The City Council and the Metro Park and Recreation District have a lot to think about before a final decision is made on the fate of Strawberry Plant Park.

More than 100 citizens gave up their Saturday to suggest dozens of possible uses for the four-acre parcel, from a restored salmon habitat, to a family-friendly park, to a place to build and launch boats, to an educational facility for children.

“We’re going to have to figure out as a community what should be our uses there,” said Gerald Elfendahl, who helped spearhead the effort to delay the restoration of the park’s shoreline in July.

At the July 22 council meeting in which the group was prepared to begin the development, Elfendahl, along with members of the group “Friends of Cannery Cove” showed up dressed in life jackets, imploring the council to stop the project. From there, departed City Manager Mark Dombroski decided that the project be halted so further public involvement could be considered.

Since that meeting, no further design has occurred on the project, but the city continued to seek and obtain the necessary permits to restore the shoreline, said Long Range Planning Manager Libby Hudson.

The council has time to consider all the possible uses of Strawberry Plant Park. Because the restoration work on the shoreline can only be done during periods of the year when fish aren’t spawning, the window to begin work this year has closed, said Council Mayor Chris Snow. And with the already packed calendar the council keeps, Snow said it will be difficult to get everything done before fish spawning begins next year.

The council is responsible for the shoreline portion of the park, while the uplands, where most of the public debate was focused, will be handled by the park district.

“We’re excited about taking the challenge to decide what the uplands will become,” said Community Relations Manager Kent Scott. “We’re ready for it.”

The councilors present at the meeting left feeling more encouraged about the future of the project, but Elfendahl wasn’t satisfied with the effort to this point.

“I believe we’ve not engaged the full creativity of the community today,” he said. Elfendahl advocated the formation of a community task force to look into the solutions and work to cleanup the existing park.

But others at the meeting felt the community had given as much input as it could, and that it was time for their elected officials to decide the future of the park.

“We have spent so much time on this,” said Planning Commissioner Maradel Gale. “I hope we don’t have any delusional ideas that we have to continue this process for two or three years.”