That photo was provided last year by Dina Johnson of the Highland Park Action Committee, before work began in earnest on the project to underground West Seattle Reservoir (surrounded by Westcrest Park). Eventually, part of the resulting greenspace is to become more parkland; at this week’s HPAC meeting, chair Dan Mullins said he’s working to get an official Parks Department presentation on the project lined up for a future HPAC meeting (as he’s since noted the levy passed last year; here’s an update from Parks spokesperson Dewey Potter:

It is a named project in the 2008 Levy, and as such will take place within the next six years. Parks will not have any levy funding in hand until King County collects first quarter 2009 property tax receipts, so we will have our first dollars in April … Mayor Nickels is working to speed up some projects under the banner of “Seattle Jobs Forward” consistent with the stimulus. To that end, Parks is moving forward on “shovel-ready” levy projects with funds from the Cumulative Reserve Subfund and will reimburse it with Levy funds when they are in hand.

We are also working on the levy implementation plan the City Council has asked for, and it will include needed staffing (very little, since some staff people who worked on 2000 Pro Parks Levy projects are still on board), a plan for going out to all neighborhood district councils to present what’s in the levy, public workshops, getting the citizen Levy Oversight Committee up and running, and creating a timeline for the named projects over the life of the levy. (As you probably know, with a bond issue the City borrows all the money up front and pays it back over the life of the bonds, and with a levy the money comes in quarterly over the life of the levy).

So, we don’t yet know when the reservoir project will take place, and we have not yet assigned a planner to it. We will have the community workshops in the upcoming months, and we will publicize them widely. Folks can also keep an eye on the fledgling 2008 Levy web page: www.seattle.gov/parks/levy/default.htm, which will be updated constantly.