Mark Brands quieted the crowd as voices rang out from every table in Whittier Elementary School’s library last night. Then he looked on as each group gave their presentation.

“We want a playground and an area for sledding,” one man said.

Rather than children, about 40 neighbors had gathered to give advice to Brands, a landscape architect, about how they would like the city to use the space reserved for a new park on Ninth Avenue.

The city set aside a space the size of about a dozen single-family residences along Ninth Avenue Northwest and Northwest 70th Street for the community park.

With $500,000 available, members of Seattle Parks and Recreation and landscape architects from Site Workshop are reaching out to residents to see what they want in their neighborhood park.

Thus far, neighbors have brainstormed many uses of the space, offering pathways, playgrounds, pea patches, picnic areas and more to the Site Workshop landscape architects who will oversee the park’s construction late next year.

“We try to tailor it to the community,” Brands said. “It’s all about being inclusive with the community.”

Although the architects took advice from about a dozen different groups, neighbors made some themes apparent in their presentations.

They wanted zones within the park, transferring a park visitor from an active, kid-friendly area to a quieter, reflective area as one walked through the space.

Others called for the designers to somehow incorporate the site’s history into the design. Currently, an old building and an unfinished foundation of another occupy the west side of the park and fruit trees from an old orchard grow throughout the space.

The challenge for designers seems to be working with the site’s current conditions while also opening up the space for safety and visibility reasons.

Neighbors whose homes are adjacent to the park agreed with the need for visibility, but said they don’t want their backyards too exposed to the public park.

Seattle Parks and Recreation will host two more meetings during December and January to hear additional suggestions from residents.

In the meantime, a group called Friends of the 9th Avenue NW Park has formed and will be meeting for an work party from 9 a.m. to noon on Nov. 28. They will be collecting holly to sell to raise money for the park.

If you are interested in learning more or contributing your suggestions to the park, contact Kellee Jones from Seattle Parks and Recreation or Alyssa Smith from Friends of the 9th Avenue NW Park.

The next meeting will be Dec. 17 at Whittier Elementary School.