As promised by the Parks Department, the “draft criteria” for projects seeking a share of the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund have just been published on the Parks website; see them here. (The Opportunity Fund is $15 million set aside for citizen-proposed projects that weren’t specified in the levy.) We were at last night’s Levy Oversight Committee meeting as the draft criteria were reviewed and approved; two members of the public spoke before the vote, including Jeannie Hale from the Seattle Community Council Federation, who voiced concern about an emphasis on projects being within “urban village” boundaries – something Parks managers say could help close an ongoing gap between current parks/open space needs and realities in those areas. Next step is a public hearing on the draft criteria, 7 pm Nov. 9 before the oversight committee at Parks HQ downtown.