Morgan Community Association: Digging; rezoning; park expanding…

Tonight’s fall-quarter meeting of the Morgan Community Association drew more than 20 people to the basement meeting area at The Kenney (WSB sponsor) and covered a wide range of topics, as usual:

MURRAY CSO PROJECT UPDATE: Excavation is going “fast and furious,” said Hannah from King County Wastewater Treatment, as the space for the million-gallon combined-sewer-overflow-storage tank is dug across from Lowman Beach Park. It’s about halfway to its expected depth – 30 of 60 feet – she said. It’s still likely to be completed by early November, which means up to eight truckloads per hour, plus the added Saturday work that started just last weekend.

They acknowledged the concerns about the haul routes; “we’ve done our very best to make sure the truck drivers are sticking to this haul route” but some new drivers have wound up on other routes. “If you ever see a truck that gives you concern off our designated haul route, call our hotline as soon as you can” – that’s a 24-hour hotline that will reach a live person, – and they will get the crew to get word to the drivers to stick to that route, she said. Another concern: Trucks idling along Lincoln Park Way as they wait to get filled. “We’ve been working closely with drivers in our team to address that,” asking drivers to turn off their ignition if they expect to be in place for more than a few minutes. How to tell if it’s a Murray CSO project truck? Double dump trucks branded CTI, ProUSA, C&E, or A-1, and they’re supposed to be covered.

In Q/A, the nighttime work from last weekend was asked about; the test results for those pipes showed “everything is fine, no problems,” said county reps.

REZONING REQUEST FOR CHURCH’S TOWNHOUSE PROJECT: The proposal for six townhouses on some of the land owned by the West Seattle Church of the Nazarene at 42nd/Juneau is moving forward, and is right now in the process of City Council review for amending the city Comprehensive Plan so that zoning on the site would allow the project – it’s single family now, and needs to be multi-family for the church to advance the project, which it hopes will raise money it needs for renovations. Lots of red tape, is the bottom line. MoCA president Deb Barker explained that there is language in the city documents that needs to be reviewed. Copies of a document with language from the existing neighborhood plan were circulated. The language needs to be drafted in a specific way that would only open the door for this zoning change on this site – so that it won’t open the door to other projects in the future that might not be carefully crafted to win community approval. Lots of ideas were thrown out; Deb Barker welcomes contact from anyone in the community interested in continuing the work, with a special meeting about it penciled in for November 20th. MoCA leaders stressed this language change has to be a community effort, not just their group’s board.

MORGAN JUNCTION PARK EXPANSION: MoCA board member Cindi Barker shared an update from Seattle Parks, saying it’s working on relocating the businesses that are on the now-city-owned expansion site north of the current park (mini-mart and cleaners), and on getting permits for demolishing those buildings once the businesses are out.

LITTLE FREE LIBRARY IN MJ PARK? MoCA talked about putting one up in the park, but solicited volunteer/donated help to make it happen. First, Joe Paar, developer of the aforementioned church/townhomes project, volunteered to build it. Design, maintenance, and other help will be mustered. (Want to help? Contact MoCA.)

CITY GRANT TO REVAMP SIDEWALKS: MoCA has been applying for one of the city’s grant for years to fix up the sidewalks on California south of Fauntleroy – and “we won, we got the money!” But not quite all the money they were looking for, and the city didn’t grant funding to cover the full scope of what was sought – just the California/Fauntleroy corner by Starbucks. They will get $90,000 and need $15,000 more. Maybe a business could partner with them and donate that sum? it was suggested.

FRIENDS OF MORGAN JUNCTION PARKS: Barry White recapped the work that FoMJP, with the assistance of Peace Lutheran Church volunteers, has been doing in park parcels from MJ Park north of Beveridge Place Pub to the triangles on Fauntleroy Way (by Morgan/42nd, and further north at SW Juneau). You can keep up with FoMJP activities via its Facebook page – including the 2-4 pm work party on Saturday, November 1st.

PEDESTRIAN RETAIL ZONE? MoCA was the first community group to hear a presentation about this city-rezoning initiative, back in January. Because of feedback, it’s expected no zoning change will be recommended for Morgan Junction when the city Department of Planning and Development comes out with its citywide plan.

MORGAN JUNCTION COMMUNITY FESTIVAL: Next June will be the 10th annual festival, and the financial/community-support results of this past June’s 9th annual edition were recapped at the meeting: 40 vendors, 14 sponsors, 7 patrons (higher-support-level sponsors), 7 financial donors, and 3 food trucks. The festival finished in the black – more income than outgo – announced treasurer Eldon Olson. One key requirement, next year and every year: Volunteer help is vital and needed, president Deb Barker said.

COMMITTEES: MoCA is setting up several, including one to decide what to do with targeted-for-nonprofits money from part of the agreement related to the “30-units, no-parking” project on California SW, and one to nominate new officers (Chas Redmond will be stepping down as vice president and Eldon Olson will be relinquishing the treasurer position), though that one had no takers, for starters.

WEST SEATTLE LAND USE COMMITTEE: MoCA president Deb Barker invited all to join in on the new committee as it continues to take shape. Its third meeting will be one week from tonight, October 22nd, 6:30 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle (Oregon/California).

PEOPLE’S ACADEMY FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: MoCA board member Chas Redmond extolled the merits of this leadership-/community-action-training program – not in West Seattle, but open to all interested, when a new round of classes starts next spring. Find out more here. (Redmond served on last year’s advisory board for the program.)

WEST SEATTLE GATEWAY: MoCA heard from Chris Loeffler, who said he is going around talking to community groups about cleaning up the “gateway to West Seattle” area – beyond the “Walking on Logs” area, which has been watched over by the volunteer group that MoCA president Deb Barker has been involved with. It will take a lot of help, and probably some fundraising too, but right now Loeffler is just in the testing-the-waters phase.

LAST MEETING OF THE YEAR: Since MoCA meets quarterly, its next meeting won’t be until January 2015. Keep an eye on morganjunction.org for updates in the meantime.

1 Reply to "Morgan Community Association: Digging; rezoning; park expanding..."

  • Morgan October 16, 2014 (3:42 pm)

    If we can have a Kickstarter campaign for a new burger joint in West Seattle, why not create one for fixing up the West Seattle Gateway. I’d support it.

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