Together with the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, Parks worked to gather community input on how best to spend $150,000 to improve Dawson Plafield. Two meetings were conducted in the park, the first on July 29, 2017 to obtain ideas from the park users and the second on August 12, 2017 to vote on the proposed ideas.
In April of 2019, Johnson & Sutherland Landscaping Architecture was hired to complete the design of the park improvements. After conducting a study of the top three options, Pierce County Parks shared those options and cost estimates at the following open houses in the summer of 2019.
In the Summer and Fall of 2019, the project team hosted two open houses to gather public input on a final design. The project team invited questions and comments following each presentation and encouraged attendees to share their feedback by commenting directly on boards around the room or completing paper surveys. Concurrently, an online open house allowed those who could not attend the Open Houses to participate.
Notable feedback from these outreach efforts suggested that for the play equipment, most participants preferred the swings, big globe climber, and double-decker spinner/climber. Participants also expressed an overwhelming preference to keep the baseball field.