Within the past hour, the City Council’s Transportation Committee (with only its chair, Councilmember Jan Drago, in attendance) gave its blessing to transferring the “Soundway” property in the West Duwamish Greenbelt to the city Parks Department. (It’s also been approved by the city Design Commission, as we reported in June.) The site includes 32 acres, mostly south of South Seattle Community College, platted long ago into streets that were never built, envisioned as part of a road grid that was superseded by other projects including the West Seattle Bridge. If the proposal passes one more vote – the full council next Monday – it will lose its longtime status as public right-of-way, and the Parks Department will lease it to the West Seattle-based Nature Consortium, which helped procure a state grant that will go to the city as compensation for the land. NC director Nancy Whitlock was on hand for this morning’s committee briefing, explaining the “Soundway” property’s role in preserving the West Duwamish Greenbelt as the city’s biggest remaining stretch of forest. Whitlock explained the restoration work her group does in this area and other parts of the WDG: “What we’re hoping to do is set in motion the re-creation of an old growth forest.” (The Nature Consortium has frequent work parties and guided hikes in the WDG; keep an eye on its website, naturec.org, for info.)