pro Parks Levy, which sunsets in December.

The group, comprised of various community leaders from all areas of Seattle, is charged with listing specific projects that could be a part of a levy.

Tom Byers, founding partner of Cedar River Group, facilitated the meeting, which was spent mostly in work sessions to discuss the parks and open space needs in neighborhoods and the city as a whole.

Some ideas generated included building parks over lidded water reservoirs in West Seattle and Maple Leaf, creating walking paths between neighborhoods and focusing efforts in urban centers.

A few people thought there should be more areas geared toward youth ages 8 to 16. Creating more off leash dog parks, P-patches and farmers markets was also listed as priorities.

The levy should restore habitat in the Lower Duwamish River area and redevelop the playfield at the shuttered Viewlands Elementary School, so it can be of use to the public, others said.

Someone, half-jokingly, even suggested lidding Interstate-5 to create green space.

The City Council has directed the committee to only consider projects that have already been vetted and approved through a public review process or recognized in an adopted city plan. Projects must also have reliable cost estimates and be able to be completed within six years, the life of the levy.

Unlike the 2000 levy, the council will not include any funds for day-to-day operations or maintenance of parks. That should be paid for through the city's general budget, council members have said.

Any extension is required to include another opportunity fund, which is used to pay for unexpected park development projects and land acquisition opportunities.

If a $140 million package is included with Mayor Greg Nickels proposed $75 million Pike Place Market improvement levy, the current tax rate paid by homeowners under the existing levy would not increase, said Byers.

Community activist Kate Martin wanted to know how the city planned to address areas of the city that need more open space but don't have strong, publicly vetted plans to document it.

Ben Noble, who was helping to facilitate the meeting for the city, said the committee would use the 2006 Parks Development Plan as a resource to locate where in the city there are open space gaps.

According to that report, 26 of the 38 urban villages are deficient of open space, including the West Seattle and Morgan junctions and Westwood-Highland Park. Sports fields and gymnasiums are in short supply throughout the city, too.

A few people were concerned that no public meeting had been scheduled in West Seattle. The only three scheduled public meetings were held last week at City Hall, Northgate and Rainier community centers.

Noble said the city is looking to add "more opportunities" for public comment, but the time frame posed constraints.

The committee will have met several times between April and June 23. A final report is due to the council by June 30, after which the council will hold public hearings and deliberate in July and the first part of August.

August 12 is the deadline for placing a levy on the fall ballot.

Based on an opinion poll released in early April, 67 percent of Seattle residents surveyed favored a continuation of the voter-approved 2000 Pro Parks Levy. The $198 million package added 42 acres of green space to the city, paid for 140 projects throughout the city and leveraged $24 million of from other funding sources.

Levies have been a major funding source for capital improvement and acquisition of parks and open space for the last several years.

The eight-year $72 million Community Center Levy expired in 2007. It and the parks levy provided $175 million worth of projects for parks and open space.

In 2006, levies represented more than two-thirds of all money spent on acquiring and developing land in Seattle. In 2007, $133 million of levy-generated dollars had been spent on parks.

If the levy weren't renewed, that amount would drop dramatically to about $12.6 million by 2013, said Byers.

Much more information can be found at http://www.seattle.gov/council/issues/parks_levy_info.htm.

Rebekah Schilperoort can be reached at 783-1244, or rebekahs@robinsonnews.com.