Lowman Beach sewer-overflow project: Design meeting Tuesday

| Environment | Utilities | West Seattle news

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Landscape design for the county’s Murray Basin sewer-overflow-control project, across from Lowman Beach Park, is at the “30 percent” stage – and the current draft will be reviewed Tuesday night by the community Design Advisory Group. Their meeting at 6:30 pm Tuesday at Fauntleroy Church also is scheduled to review community feedback on the “refined preliminary facility design concepts” for the facility itself. The full agenda and related documents are linked from this page. The project is centered on a million-gallon underground tank to keep stormwater and sewage from spilling into Puget Sound when the pump station across the street gets overwhelmed; it will be built on land across the park that is now the site of residential properties the county is buying.

Duckitude March 20, 2012 (10:41 am)

Hi All: I encourage all those who utilize the 7000 block of Beach Drive SW for its connection to the north entrance of Lincoln Park’s beach walk for running, walking, bicycling, etc. to attend this meeting and any other such “design” meetings.
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Current design plans will clearly make such use more dangerous than what park and street surface users experience now. The plan is to continue parking on-street, but narrow the street.

No “improvements” such as widening the sidewalks to get people off the street as much as possible or eliminating street parking entirely by placing a parking lot area in the northwest corner of the CSO project site are planned.
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In addition, King County intends to appropriate the current long-standing public right of way named Murray Ave SW between Lincoln Park Way SW and Beach Drive without granting an equal amount of land somewhere on the CSO site for at least an equal amount of parking. Currently, residents can park where the drawing above shows the private driveway to the CSO facility.
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Kayakers, wind surfers, kiteboarders, walkers, runners, bicyclists and others should attend these design meetings if you care about preserving your access to Lowman Park and to the the longstanding use of the 7000 Beach Drive SW block for a thruway through Lincoln Park and appropriate access to the north end of Lincoln Park Beach.
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Finally, I have posted my somewhat crude design suggestion at http://www.ronsterling.com/protectlowmanpark.htm

Cowpie March 20, 2012 (12:05 pm)

Ron, I do see the reason behind your design….I like it. We need that parking along the street for water activities. I park there for when I swim at Coleman pool or head out in my kayak. The addition of your parking lot would be nice.

We don’t need a fancy set of stairs bringing us from Linclon Park Way SW to Beach Drive SW. That’s a lot of money and wasted usable space to save a 60 second walk.

HDR’s drawing doesn’t reflect a tall retaining wall needed on the east corner of the property along Lincoln Park Way SW.

KCWTD March 20, 2012 (3:51 pm)

Just a note of clarification. King County has not requested SDOT vacate the Murray Right of Way for this project. SDOT has codes and regulations to maintain sufficient parking and King County will comply with those requirements. Please join us at the meeting tonight, we’re happy to answer questions and provide information about the project.

Duckitude March 20, 2012 (5:19 pm)

Hi Cowpie: Thanks for the response. The concept I am trying to put forward with my crude sketch when it comes to the on-street parking issue and my suggestion of a loading zone only on the west side of Beach Drive next to the park is so that users of the park can onload, and then park, and thus, will always have a convenient and safe place to unload and load before and after parking.
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At this point with parking allowed throughout it becomes a contest of who can arrive first and occupy spots, denying easy unloading for every one else.
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I don’t think it is fair for there to be no easy access for unloading and loading by allowing parking throughout. This solution gives everyone who needs to unload a safe place to do so, without having to do it in the middle of the street double-parked, or to do it by going down the south access road to the beach, which requires crossing through and generally backing up through pedestrian, vehicle, and bicycle traffic. Very unsafe. We see people dodging cars all the time.
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Cowpie, hope you are going to be at the meeting and get as many bicyclists, kayakers, walkers and runners there as possible.

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