48th/Charlestown park purchase gets council committee OK

(May WSB photo of 48th/Charlestown site)
The Seattle City Council’s Parks and Neighborhoods Committee, chaired by Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, has just OK’d the plan for the city to buy the greenspace at 48th/Charlestown with money including part of the second round of spending from the Parks and Green Spaces Levy‘s Opportunity Fund. We first reported the proposal back in May; here’s the project list that went to the committee today, with a full-council vote next. No final price tags are attached, but $400,000 was mentioned for this site back in May, and Parks staffers told councilmembers today that matching funds will be available to help with final purchase prices for this and other Opportunity Fund acquisitions.

wetone August 9, 2013 (4:36 pm)

400k for that piece of property is cheap and a no brainer. They better jump on it before someone else like Duffus does and builds 6 houses if it is going to be available. It would be the cheapest property per sqft. the Parks and Green Spaces has ever paid.

Mike August 9, 2013 (5:13 pm)

6, they’d build a 100 unit condo complex with 2 parking spots to get mcginns discount on developing our neighborhood to crap.

dsa August 9, 2013 (6:29 pm)

Yes! Buy that for park purposes, please.

LFauntleroy August 9, 2013 (6:58 pm)

I have always dreamed of a neighborhood pool at this location!

ws August 9, 2013 (7:10 pm)

yeah, that is an awesome spot for a park. I hope kit happens.

Mary August 9, 2013 (7:39 pm)

Genesee-Schmitz Neighborhood Council (GSNC) originally proposed this acquisition to the Parks Dept. We are very happy to see the Council’s approval.

Another vacant parcel, located at 50th & Dakota, may be going on the market. It is currently owned by Seattle City Light. On August 15, GSNC is hosting a meeting with Seattle City Light about this surplus property.

The meeting is on August 15 at 7 PM at West Side Presbyterian church. All are welcome to attend!

ttt August 9, 2013 (10:16 pm)

We definitely need more park spaces with play spaces for young kids! This would be a great location for that!

kc on the hill August 10, 2013 (7:37 am)

I know I will be dating myself

I thought the city already owned that parcel when they bought it when there was a grocery store on the land? the low income housing that sits the the west (that was a parking lot for the store) was only a portion of what the city was going to build there. Look back at the old records and the West Seattle Hearld,(before the Blog don’t think there was computers then)) you will find there was a big neighborhood “uprising” over land use and the fact by the city’s own rules there was already too many low income units in the area.

So does the city buy it from itself or is it just a internal transfer of funds within departments

Don’t get me wrong a park will be a great use of this parcel

WSB August 10, 2013 (8:26 am)

KC – the city Housing Authority sold it to Providence Mount St. Vincent in 2001, as noted on the parcel viewer: http://info.kingcounty.gov/Assessor/eRealProperty/Detail.aspx?ParcelNbr=5398600025

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