PORTSMOUTH — The city would own a moveable stage being proposed by the Prescott Park Master Plan Blue Ribbon Committee and control of park operations would move from a three-member volunteer board to the city manager.

“It’s a city park, the city should own the buildings, the city should construct, permit and design the buildings and that is a departure from the current practice,” City Councilor Chris Dwyer, who chairs the Blue Ribbon Committee, said Wednesday during a meeting with the Seacoast Media Group editorial board about the proposed stage.

Those ideas are big parts of a "park-first" vision that is ready to be formally presented to the City Council.

The committee identified what it estimates to be $12 million to $14 million in improvements and changes at the park, which will be completed over time. Dwyer hopes the work will be done by 2023, when the city will celebrate its 400th anniversary. The committee is hoping donors will step forward to help fund park improvements.

The Prescott Park Arts Festival, which presents plays, concerts and movies in the park, had been planning to raise money and erect a permanent stage with a roof. Dwyer said the moveable stage envisioned by the committee could include a roof.

Assistant City Manager David Moore said the committee came to the consensus of using a moveable stage that can be taken down at the end of the season after taking a “park-first” approach to the governance and redesign of Prescott Park. Moore said there was “early and widespread” support in the committee for a “moveable stage, a seasonal stage.”

“Applying the park-first lens,” committee members moved away from having a permanent stage because of the aesthetic cost of monopolizing the lawn area for a stage “that’s not in use seven months of the year,” he said Wednesday.

The committee’s plan calls for creating a larger lawn area, called the bowl, which will define the space where arts performances will be held.

“One of the major discussions the committee has had (has been) related to the footprint of the arts festival and the idea of how much space and how that space is used,” Moore said.

The bowl area would be graded down with the potential to add benches at some points around it, Moore said.

The committee, which will hold a workshop session with the City Council at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 19, also calls for creating two pedestrian walkways. One would be around the perimeter of the park and one “loops out over the water,” which will allow people to walk through the park uninterrupted at all times, Dwyer said.

The committee is also looking at the possibility of renovating and using part of the Shaw Warehouse to “accommodate some of the (backstage) facilities” now provided in trailers by the festival, Moore said.

“In the high season you’ll see a lot of back stage area surrounded by fencing, temporary trailers and other accoutrements for the shows,” Moore said. “There’s a lot of discussion and frankly consensus in the community about managing this differently.”

Dwyer noted the size of the lawn in the bowl area is “almost twice as much as” the lawn area where the arts festival now holds events.

She tried to clear up a misconception she said she’s “already seen on social media,” that there will be multiple groups using the stage. Dwyer said the committee is seeking to create a space in the park “for an arts provider, which right now happens to be the festival.”

As part of its work on governance of the park, the city will develop and sign long-term “license agreements” with all groups using the park, including the arts festival, Moore and Dwyer said.

Former City Councilor Stefany Shaheen, who serves on the blue ribbon committee, said they came up with the idea to create license agreements so the city and groups using the park understand the rules they must operate under.

“The reason there has been such friction” between the festival and some members of the public “relates in large part to the operating agreement and trustees’ inability to enforce them,” Shaheen said.

Park operations have been overseen by the three-member volunteer Trustees of the Trust Fund, but the committee will ask the City Council to give control to City Manager John Bohenko.

“The city owns the park and the charter stipulates that the city manager and the staff oversee all city property,” Dwyer said. “That’s pretty clear.”

The committee is also recommending an advisory council be set up to work with Bohenko, which would include residents, a member of the arts community and a trustee, Dwyer said.

Committee members also addressed some of the most controversial aspects of the festival, including the contention by some residents that festival employees turn a blind eye toward drinking in the park, which is prohibited.

“All ordinances that apply to all city parks apply to this park, that’s going to continue,” Dwyer said, noting city employees would be responsible for enforcement of the no drinking law if needed.

Bohenko noted “we have ordinances on a number of topics, and people break them every day, we don’t catch them all.” City employees will enforce the no drinking policy but Bohenko said he doesn’t believe they’ll be “checking bags at the door.”

Festival employees are not allowed to charge admission to their events because they take place in a city park, which is open to everyone. But some residents say they have been pressured to donate by festival employees. Dwyer said the licensing agreements “will be clear about” all such issues.

The committee is also recommending a 1,200-person capacity for the bowl area, but Dwyer stressed the crowd size at festival events will be controlled by programming.

“It’s not when the 1,201st person shows up they’ll be turned away,” Dwyer said. “This goes into a license agreement.”

Moore noted most of the park's infrastructure, including drainage systems, paving, lights and irrigation systems, along with trees and gardens are more than 40 years old.

“With the master plan or not, with changes to the park or not, it’s going to need a significant amount of public investment in order to continue,” Moore said.

Some of the major changes the committee is recommending include:

— Relocating the formal garden to the old formal entrance of the park at the right hand side as you look at the Piscataqua River.

— Improving access to the water, which is now prevented by a chain link fence, by “using creative opportunities to get closer to the water in a safe manner by stepping down some of the seawalls that need to be replaced,” Moore said.

— Using the redesign of the waterfront to help protect against sea level rise from climate change.

— Creating a new park entrance at Marcy and State streets, which will allow people to “see the waterfront from Marcy Street,” Moore said.

— Looking at renovations to and reuse of park buildings.

Arts Festival Executive Director Ben Anderson could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.

The Prescott Park Blue Ribbon committee report is available online at http://bit.ly/22JVyV3