Council committee OK’s 40th SW parkland deal: ‘Dream acquisition’

Followup on Seattle Parks‘ proposed purchase of a quarter-acre at 4731 40th SW (map) for a future city park, across from the 4755 Fauntleroy Way SW mega-project: The council Parks and Neighborhoods Committee gave its unanimous blessing today to the $1.4 million purchase, to be funded by city Parks and Green Spaces Levy money. The committee, headed by Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, was told that Parks originally was focused on a parcel adjacent to Dakota Place Park, and might still pursue it in the future, but decided to go for this one right now; one city staffer called it a “dream acquisition” since it’s rare “open space” in the urban core. They also noted they had sought community comments (including via this WSB coverage). The committee was also told that assuming full Council approval is forthcoming, the purchase should close fairly quickly. (Money for actually developing it into a park would have to be found elsewhere.) You can watch the 10-minute discussion and vote by picking up the clip above at 19:30.

G December 6, 2012 (6:32 pm)

A park – there next to a busy, noisy avenue? “Rare open space in an urban care?” What planning-speak mumbo jumbo. W. Seattle has more greenspace than you can shake a stick at.

Might as well make it a dog park to appease the dog owners who always complain about a lack thereof and use the parks for their happy hunting grounds.

Dale December 6, 2012 (7:16 pm)

This is a gift by the city to the developers.

villagegreen December 6, 2012 (7:29 pm)

It never fails, anytime I start to feel any sense of pride in West Seattle I make the mistake of reading comments here on the blog. I feel sorry for you. How did you become so cynical and jaded. I thought Capitol Hill had the corner on that market, but I stand corrected.

WSB December 6, 2012 (8:20 pm)

Absolutely true that the park budget has trouble with maintenance. However, it should be noted that this is about the future. The semi-distant future. The point of the acquisition fund in the PGS Levy – and its predecessor, Pro Parks – is to lock up land before it’s too late, before everything is built over and there’s nothing left. If you reviewed the fine print before the vote – the acquisition fund targets the areas that do NOT have much greenspace, The Junction among them (also Morgan Junction, which is why the same levy fund also is tabbed for the purchase of the Short Stop/cleaners site north of MJ Park on California just north of Fauntleroy). Perhaps long before this is developed, the maintenance issue might be addressed – future levy, city budget as the economy improves, etc. If you watch the 10-minute discussion, there are additional details – I just hit the toplines to keep people apprised of the process – TR

Huindekmi December 6, 2012 (7:37 pm)

Another new park when we can’t afford to maintain the ones we’ve already got.

Wetone December 6, 2012 (8:24 pm)

Very expensive piece of property . Seems sale price went up from what it could of been had for a year or two ago. Just wait for all the new construction going in around it. With buildings 5 to 7 stories surrounding it they will have to add lighting. But in the end one less building going in makes me happy. I’ll just have to plan on working a little longer to pay my property tax increases so they can develop these new parks.